Square Foot Gardening

By Susan Jensen Stubbe

What is Square Foot Gardening?

• The practice of dividing the growing area into small sections

• This allows you to have a diverse garden even when space is limited

• Invented by Mel Bartholomew

Benefits

• Allows you to grow in any soil conditions

• Care and watering is easy and less

• Grow more variety in less space

Where to start...

• Find a sunny spot that is at least 4ft by 4ft

• 6 six hours of sun or more is best

• If space is small you can go 2 ft wide and longer the 4ft.

• Keep the width at a maximum of 4ft for easy access.

Step Two

• Make a Box

• You can use wood (cedar, spruce,) vinyl, cinder blocks, stack stone

• Metal siding

• Logs

• A simple starter box is 4ft by 4ft and 12” deep

• A trellis can be installed on the for plants such as beans the are vines

• Put the trellis on the North side so the trellis and taller plants won’t shade the rest of the

garden

• Line the bottom with fabric

• Cardboard will also work

• This will help prevent weeds

Step 3

Mix the soil

• 1/3 peat moss

• 1/3 vermiculite

• 1/3 compost

• Use a number of different composts such as mushroom, sheep, turkey

What amounts s you need

For a 4ft by 4ft box that is 12” deep you will need

2 bales of peat moss

Step Four

• Built a grid

• Use wood slats or string

• Place every 12” in both directions to make 16- 12” by 12” squares

Step Five

• Plant your garden

• Plant one type of vegetable or herb per spot

• Taller varieties should be planted on the north side so they don’t shade the rest of the garden

• A general rule is a larger plant such as a tomato would get 1 seed (plant) per square

• Smaller plants would be a number of seed per square dependant on their recommended

spacing

For Example

• 3” apart (or something smaller), plant 16 per square foot

• 4” apart, plant 9 per square foot

• 6” apart, plant 4 per square foot

• 12” apart, plant 1 per square foot

Build up for deep rooted plants

Potatoes

• Potatoes grow upwards, rather than downwards like most plants.

• Plant 2 potatoes in one

• When they grow 1" above the surface, you place the box on top of the square and add 2" of soil. When they grow another 1" above the soil, add another 2” of soil.

Step Six : Care

• Water as needed. Keep soil moist but let it slightly dry between waterings.

• Weed as required, which should be very little

• No need to fertilizer just add compost when you remove a crop to keep the box filled up

• Do not walk on the soil this will compact it

Step Seven: Harvest

• Once you have harvested one square plant it with a different vegetable or herb for a later

harvest

Special thanks to ...

• Squarefootgarden.com

• Canadianliving.com

• Eatlivegrowpaleo.com