Square foot gardening.

[Maddiesaur]

Thanks folks!

Jake - I got your PM and I am about to reply -

I can easily fit 2ft x 13ft across the plots (if Googles meters to feet calculator is right haha). If we take on what Tadpole said (which is what I had in mind actually) then I could fit two of these beds in the bottom half, with room to spare! In the top one I can, as suggested, have taller or larger plants.


So.. What I need to do I think is work out what I want to grow, what space I have and then not panic, as my last frost is May. I'll put pen to paper and get my brain working and maybe post in a little while with a bit more detail for opinion

[The Goatreich]

This looks perfect for my garden. I currently have a raised bed, approximately 2ft * 4ft, which unfortunately faces north-east. I did successfully grow some broccoli and kale in there last year however. I was hoping to plant a butternut squash and pumpkin in there this year. I think those two will take up all of this bed, and I'm not sure how successful they will be given the shadiness.

However I plan to put in another bed on the opposite wall of the garden, so facing south west. Hopefully this will be around 3ft * 4ft, and will then have room for 12 squares of lots of different veg types that I've never managed before.

Hopefully:
Corn
Leeks
Courgette (If I can get them to climb)
Squash (if I can get them to climb)
Peas
Beans
Herbs
Carrots
Parsnips
Spinach

The bed might not be ready for another month or two, so will likely miss the sowing season for lots of these plants, but I'm sure I'll get something in there.

[The Goatreich]

Hi all,
I've just measured up my north-east facing raised bed and it's bigger than I actually thought. It's 7ft x 2.5ft, meaning I could get 14 decent sized squares in. The problem being the way it faces, meaning that on a good day it probably gets about 3 or 4 hours of sunlight (I haven't actually measured this).

Can anyone advise me of some fruit or veg that I could potentially grow in this bed? I've successfully grown broccoli, kale and spinach in this bed last year, and am more than happy to grow these again, albeit with a net this time to stop the bloomin cabbage whites.

I'd like to grow purple sprouting broccoli, more kale, spinach, sprouts, cauliflower if they are suitable, but I'm also happy to hear any advice from others. I guess anything that requires fruit or flowers to grow will need to wait until I have my south-west facing bed. There's another list in the post above of other types of things I'd like to grow. I wonder if things that grow underground like carrots, onions, parsnips would also be suitable? The soil may not be brilliant for this though, there are no large stones, but there do seem to be some smaller ones around the place.

[The Goatreich]

What does anybody think of this? After you've marvelled at my MS Paint skills that is.

Will these work, any better suggestions and suggestions to fill the empty slots?

[The Goatreich]

Actually, here's take two of that.
If there's room I'd likely plant some companion flowers (marigolds?) in amongst things. Two squares of onions as I you can go through them quite quickly.
I've also gone for purple sprouting broccoli as I imagine you can cut it as you use it, rather than wait a long growing season for one head.
The pumpkin, squash and courgette would hopefully be trained up a trellis on the fence behind. They may not get enough sun, but I'm happy to experiment a bit with the space.

[Bigmallly]

Personally I would have a dedicated bed for Brassicas then you can net the whole bed. I suppose it all depends on space available.

[The Goatreich]

When I get my second bed setup I will likely keep this one for a winter brassica bed. As it is, I've placed all the brassicas together so that I can put a netted frame over 4 squares they are in. Does that sounds at all sensible?
I'm not sure how easy it is to train pumpkin, squash and courgette up a trellis either but there's only one way to find out.

[Bigmallly]

Of course it makes sense to net them all together, however you are only gonna get one plant per square. I just think they could be put to better use.

[The Goatreich]

I did wonder that when I put in the cabbage, and that's the reason I went for sprouting broccoli over the usual.
Would you suggest a different setup? Perhaps something instead of the brassicas altogether?

[Bigmallly]

It's all personal preference. There is nothing wrong with growing a cabbage in a square but if you are limited for space then you have to weigh up how many potential meals will you get out of one square.

[The Goatreich]

Yeah that is a very good point. Hmm. I did get a bit excited and just ordered a load of seeds for the plan I set out above. Perhaps if the cabbage is a reasonably quick grower I can use the same square for other things once it's harvested.

Thanks for the info, I can't wait to get this going

[Kristen]

Perhaps if the cabbage is a reasonably quick grower I can use the same square for other things once it's harvested.

Depends on the type of Cabbage, but usually they are a long season crop, as is Sprouting Broccoli

Other thing to consider is having enough plants to get a meal. One Sprouting Broccoli plant, for example, will give you Broccoli over a number of weeks, but usually only a tiny amount at each "harvest", so it helps to have several plants to get enough at each harvest to make an accompaniment for a meal for two (or more even!)

Here are come variety comparison charts from Moles Seeds. Doesn't matter if you are growing any of these specific varieties, as it gives an indication for sow-to-harvest time

Ballhead:


Red / Winter / Savoy:


Moles Seeds - Conventional vegetables: Cabbage

[Bigmallly]

Good info....................

[The Goatreich]

Great, that's really helpful thanks.

The variety I have bought is Red Ruth. I'm wondering now whether to replace the cabbage square with a second sprouting broccoli and maybe just plant some cabbages in pots.

[Kristen]

The variety I have bought is Red Ruth

Sown now should be ready for harvest in August. Not that much you can plant in behind it then ... dunno if you could squeeze in some Spuds for harvest as New Potatoes for XMas?