Square Foot Gardening....Anyone Else?

**nu2solar** · 05-15-2011, 10:08 AM

I am fairly new to gardening. I started my first garden 3 years ago. After researching I decided to try a square foot garden. The main reason was for simplicity. I didn't want a complicated garden or I might have given up. So here I am 3 years later and I have expanded my square foot garden.

The concept behind a square foot garden is to plant everything in 1 square foot sections(using grids) in a raised garden bed using a special soil mix called Mel's Mix to prevent weeds. It is small concept gardening.

I have 2 gardens. One is 4x11 feet and the other 4x14 feet. I have a total of 99 squares to plant my goodies. It is still early in the season but so far I have planted spinach, lettuce, onions, and peas...which are already in. Today I planted pole beans, some bush beans, two yellow squash plant and two zucchini plants. Once all my plants are in the ground I will add netting for support.

This is what it looks like now. Soon it will look like a jungle:Thumb Up:

Please share any of your gardening experiences and tips

**Daisygirl** · 05-15-2011, 03:20 PM

That looks great!!! I am getting started on a square foot garden myself for the very first time - I'm so excited!

**Kate_29** · 05-15-2011, 03:41 PM

Looks great!!! I can't wait to see pics of it in a month or 2!

I am getting started with the squarefoot gardening this year too! Hope mine looks as good as yours!

**Russ** · 05-15-2011, 03:49 PM

Keep a journal! Write down what works, what doesn't and any problems you have.

**Labontet** · 05-15-2011, 05:32 PM

Originally Posted by Russ

Keep a journal! Write down what works, what doesn't and any problems you have.

Very Good Advice.
I am getting into SFG a little bit at a time. The gardens work so much better than my old garden that is down in the soil.

**nu2solar** · 05-15-2011, 05:38 PM

Good luck to everyone who is starting this year.

I will post more pictures as things grow.

It is so exciting to pick your own food. I love it..and to think, for years, I was afraid to "try" gardening.

**frugal-fannie** · 05-15-2011, 07:26 PM

i have done the square foot method -your bed looks great.

**nu2solar** · 05-24-2011, 02:05 PM

I finally got my tomatoes and peppers planted with the tomato cages in place

Next I will work on the netting for my cucumbers and beans and also a fence around the garden

**craftypam** · 05-24-2011, 06:20 PM

nu2solar;
Sure WISH I had the room you have. I'm trying this for the first time this summer too. I have some of mine planted; but need to do more. Too many interruptions today.

**Ceashels** · 05-29-2011, 10:45 AM

The front boxes are filled and planted!

I still have more space in front and I hope to expand that into another bed in the front landscaped area. It gets shady though so it might be a spinach/lettuce box. I think that will become a summer project along with the back yard beds I wish to make.

**paintedsky** · 05-29-2011, 12:43 PM

I have started my first sq foot garden as well. The soil here is poor which is the main reason, nothing grows in it and goes dead. I had planted squash and it was going all dead and I revived one in my sq foot garden. Want to have a larger one maybe next year if this goes well. Soil was the most expensive part! I couldn't find vermiculite at all anywhere. Does anyone use top soil? That was cheap but wasn't sure if it was as good as garden soil.

**Ceashels** · 05-29-2011, 01:21 PM

PaintedSky, these are the names and places in NY listed in the Square Foot Gardening Forum's Data Base for Vermiculte. There may be other places in other states that are closer depending on how close to another state you live. You might need to join the forums to see the whole spreadsheet but it is free and worthwhile.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...VE&hl=en#gid=0

It is a great place for information and inspiration.

CALL FIRST! The information is entered by other square foot gardeners so there may be changes as to what they carry or have in stock.

Agway of Port Jefferson 259 Rt. 25A Mount Sinai NY 11766 631473-3500
Cheap Sam's Plant Bargains 148 Morris Ave Holtsville NY 11742 631-654-3020
Country Max Thiel's Agway 7485 Shawnee Road North Tonawanda NY 1120 716-692-4401
Green Island Distributors 730 West Main Riverhead NY 11901 631-727-4993
Grffin Greenhouse and Nursery 2165 Montauk Hwy Brookhaven NY 11719 631-286-8200
Grffin Greenhouse and Nursery 126 Van Guysling Ave Schenectady NY 12305 518-381-7120
Grffin Greenhouse and Nursery 1 Ellis Road Auburn NY 13021 315-255-1450
Hydroponic Garden Center 14649 Horace Harding Exp Flushing NY 11367 718-762-8880
Rosie's Harris Seeds 355 Paul Road Penfield NY 14624

**Spirit Deer** · 05-29-2011, 06:21 PM

Top soil is too dense, IMO. Plants need to get air around the roots so the soil needs to be lighter. We used Miracle Grow Garden Soil. It was expensive but we priced out buying the stuff to make our own mix and it was at least as expensive, so we didn't see the point of having to pay extra for it and then go to the work of mixing it up besides. It was easier to throw a bunch of pre-mixed bags in the back of the truck and just dump it in the raised beds.

For us, the gardens are a long-term investment so we decided to get the good stuff right from jump.

**craftypam** · 06-05-2011, 10:49 PM

End of May I planted bean seeds, cucumber seeds and corn seeds. Then we had lots and lots of rain. I thought the seeds floated away. Nothing was coming up; soooo I read the pkg to find out germination date and it was right around the time they should be up. Nothing. Soooo I got impatient and replanted. Not 2 days later cucumbers started coming up. Then the beans and now the corn. Oh no; NOW WHAT!! Maybe I'll transplant them into a different box.

**FLgal** · 06-06-2011, 08:12 AM

nu2solar: I just wanted to let you know that while googling gardening ideas, I once ran into your post on a different thread about sfg and it gave me inspiration! I recognized this pic and just had to let you know. I planted my first sfg two weeks ago and it is doing great! Thanks for inspiring me