Frugal Living
By Mavis Butterfield on - 26 Comments
Yesterday it rained all.day.long.
Although it was nice to lounge around in my pajamas all day long and watch movies, around 5 pm yesterday I actually got bored {can you believe it?} and so I got dressed and went outside to do a littlegardening.
I don’t know about you, but when it’s raining outside, I like to wear my husband’s coats and shoes and I have no idea why. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t want to get my stuff wet {Ha!} or if his stuff just seems cozier. After 18 year of marriage I still haven’t figured that one out yet. I’m pretty sure it’s something crazy people with too many things on their mind do. I say this only because I don’t think my husband would walk outside with my shoes and coat on. And if he did, well…
Okay, back to the garden. As I was putting the square foot garden together last week, I was thinking how cool it was going to be to have 32 squareswith different vegetables growing in them.
But then as I was planting seeds yesterday, I started to wonder how on earth I’m going to be able to grow 32 differentvarietiesof fruits and vegetable in an 8′ by 4′ raised garden bed.
Is it really possible?
Is it a bad use of space to plant only 6 beets or 12 radishes in such a small area? Will this one raised garden bed really grow asignificantamount of food? Will it grow MORE food per square foot than if I would have planted an entire bed with just one vegetable? I needanswerspeople!
I am beginning to think it might be a trick question, but I’m still pretty excited about it. I’m just not sure how the wholecompanionplanting aspect is going to play into it though.
So far 9 of the 32 square have been planted. Sugar snap peas, carrots, beets, Walla Walla onions, strawberries, lettuce, Swiss chard, radishes and celery all have their own little 12″x12″ plot.
What do YOU think?
Have YOU ever tried square foot gardening? Do you think it’s a bad idea to try and grow 32 different plants in this small of a space? Do you think everything will thrive or will it die, die, die because I’m trying to do too much in such a small amount of space?
Mavis wants to know.
For more information, check out All New Square Foot Gardening. It is an amazon bestseller and the author is basically the king of square foot gardening.
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Comments
Karissa says
I tried this last year, and I think for some things it works great. I think if you are growing things that all have roughly the same height or don’t block the sunlight it’s awesome, but if you have plants that are tall close to ones that are short they do shade them and keep them from growing. I tried to plant some broccoli and brussels sprouts, 1 per square, but they really stunted the growth of the lettuces and things like that I had planted in the squares near them. For some companion planting I planted some companion flowers in a couple of the squares. The whole thing looked pretty cool and the concept is great, it just takes some careful planning and I don’t think I will try planting anything big that way again. My favorite part is that with the grids and where you place the seeds it’s a lot easier to tell what is your seedling and what is a weed!
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Modern Mia Gardening says
We have 8 raised beds based on the square foot gardening method. So far, it’s been successful for us (except for the squash vine borers last summer but let’s not talk about those). We plant pretty much following the plants-per-square listed in the book and website. We leave a couple of squares open for marigolds and other flowers to attract pollinators and help repel bugs. The method works for my brain that likes things orderly and squared off.
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Debby says
It seems you could plant 32 different things. The challenge I see is the different soil/water requirements they will have. In such a small space with just the wood surface divider, some items will get too much or not enough, water or fertalizer. Some items could also be duplicated. Concider a bush bean plant or a cabbage. It would probably take up the whole square when mature.
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Amber Knight says
Hi Mavis, you can greatly increase your yields by inter planting in the squares.
inter plant carrots with the radishes. As the radishes are harvested it makes room for the carrots, maybe put a lettuce in the middle. Last fall I inter planted lettuce, onions, Swiss Chard, Celery, Cabbage, and Cilantro. As you harvest the Cabbage it makes room for the others. When I harvest I chop off stalks of celery and top the lettuce and they regrow. Companion plant with in the squares.Reply
Kirbie says
I’ve been SFG for the past few years and with pretty good luck. I agree with Karissa, you have to carefully plan our where you’re going to put things and take into account their size b/c they will mess up the growth of surrounding plants.
In my opinion the reason you have “twice as much produce” as a standard garden is because it’s not as overwhelming. You have everything right there in a small space and not miles long rows of things (which you didn’t before anyway). Your more apt to weed and tend to a SFG b/c its definitely more manageable. Of course, with all that being said; you do take very good care of your garden plots and they’re plots, not a “standard garden” that’s super long rows of things.
Are you just trying it with the one plot? Can you have “backup” area’s in the yard in case it doesn’t do as well as you thing it might? Then it won’t totally mess up your weight goals this year? At least you’ll learn from this years plot, maybe you’ll have a kick ass crop in there! 🙂Reply
Jean says
Mavis – The bad thing is, reading all your posts is like virtual gardening for me – I spend all my time reading yours but then I get lazy and feel like I’m done for the day!
OK, quick, call up Ryan @ Botanical Interests and see if he gave you any seeds for lemon drop marigolds and garlic chives. If not, ask him to express mail you some! Because – those are companion planting rock stars, besides radishes and the carrots & onions of course. Tuck a few seeds in randomly along the sides of the boxes. Garlic chives grow small and skinny, at least the first year. (Being perennial, they’ll drop black seeds everywhere and grow bigger the next year, so you need to get them out before they seed!!) Those little marigolds are pretty small for marigolds, and who knows how many bugs they repel while attracting beneficial insects? Seriously, those companions kept my squash plants growing through a ruthless South Carolina summer while everybody else was losing theirs to squash bugs and vine borers.
You’ll love the extra color and the peace of mind. Ryan & Co. will love the extra business they’re going to get from this suggestion!
Now if you would just ask him to send me a gardening team to catch up with our weather, because I’m a LITTLE behind down here in South Carolina….
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Celie says
Nice to see another reader from South Carolina!
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Aerin Brownlee says
Another South Carolina reader here! Lost my white pumpkins to squash vine borers last year even with marigolds planted right next to them 🙁
I had 3 square foot gardening boxes last summer and loved them! I watered much less than the previous year when I planted in rows in the same boxes. This year I am adding another box and will probably keep adding one a year until I run out of yard )Reply
Samantha M. says
I like to mix up the squares a little. I will often times grow the same thing in the same bed but make sure that no square is planted with the same stuff as the square next to it. I have a theory it slows down pests and diseases but I can’t prove it. Also you have to be careful with things short plants or things like onions that the plants around them don’t shade out all the sun. I like to plant the taller plants to the side of the bed that they wont’ cast shade on anything else.
The main thing I love about my square foot gardening beds is in my mind it makes weeding and planting much easier. I am just going to do these squares today is less intimidating that a huge row. I also interplant annual herbs in with my veggies, so coriander, basil that sort of thing. I made one 4×4 square bed my Italian veggie bed and that was fun peppers, tomatoes, basil, garlic, onions etc and am now looking for other ideas for “themed” beds for this year, maybe a stirfry or salad bed.
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Rachel says
I had my first garden last year. A square foot garden, we are renting so it worked best, and it was awesome! The things that grew well for me were jalapenos, serrano and cayene peppers, okra, bush beans, onions, radish, cabbage, cucumbers (I put a trellis on the back side for these). I also did broccoli and cauliflower, they did get a little large but it still worked. I can’t see growing squash or zucchini like this since they get so large; I did these in their own personal container. I could not believe the amount of food we got from such a small space. My okra plants were so super tall, and very productive. You can fit quite a few bush beans in a square and they were also quite productive. My cucumbers did awesome on the trellis.
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Donika says
I’ve done it in the past, and I’m using my own version this year…I eyeball the squares and work things where I have room. I tend to give certain plants more space based on my own previous experiences, like tomato plants and eggplant are planted 3 feet apart in my beds instead of 1 foot apart, because i just get higher yields when I do that. I use Smartgardener.com to plan things out since it is free, and it also has a list under each variety of good and bad companion plants.
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Tra says
I’ve used SFG for about 5-6 years for some plants but not all. I use it most frequently with vegetables that have succession planting. I will plant several squares of beets, carrots, radishes, etc but only plant a square every two weeks or so. By the time I get to the last square, the first one I planted is usually just about ready to harvest. This way I get a nice bundle of carrots each week rather than a HUGE haul all at once.
I also always leave a couple squares for marigolds, borage, chives, and other companions that help with pollination or disease control. It’s worked really well for me!Reply
Jewelz says
What is the lime green seed stick you are using and where do you get one? Thanks!
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Evonne says
Ditto!
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Laura says
Is it a chopstick?
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Melissa says
Mavis,
You look like one of your gnomes in that first photo! I love it. 🙂
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bonnie max fuentevilla says
What about the whole ” rotation thing ? ” Ugh ! it would be like making a seating chart or something.
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Patti M says
This will be my 3rd year at SFG’ing. I love it! I have a 4 x 8 garden. I do the same thing as Tra. I plant lettuce, carrots, radishes, green onions, beets, peas, etc…and do plantings every 2 weeks so by the time my garden is full, it is time to harvest the first batch and I have some all summer long. I replant as squares become available.
I did try zucchini last year, and it was just too big. It shaded some of the other squares and they were sad. Won’t do that again. For me, a separate container will probably work better, I also do this with tomatoes and tomatillos. Have you grown tomatillos? If not, you must. They are prolific and delicious! Grow similarly to a tomatoes. You can make the most delicious ever chili verde. So good you will lick your plate if no one is looking!
I wanted to mention that I live in the PNW and used slats the first year too and found that little (and not so little) sluggies like to hide under the slats. Last year I switched to gardening twine to mark the squares it it worked much better. Hubby used eye screws at 1 foot intervals and we threaded the twine.
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Patti M says
I also wanted to mention that I keep a garden journal. I need to know what I planted in what square and when. Helps with crop rotation.
One other thing…I plant short crops in front and tall things in back.
I think that is all for now!
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Mavis says
Ahhh Thank you I will be on the look out for them. I was worried Lucy would get caught in the string. Thank you.
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Kate says
We use the square foot gardening method at our church garden but we usually plant an entire bed of the same thing or split a bed in half. The square foot method seems to work well like this for properly spacing your veggies and not wasting seed by having to thin. For example you put 16 carrots I think per square. If you do that over the entire bed, there is no wasted space between traditional rows and no thinning required. Since the bed is full of the same plant, nothing shades it out. It just all grows together at the same pace. It is more time consuming to space your seeds initially, but they seem to grow well this way.
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Tari says
LOVE this thread! 🙂 I just put in four (4×4) raised beds this last weekend, waiting to put in the recommended soil mix (I’m short 3 more types of compost and I’m too late to make my own in time!) I’ve got seedlings growing in my laundry room a mix of herbs, veggies, and flowers. I’m especially excited to grow mini watermelons on my trellis- made from old wrought iron fencing from a cemetery when they switched to vinyl (who does that?!). I’m super pumped, I read the square foot book cover to cover in a week! I’ll take everyone’s advise and put the tall and trellised plants on the North side of the beds. Brilliant folks, keep the comments coming! Ps any ideas on how to make triangle beds? I’m making a copy-cat version of P. Allen Smith’s garden beds from his first house. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooAWkbHP1w8&sns=em I have the four center ones, but not the corner raised beds… at a loss, It’s been years since I’ve done trig, and I never took woodshop- I have no idea how to connect the hypotenuse! This is my worst fear… carpentry meets math!
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MichelleB says
Hi Mavis! I wanted to comment on how much I loooooovvvvveeee square foot gardening. I have a little trick for those rainy or yucky weather days. I call it – seed squares (kinda like seed tape except squares) I use the standard cheap, paper napkins you can get anywhere and open them completely up. They normally are about 12″x12″ once opened. I made a grid on a square card stock that I slide under my napkin so I can see where to place my seeds. I use plain old craft glue to glue down my seeds. Now, if the spacing is one seed per square foot, it’s not worth it but things like radishes, carrots and beets, for example, it’s perfect. This spring, while it was wet and cold out I sat in my nice, warm house and “planted” my seeds. Now every couple of weeks I just grab a seed square and take it out to my garden, lay it in my grid and cover with appropriate soil. Ta Da! 30 seconds and I’m done. This works especially great for crops that you want to stagger for continuous picking.
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Michelle S says
Brilliant MichelleB!! Thank you so much for sharing – LOVE this idea, will implement it immediately! I’m a newbie at gardening/sq ft gardening so helpful hints like this are a real treasure! Plus, I can just see my 5 year old doing this and having a blast!
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Michelleb says
Yup! It’s like arts and crafts and gardening rolled ino one! Enjoy! 🙂
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MaryLena says
Your idea of gluing things like lettuce seeds to a napkin is a great one! That’s what woke me at 5 :30 in the morning….wondering how I would be able to plant just one seed at a time. Thanks for the tip. I’ve used raised beds for years in several different places but was finally able to convince my husband to help me do SFG. He’s a believer!
He always teased me that when I planted a seed in my composted beds, I had to jump back out of their way. With the SFG mixture, it’s even more so! Pruning has been part of the solution though I haven’t done that properly with the first batch.
My experience with tomatoes and zuchs has been much like that of some others here. They get big and bushy. Then, I saw a video of a fellow in CA who uses SFG commercially. He recommends frequent pruning. I’ve found it’s a daily chore but worth it if even half my tomatoes ripen. With the zuchs, I have to prune the “elephant ear” sized leaves so the oncoming zuchs have room to mature.
I took some of the prunings from the tomatoes and rooted them. I’m experimenting with pruning those to a single stem. From the video, it appears that single stemming contains them in a single foot block. We shall see. In the meantime, I’m experimenting with pruning one of my squash plants differently from the other. We’ll see how that works out.Reply
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