Square foot gardening has become popular as people who do not have a lot of space want to grow more of their own food. The concept was developed by Mel Bartholomew but has been adapted by many others since then. You can grow an incredible amount of food through a combination of succession planting and closely spacing the plants in the garden area.
At the most basic, square foot gardening is a form of raised bed gardening. A frame that is no more than four feet wide and preferably four foot (or some increment such as eight or sixteen) long is built. That is placed over some opaque material such as newspaper to retard weed growth and filled with a rich mixture of soil and compost.
A grid of one foot squares is made with string tied to nails driven vertically into the tops of the garden sides. Two uprights are placed at the southern corners of the garden and a board run across the top of these. String is run from the bottom board up to the top board at the proper intervals for the plants (more on that later).
A similar arrangement is made on the northern side of the garden. In the spring, tall plants and ones needing trellising are planted in the south while the short crops are planted in the north. In the fall, reverse the procedure. This way the tall plants do not shade the short ones.
In order to conserve space, vining plants such as cucumbers are planted by the vertical strings. As they grow, the vines are tied to the string and will twine around it. Even relatively heavy squash and small pumpkins can be grown this way if the uprights are sturdy.
Now that you have your garden set up, you are ready to plant. Plants are planted at the following spacing:
- Extra large plants, such as tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumbers, one per square
- Large plants, such as leaf lettuce, four per square
- Medium plants, such as bush beans, nine per square
- Small plants, such as carrots, sixteen per square
This garden can grow a lot by planting early crops, then intermediate crops, then harvesting the early crops and replacing them with late crops. The plants are so close together weeding is kept to a minimum. Water is necessary, but if compost is added each season, the soil is kept fertile. Remember that most vegetables require at least six hours of sun so the location you chose must get that. Otherwise, you can place a square foot garden practically anywhere. Happy growing.
