Square foot gardening.

[blossom]

Hello all.
I have been away from the site for ages as I moved to Australia to study horticulture.
I am in a rented house and decided a couple of weeks ago to set up some raised beds to grow veggies in. Well, so far two raised beds and a bath that was already in the garden.
While trying to work out what to plant where I remembered the square foot gardening (nobody seems to have heared of it here) and have been doing lots of googling.

I have two beds which are two foot by five foot, and the bath which is two foot by four foot. The bath I have already planted with Nicola potatoes. :-)
I have filled them with a mix of bought loam, and top quality potting mix, with some slow release fertiliser prills (free from the wholesale nursery I work at).
I picked up some reduced seedlings, some of which are a bit out of season, but worth a go for not much money.
I have blood and bone and lime for adding to squares. I bought a super dooper turning compost bin last week (full and hot now) so won't have any home made compost for another five or so weeks. Do people manage with just one scoop of compost per square between crops? Do you add anything else? Any advice on soil would be great. :-)
I do have a worm farm, but it is low on worms at the moment (after a horrible heatwave 'incident') so can't really rely on that one.

Ohhhhhh yer, someone was asking about tools for garden planning. There is an app which I have been using on my iPhone, called gardentrackr. It is set up for square foot gardening, and even tells you how many of each plant to grow per square. :-)

So any tips before I plant over the weekend would be wonderful. Happy gardening. :-)

[solway cropper]

A lot of people think that the spacings recommended for SF gardening are too close but I've had success this year with onions on the plot and in containers. The pics show an old supermarket produce tray planted with 22 sturon onion sets. The container is approx. 22 x 15 inches and nine inches deep. It produced 21 good onions with a weight of 8lbs. Not a bad yield for less than two and half square feet.

[New2Gardening]

Thanks for sharing. I was wondering how I could maximise crops growing in my small veg patch. Looks like this could be the answer.

[solway cropper]

New2, If you go down the SF route you do need a very fertile soil to get the best results. It's taken me five years and loads of compost/seaweed but it really does work.

[endymion]

Thanks for sharing. I was wondering how I could maximise crops growing in my small veg patch. Looks like this could be the answer.

You could do what we do and, instead of using the Sq ft plan, plant everything in staggered rows with the distances each way the same as the 'row spacing' marked on seed packets.

It looks a bit like this
.x x x x x x x
x x x x x x x
.x x x x x x x

Instead of like this
x x x x x x x x

x x x x x x x x

If you don't leave paths between rows (to harvest/weed) then have veg beds no wider than 4ft (so you can reach the middle). And, as Solway Cropper says, you do need to make sure the ground is well fed otherwise the plants won't grow well which could also make them more susceptible to disease as well as giving less to eat.

You also need to try to make sure that short things aren't shaded by tall things.

[blossom]

I have four raised beds now yay. Three are planted out already, one is mostly empty waiting for the weather to warm up a bit before planting more sensitive veggies. I have ordered a load of seeds so am very excited. :-)
Just about everything is up now. When it looks a bit more impressive I will try to put some pics up.
We did drill holes in the sleepers this weekend for a soaker hose (with temps above 40c in heatwaves, it NEEDS irrigation). :-)

[cazp]

Hi

How do people on this forum approach crop rotation with square foot gardening? I only have two raised beds but am struggling to decide how to arrange my crops and whether or not I should adopt the strategy in the book which just suggests making sure each square has a different crop planted within it from one sowing to the next, or trying to rotate within blocks of say 4 squares.

Any advice appreciated.

[Thelma Sanders]

As long as you put something different in each square, you should be fine
That's what I don in my small garden bed.

[Bigmallly]

Apologies for raising this thread, thought it may be a good time for any newbies that may be interested.

[Sarico]

hi i strart this year in my rented house SFG but because i have a patio and i love container i made up this square foot garden in container...this make my crop rotation easier because i number each 32 container ( 2 bed of 16) so next year i will try to add some compost in the pot e plant different veg in there... i think this year will be so much fum in my garden... i can't wait to start goin outside...

[Bigmallly]

Have been following your thread Sarico, I'm sure it will turn out great. As has been mentioned, keep your eye on the watering.

[eospete]

I'm sure this has been discussed a million times before but I love the look of this pdf. Has anyone any first hand experience & tips. I hope the file can be helpful to others who are considering this system.

http://organicgarden.org.uk/blog/wp-...ep_by_step.pdf

I found Mel Bartholemews Square Foot Gardening book as Kindle download though its not cheap at £10.49.

[cazp]

Hi... the overwintered onions (9 per square foot) and garlic (4 per square foot) seem to be growing ok.

March is an exciting time.. next to go in are the following with my number per square foot ... comments on the spacings would be much appreciated.

Lettuce (Salad Bowl) x 1 and harvest outer leaves as needed - once used up replace with basil in June
Lettuce (Little gem) x 4
Spring onion (White Lisbon) x 18
Peas (Twinkle) x 9
Mange Tout (Oregon Sugar Pod) x 9
Cabbage (Hispi) x 1 -
Celery (Celebrity) x 4
Carrots (Amsterdam Forcing)
Beetroots (Boltardy and Burpee Golden) - (should I sow 18, then harvest every other plant golf ball sized then leave the remaining ones to grow bigger? - or should I stick with 9 - this I cannot decide)

[Bigmallly]

Sounds good cazp, my only question is what are you growing your peas/mange-tout up and will they cast a shadow on other crops.

[cazp]

Sounds good cazp, my only question is what are you growing your peas/mange-tout up and will they cast a shadow on other crops.

Hi the peas grow to 55cm and I plan to grow the first lot up sticks in front of overwinterd broad beans which are already about 5 inches high.

The oregon sugar pod mange tout (1.2metres) are going in a north square.

I hope it's going to work!