Square-Foot Gardening 101… (the whole thing)
Written by Kate Petersen on June 29, 2008 – 7:07 pm -With Monkeyfister’s permission, I am reproducing his whole post here with pictures. The original post can be found over at his place. Kate
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I had one last garden box left to prepare, and I figured that it would make a great tutorial. This method of gardening is foolproof, and hugely productive. Here’s a quick step-by-step.
Make a four-sided bottomless box frame, fill it with your favorite dirt mixture, and make a 1-foot x 1-foot grid. I use jute twine because it is cheap, and compostable. Two months ago, I laid down some weed-blocker material to kill the damnable Bermuda Grass that plagues me, so I know that I have a weed-free area to plant into.
I’m planting Pole Beans and Bush Beans on this very windy day. I checked the back of the seed packet, and it gave me two sets of spacing information: A “Sow At” spacing, and the “Thin To” spacing. It really doesn’t matter how you garden, Row Gardening or Square-Foot Gardening just always ignore the “Sow At” spacing entirely– you’re just wasting seed. So, the packet tells me to “Thin To” 3-inches, and THAT is what we will plant our seeds to. So, I poked four holes per foot, 1″ deep.
I put one seed in each hole, covered them up, and watered thoroughly. Later, when the plants pop up, I will make an 8-foot string frame for the Pole Beans to grow up,
This bed is going to be entirely sown in Beans. I wanted Pole Beans for a constant harvest, but I am also going to plant in Bush Beans every week until this 4′ x 8′ bed is full. Bush Beans require 4-inches per plant.
In the squares that I have planted the Pole Beans, I still have space to plant six plants, and then nine plants in each of the remaining squares in each foot-row. I’m going to plant two 1 x 3 square-foot rows.
I’ve put in all the bean seeds. As you can see, they are in a very specific geometric pattern. If a seed doesn’t germinate, I’ll simply plant a new seed in it’s place. anything that pops up that is not like the others, and not in the pattern is a weed, and I can pull it out.
Cover, tamp, and water thoroughly. Done.
I now have 32 Pole Beans for constant harvest until First Frost around November 15th, and 66 Bush Beans for a one-time harvest. That’s a lot of Beans for eating and the freezer.
BTW: As you might be able to tell, it is a VERY windy day, and my string-trained vine plants are doing just fine.
I have cabbage plants starting in the house, and as the Bush Beans exhaust, I will plant in the cabbages for a fall/winter harvest. The nitrogen that the Beans have fixed in the soil will nourish the cabbages.
8-foot frame in place.Posted in Farming & Homesteading, Urban Gardening |
6 Comments
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Mf,
This is beautiful. I have Mel’s book and when I get a real backyard, I’ll do SF Gardening. It’s so simple and so efficient. Did that in Austin and it really worked well.
What did you make your frame out of? Pipe? Did you clamp the corners or drive a couple feet in the ground?
The Frame is made of 1/2-inch conduit with 90-degree couplers.
my soil under the beds is hardpan clay, so I drove them in only a few inches, and used Plumber’s strap and screwed them into the frame for added support.
Mel’s plan is FLAWLESS. Best method ever.
Thank YOU, and super-special thanks to Kate for taking the time to put this here.
–mf
I love spreading the SF gardening all over the internet! I currently have “SF” tomatoes in SF pots, Oregon Spring and Goliath. Hope they do well. My herbs are ’surging’ and the chard is springing up.
Oh, agree with Scotia - this *is* nice! And it’s an excellent guide.
Can’t wait to see more as the season progresses (hint hint).
I’ll gladly post progress pics of this bed, and try to get you some pics of the other beds. My Cabbage/Cauliflower/Onion/Carrot bed is a thing of beauty, and my Asparagus/Strawberry Chard/Beet bed is a flood of clors!
I’m sorta proud this year!
–mf
I bet you’re proud! This is very, very nice — and you’ve developed a wonderful pictorial guide.