Square foot gardening.

[Patchninja]

It' called "L'art du potager en carrés" by Eric Prédine and Jean-Paul Collaert, you can get it from Amazon.fr.
A quick guide for N°s per square is :
Garlic, 9
Aubergine, 1
Beetroot, 5
Carrot, 9
Celery, 5
Chicory, 4
Broccoli, 1
Chinese cabbage, 4
Round cabbage, 1
Kohl rabi, 1
Cucumber, 1
Courgette, 1
Land cress, 16
Shallots, 9
Spinach, 5
Broad beans 5
Beans, (french LOL) 5
Lettuce, 5
Lambs lettuce, 16
Sweetcorn, 3
Melon, 1
Turnips, 5
Onion, 9
Parsley, 5
Leeks, 9
poirée, (not sure in englishl) 1
Mangetout peas, 4
Pepper 1
Radish, 9
Tomato, 1
It seems to be good for our climate. I have squares that are nicely filled out with spinach and beetroot etc so it seems to be spot on.

http://www.amazon.fr/Lart-du-potager...3926598&sr=8-1

[Suky]

Looks good Suky! Do I see courgettes in there? I thought the needed to be staggered coz they will easily outgrow a square? lol.

How many broad beans have you gone for in each ft? I am trying 4 per sq ft but not sure how they will do. So far so good tho.

I am new to sq ft this year too. I have setup 4 raised linkabord beds varying between 6ft and 10ft x 4ft wide. But filled with fruit/veg topsoil mostly rather than compost. They are only a quarter full currently but will stick some pics up at some stage if anyones interested?

No courgettes and four broadies per square. So far I have broadies, onions - red, white and spring, lettuce, beetroot, carrots, radish, garlic and strawberries. Oh, and two cabbage 'cos they had to go somewhere!

[kingkano]

No courgettes and four broadies per square. So far I have broadies, onions - red, white and spring, lettuce, beetroot, carrots, radish, garlic and strawberries. Oh, and two cabbage 'cos they had to go somewhere!

Ahhh big strawberry plants that what I must be seeing. Small pic hard to tell lol.

Cool, your broadies are bigger and still look good so hopefully onto a winner.

I like some of those spacings Patchninja, mostly more conservative, except for sweetcorn lol.... 3 to a foot??? Sounds very optimistic? I might try some of the others tho if mine don't work out. Thanks!

[Patchninja]

The farmers grow a lot of corn here in the fields and it's really close together.

[kingkano]

The farmers grow a lot of corn here in the fields and it's really close together.

Is it maize style tho or sweetcorn? I heard the rougher kinds can grow closer together.

BTW poiree I think is chard?

Interesting on the chard and kohl rabi actually as those are a bit sparser then normal sq ft gardening.

[cazp]

Im aiming to grow about 16 corn plants -in two 13 gallon tubs, 8 plants in each. I've read a lot online about people growing the plants really close together in containers and it seems to work so long as they are fed and watered well. It's one of my big experiments this year and if nothing else I love the foliage.

[Suky]

1st strawberries ripening in SFB, 1st flush of radish eaten (by me!), bored beans in beautiful, velvety flower and about 18" high, onions begining to fill out a little, cabbage curling in, all doing just what it should Very satisfying.
Amazing what a little sunshine and rain can do, in the right quantities!

[Rossa]

My first year with SFG too! Bed is only 10' x 2' but that gives me 20 squares.

Got broad beans, peas, french beans, beetroot, carrots, spinach and radishes in so far. Sweetcorn to go in soon, currently in pots under cover.

Put a bit of garlic between squares and may put some summer savory with the beans. Trying to keep to the companion planting rules as well. Will try out some follow on crops after to see what else I can get from it.

Seems that SFG places on 'net give different numbers of plants per square. i.e. 1 sweetcorn per square when I'm putting in 4. I've also got 9 dwarf beans or peas per square and 16 carrots or beetroots. Will have to see if that is too crowded or not.

Using Alpaca manure for the first time as well so got a lot of experiments going on. Also courgettes and squash in rolled down 60l compost bags. And some potatoes in bags and some in the ground to compare what I get from each.

Be interesting to see how everyone does with it this year.

[Patchninja]

Successful or not crops for the SFG.

I thought it might be handy to have a successful or not thread for SFG.
So far, spinach has been great. It's been cropping for a month now and is delicious raw and cooked. Good value for a really small space. I've use 2 squares with 5 plants in each.
Another good one has been mangetout peas.

[zazen999]

Can we keep the SFG in the same thread; so that people can see how it works and the successes that people have.....cheers.

[Welsh Wizard]

I have 172 squares, and it is definitely a system that has advantages as it makes spacing things nice and simple. I think some of the spacings in the SFG book are problematic with my climate and garden, so have improvised a little, some closer, some wider apart. Aubergines are allegedly 1 per square but an outdoor aubergine rarely gets that big in my hands and so 2 per sq staggered seem somehow more correct.... Having planted my corn I am rethinking my 1 per square view above, now doing 4 per square as that looks like it could work now that the shoots are starting to appear.

I do feel that if one was to expand the patch much further past 200 sq ft then row cropping could make more sense as one would have space for a row of a range of veggies and hoeing room as it were. Planting rows of squares is the same thing i guess, and the idea of crowding out the weeds has merit so I guess its just me having difficulty adjusting! It might be slightly easier to keep track of plantings in rows, though I find graph paper helps me visualize the squares in the plot a bit better. It is getting a bit intricate at the moment, and at least one square has been double sown by accident!

My current favourite trick is to plant a PSB or sprout in the square centre, then 4 lettuce in a 5 "dice" pattern around it, with the aim of cropping the lettuce before the brassica seedling gets to a large enough size to be bothered.

[bramble]

Welsh Wizard, I am well impressed with your explanation of your square foot system. I thought about it a couple of times but never put it into practice.
After reading your post i am strongly thinking about it again.
Any chance of posting some pics?

[kingkano]

Some pics of my sq foot garden. Not the best pics sorry but its early in the season! I have 4 largish beds - totalling 132 sq ft.

The largest bed has courgettes/squashes sorrounded by dwarf french beans and radishes. plus spinach, kohl rabi, pak choi, turnips, chard, carrots and beetroot along one edge.

The 2nd bed has the cloche at the end covering my sweetcorn (last pic) which is underplanted with some squashes and some dwarf french beans - an experiment. The sweetcorn is ft spacing which should allow room for everything else I hope. Also tomato plants - I've planted these right in the corner of their square so they can grow over 4 squares total, with smaller things under them. The rest of the space is taken with various bits and peices, some peas, lettuce, rocket, salad onions, basil and chard (plus nasturtiums and marigolds).

3rd bed is 8 squares onions then my brassica area (netted) - planting 1 item per square - PSB, borecole, calabrese and cabbage. Beyond that is 5 cucumber plants with trellis to climb (badly planned that).

Final bed was the first I planted and gets the least sun, hence why its all stretching in 1 direction lol. It is garlic, broad beans, mange tout, peas, carrots, lettuce and some climbing beans soon.

So far I definitely like the square foot idea. Easy to plant not much thinning, easier to succession sow. Weeding in summer might be painful (all hand weeding) but as its so dense hopefully weeds have trouble. Learning the spacings will be this first year's goal!

[chris]

Are those runner beans you're growing along side your corn, kingkano? - sort of 3 sisters style approach?

Here's my SFG bed - testing it out this year, 10'x3' approx - so 30 sqaures.

[kingkano]

Are those runner beans you're growing along side your corn, kingkano? - sort of 3 sisters style approach?

Here's my SFG bed - testing it out this year, 10'x3' approx - so 30 sqaures.

Dwarf french beans but yeah cause of the 3 sisters thing They probably won't get enough sun but we shall see, whats the worst that can happen lol

I like the poles over your bed, growing some beans over the top?