Square Foot Gardening

[Whipple]

I am not a green thumb by any stretch. But I want to start gardening. So I'm going to try square foot gardening. Seems simple enough, and I have a ton of bunny berries. Do I have to do anything to them?
What are some good veggies to start with?

 

[garden lady]

I am not a green thumb by any stretch. But I want to start gardening. So I'm going to try square foot gardening. Seems simple enough, and I have a ton of bunny berries. Do I have to do anything to them?
What are some good veggies to start with?

I had good luck with bush beans, broccoli, peppers, cabbage, but I made mistakes with spacing. One square for a cabbage was not enough and the plants I put next to them got shaded. I did square foot gardening for 5 years, but I changed things this year. I still have a box where I put lettuce and smaller things. I turned another box into an asparagus bed and then another I had potatoes in, but next spring I am going to put broccoli in it. Here is a picture of what happened with the cabbage and peppers. I did get peppers on those plants, but I had to take sticks and string to tie up the cabbage leaves later on. I actually like square foot because it is so organized, but I had a lot of trouble with grass in the walkways and I had a strawberry patch that needed to be moved, so we just moved boxes and did things different last year. I am not sure what I will do for the coming year.

 

[Oceanrose]

The only way to get good at something is to practice . I have raised beds, and practice square foot gardening in some. Make your beds 6-12 inches deep, and make sure never to walk on them. Figure out what you'll eat, and start there.

As far as the bunny berries go, personally, my gardens were why I got bunnies again. I gather them up along with spilled hay and pellets, and this time of year just pick a bed to place it on. Really hayfilled stuff (the aisleways) I dump onto my compost heap, for next year. Bunny manure doesn't burn unless there is a high urine concentration. In my case, I have sand under my cages so no problem with that .

Have fun and experiment, it's dirt, water, and seeds .

 

[Lizardslaps]

need more garden pics that cabbage looks good I only container garden but have just started experimenting with beds but I got huge trees over the whole property and only a small section that gets full sun

 

[akane]

Cilantro is foolproof as well as many of the herbs. I built a little herb and edible flower garden using square foot gardening but instead of building up I dug out squares from the crappy clay soil and replaced it with pure compost. Then set up runs between the squares using shelving panels to release the guinea pigs for weed control and to eat the edible flowers when I removed the barriers.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/ ... oor%20pen/
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/garden/

We then also did a raised bed garden on a much much grander scale with 5x5' beds that had a brick pathway down the middle for walking and mulch over plastic in between instead of using guinea pigs for lawn mowers. We built frames out of old weathered 2x6's and patched any gaps in the uneven ground with bricks then filled it with stuff from the chicken coop and truckloads of cow manure compost. I used rabbit cage wire on fiberglass rods for trellis to grow beans and we had a ton of string beans as well as a mound of flowers on the other trellis. It started to fall over. Then we got kicked out of our house and I don't know what became of my gardens.

 

[Oceanrose]

Here are mine, right after I got done building them. They are all 6X3, built entirely out of scrap wood. I filled them with a mix of compost, and peat. Now the bunnies are doing the rest of the filling .

 

[Miss M]

I love square foot gardening! Like the cabbages and peppers, you have to figure out what you can plant with what. I got Zero carrots last year, because they were shaded by the bush beans. The potatoes and turnips were shaded by the eggplants.

This time, I'll build smaller beds, and break up what I'm planting better so that nothing will be badly shaded.

I'm also going to NOT devote valuable SFG space to corn or melons or potatoes. The corn was delicious, but it doesn't need extra support in regular dirt. And I have room for melons now. Tying them up in hosiery is not easy, and sometimes the fruit detaches without you realizing it. The sling is still holding it, so it looks attached. The potatoes succumbed to stem rot, which I know is not the fault of the growing medium.

 

[garden lady]

need more garden pics that cabbage looks good I only container garden but have just started experimenting with beds but I got huge trees over the whole property and only a small section that gets full sun

I do not have a large garden space either. I am going to use more fence and try to build up some ground that is not very good. I looked through some pictures, but it is hard to tell. The beans were on a wire attached to posts, but only 5 feet and next year will make it on 6 ft posts. I plan to expand the raspberries. I nearly killed off my strawberries. I had planted 200, next year 200 more and they spread and had so many, but could not get the weeds out, so I dug them up and transplanted and bought 100 more, but they did not do that well last year.

__________ Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:47 pm __________

The box with plastic is from where we used to live and we build our new boxes like those, but had hoops for the plastic. The dirt and stump pictures is where we live now and what it looked like when we started our garden. It was a mess. We have hauled in a lot of dirt and manure. The pole beans is how I grow them. I tie string to the top wire and then the beans grow up the strings.<br /><br />__________ Sat Nov 03, 2012 9:48 pm __________<br /><br />

Here are mine, right after I got done building them. They are all 6X3, built entirely out of scrap wood. I filled them with a mix of compost, and peat. Now the bunnies are doing the rest of the filling .

That looks great!!

 

[AnnClaire]

I do SFG also, but like akane, I sunk my beds into the soil. Well, let me back up ... I started out with Cardboard Gardening (remember that from the 1990s?) I had 5 rows 3'x6' piled on top of cardboard on top of my bermuda lawn made from my very first batch of compost. The veggies did well, but dang it if that bermuda didn't invade/grow over all of it LOL So, over that winter, I found a supply of old, leached rail road ties and talked the ex and BIL into helping me load and drag home 36 of those heavy suckers! I laid more cardboard, and that fabric weed barrier and laid out an 8'x8' square and proceeded to fill it with all the compost I could make ... about 4" but I was ON THE WAY!!! LOL Then, I fought the darned bermuda all summer, so the next spring, I dug out the bed and pulled all the bermuda roots and all, and filled with more compost. Better garden, not as much trouble with the bermuda. So, each year I made mistakes and corrected them the next year and so on until I finally finished the first garden bed of 12'x50' no till, fully composted, bermuda free, spring of 2010. Then, I used clear plastic to solarize the second 9'x40' and third 8'x20' beds and put one into production last fall starting with winter wheat for wheat grass for the bunnies :cheesysmile: and the third as a berry bed where I planted winter wheat this year.

Garden photos here: http://s647.photobucket.com/albums/uu196/calvarygurl/

And a June 2012 Property Tour video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIByFHW-hDU

I use 8"x16" concrete pavers for pathways that way, when I want to resize a "room" in my garden, I can just move the pavers

 

[garden lady]

I do SFG also, but like akane, I sunk my beds into the soil. Well, let me back up ... I started out with Cardboard Gardening (remember that from the 1990s?) I had 5 rows 3'x6' piled on top of cardboard on top of my bermuda lawn made from my very first batch of compost. The veggies did well, but dang it if that bermuda didn't invade/grow over all of it LOL So, over that winter, I found a supply of old, leached rail road ties and talked the ex and BIL into helping me load and drag home 36 of those heavy suckers! I laid more cardboard, and that fabric weed barrier and laid out an 8'x8' square and proceeded to fill it with all the compost I could make ... about 4" but I was ON THE WAY!!! LOL Then, I fought the darned bermuda all summer, so the next spring, I dug out the bed and pulled all the bermuda roots and all, and filled with more compost. Better garden, not as much trouble with the bermuda. So, each year I made mistakes and corrected them the next year and so on until I finally finished the first garden bed of 12'x50' no till, fully composted, bermuda free, spring of 2010. Then, I used clear plastic to solarize the second 9'x40' and third 8'x20' beds and put one into production last fall starting with winter wheat for wheat grass for the bunnies :cheesysmile: and the third as a berry bed where I planted winter wheat this year.

Garden photos here: http://s647.photobucket.com/albums/uu196/calvarygurl/

And a June 2012 Property Tour video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIByFHW-hDU

I use 8"x16" concrete pavers for pathways that way, when I want to resize a "room" in my garden, I can just move the pavers

I took the June tour and was fun! Loved the rabbits in the pen. The way you had your comfrey next to the house gave me an idea to get more space and my comfrey plants get tall and then the wind blows them over, so next to the house would give support. I planted 1 and it does not spread. I got another one and was not sure if it did, and it did, so I have 2 of those. It will be interesting how much it spreads next spring and if I could get it all up and transplant it. I do not even try to grow okra here, but I sure love to eat it.

 

[Marinea]

Here is part of ours. The beds are 4x16, with some smaller 4X4.

I also add a bit of whimsy:

Herbs go in broken flue pipes at the end of the beds. We also have grapes in garden boxes. All of our gardening is in raised beds, for a few reasons: we are older, and it is easier. Second, our soil is...limestone rock. We HAVE to build up.

We start most of our plants inside and move them out. We grow tomatoes, strawberries, beans, squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, corn, garlic, greens, lettuce, broccoli, and whatever else moves us at the time.

I am seriously thinking of adding a bunny garden this year!

 

[Lizardslaps]

They all look so good I definitely got some Ideas on what Im gonna build this winter/spring

 

[Miss M]

I do not even try to grow okra here, but I sure love to eat it.

It sure loves the heat! It grows well here. One thing that really helped when my garden was in full swing, since SFG is so closely planted, was trimming the older leaves from the plants. I learned that from somebody on the SFG forum.

You trim leaves off that are below the currently growing fruit. As the plant grows taller, and you harvest from them, you clip the leaves as well. It helps you see the fruit as it is maturing, and it helps prevent mold issues from not enough air flow. With tomatoes, it helps the sunshine hit the tomatoes, too. The leaves above are plenty to produce the food the plant needs. Once in a while, I'd leave a few below the fruit, if the plant hadn't put out many leaves above yet.

I did this with tomatoes, okra, and squash.

 

[Oceanrose]

Does anyone plant red clover for the winter? Supposed to cut down on soil erosion, and fix nitrogen into the soil. I just got done throwing a bunch of seed into the beds I'm not using. I'll use part as a living compost, and part for the bunnies..

 

[garden lady]

I do not even try to grow okra here, but I sure love to eat it.

It sure loves the heat! It grows well here. One thing that really helped when my garden was in full swing, since SFG is so closely planted, was trimming the older leaves from the plants. I learned that from somebody on the SFG forum.

You trim leaves off that are below the currently growing fruit. As the plant grows taller, and you harvest from them, you clip the leaves as well. It helps you see the fruit as it is maturing, and it helps prevent mold issues from not enough air flow. With tomatoes, it helps the sunshine hit the tomatoes, too. The leaves above are plenty to produce the food the plant needs. Once in a while, I'd leave a few below the fruit, if the plant hadn't put out many leaves above yet.

I did this with tomatoes, okra, and squash.

I am from Oklahoma, so I thought okra would not grow here for some reason. :thinking: Somebody told me that, maybe? I just looked at Gurneys and it says zone 3-9 and only takes 50 days! I guess I will be growing okra if I have room. Learned something new. Even my husband thinks okra will not grow here. I agree about the leaves. I am putting my tomatoes on a fence next year.<br /><br />__________ Sun Nov 04, 2012 12:28 pm __________<br /><br />

Here is part of ours. The beds are 4x16, with some smaller 4X4.

I also add a bit of whimsy:

Herbs go in broken flue pipes at the end of the beds. We also have grapes in garden boxes. All of our gardening is in raised beds, for a few reasons: we are older, and it is easier. Second, our soil is...limestone rock. We HAVE to build up.

We start most of our plants inside and move them out. We grow tomatoes, strawberries, beans, squash, cucumbers, bell peppers, jalapenos, corn, garlic, greens, lettuce, broccoli, and whatever else moves us at the time.

I am seriously thinking of adding a bunny garden this year!

I am going to do things like that and I have seen carrots and lettuce grown in gutters nailed to shed walls or sides of the house. I am thinking of the hutch. I grew last year tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, bell peppers, yellow squash, zucchini, winter squash, pole beans, bush beans, beets, swiss chard, lettuce, mustard greens, carrots, kale, potatoes, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, rhubarb, herbs. We have bush cherries that produced for the first time, plum trees and elderberries. I planted asparagus last spring and just planted garlic.

 

[skysthelimit]

I am so in love with square gardening that I chose the name Four Square Micro Farm.
This year I planted a mismatched group of things, mostly for the bunnies. With the heat, even with my watering, most things did not grow well. My best crops were lettuce, spinach, beets for buns, arugula, parsley, basil and tomatoes.

 

[AnnClaire]

Garden Lady, for the okra, you will probably need to start it inside and then a bit of tenting with plastic sheeting to get the heat up early enough in the spring for it to mature and produce for you, but I bet with that bit of TLC you could get some grown I grow Clemson Spineless (of course), Milsap White, and grew Thai Okra this summer for a seed company. The Thai got over 8' tall!!!

 

[garden lady]

Garden Lady, for the okra, you will probably need to start it inside and then a bit of tenting with plastic sheeting to get the heat up early enough in the spring for it to mature and produce for you, but I bet with that bit of TLC you could get some grown I grow Clemson Spineless (of course), Milsap White, and grew Thai Okra this summer for a seed company. The Thai got over 8' tall!!!

I have got to try it! I just thought of turning the old swingset into a greenhouse. I looked for pictures and also found growing pole beans on one. I could put plastic for a greenhouse and then take it off and have beans growing. Also going to try something else this winter. http://www.agardenforthehouse.com/2010/ ... owing-101/

 

[Marinea]

If you are interested in getting an early start, go back and look at the pics I posted on page 1. We have our raised beds, and added some clamps and got sticks of 1 inch PVC pipe. We bent the pipe to fit in the clamps. We added some cheap wood braces, and voila. We can either cover the bed in plastic to warm the soil and get an early start, or we can add shade cloth during the peak of summer to keep things growing without bolting in the heat. The PVC and clamps were VERY cheap. We got 20 foot long pieces, and we cover two beds with them, each 4 feet wide, with a walkway in between them.

 

[garden lady]

I saw that and we do have about the same. We have 4 boxes 4 x 10, but one has asparagus planted, one is going to be strawberries, but I have 2 more I can start things early with the plastic. It is really nice to have.