Square foot gardening to grow more food

Square foot gardening is a gardening technique that can produce a greater yield of crops using less space, soil, and water than traditional gardening.

A square foot garden layout can add to the enjoyment of backyard landscaping. Mel Bartholomew popularized square foot gardening after questioning traditional garden methods and gardening techniques like spreading fertilizer across an entire garden while plants occupied thin rows and the roots took hold in limited areas.

Square foot gardening can literally be done in a frame that’s four feet by four feet or one-foot square garden boxes. A list of garden supplies is below the first picture.

While I had heard the term “square foot garden” through the LA County Arboretum, it wasn’t until my wife and I sat in briefly on a demonstration at the LA County Fair that I understood the concept and decided we should try the gardening method.

Buying the gardening supplies for our square foot garden was my Christmas gift to her. Gardening supplies and plants can make memorable gifts any time of the year and for any occasion.

I followed guidelines in the book “All New Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew. I decided to start with two frames of four feet-by-four feet.

Garden supplies are easy to buy in stores or to buy online. Here is a price warning. Buying your initial soil and gardening supplies is not cheap. My cost was $ 155 to create two frames. However, the frames can be made from free wood or bricks. The soil mixture is the most expensive. However, it will last for years to come.

Frames: I picked up the frames and soil mixture at Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH). The wood usually comes in eight-foot lengths.

The frames are recommended to be two-by-six; however, I picked up one-by-six. For additional garden frames, I’ll use two-by-six. I did use small metal brackets to strengthen the insides of the frame’s corners.

Soil: The soil for this type of gardening only needs to be six inches deep. That’s right, six inches deep. Square foot gardening soil mixture is recommended to be one-third peat moss, one-third vermiculite, and one-third blended compost. I discovered the vermiculite at OSH was quite expensive at $17 for a couple of cubic feet. So my mixture will contain slightly less than one-third vermiculite.

An employee at OSH told me the vermiculite creates spaces and helps the water penetrate all layers of soil.

Wood lath: Wood lath helps mark off each square foot. It’s optional; not necessary. Marking the square foot areas is also possible simply using string. Just mark twelve inches along each side of the frame.

Weed cloth: use weed cloth for the bottom of the frame to keep out the weeds, of course, while allowing drainage through the material so water does not pond. A plywood bottom is also an option to use at the bottom of the frame. Drill holes in every square foot area so water drains through the soil and into the ground.

Wood screws: one-and-a-half inch wood screws hold the frame together. Use coarse deck screws and make sure the screws are not too thick so the wood does not split.

Square foot garden location

Choose a location where the plants are easily accessible. We have space behind our garage I would like to use that would easily fit two or three frames of four-by-four feet. My wife, though, would like the garden plants to grow closer to the house along the edge of our backyard and close to our patio. She will probably win out. My compromise is building three or four frames and they can be set in different areas.

The frames can be moved from one season to another. Have a space in the yard that gets about six hours of sunlight per day. Build a simple shade using material like weed cloth and wood lath frames to shade the plants if the planting area is in direct sunlight for more than six hours.

In Southern California, its possible to grow some vegetables all year long. However, the sun does shift noticeably from summer to winter. What’s sunny in the summer can turn to shade during the winter months.

The book, All New Square Foot Gardening, has an easy to follow example of building a cage of chicken wire that can easily lift on and off the wood frame to protect from rabbits and other animals. We have a pet rabbit hopping around our back yard so the cage or some other simple fencing will be necessary.

As you research gardening options, I’ve become a fan of square foot gardening and growing plants in containers like blueberry bushes. It allows the gardener to control the soil mixture, placement of the plants to maximize the best use of sunshine, and it is a way to landscape a backyard or front yard.

Other uses of gardening in this type of area includes building square foot flower boxes to decorate edges of patios or decks. They can be constructed to begin seedlings inside warm areas prior to outdoor planting season.

Here is another approach to gardening that has a different name but the same idea. It comes from Washington State University extension and Holly Kennell, Community Horticulture Agent for Snohomish County and was online with the Regional Garden Column February 2005:

intercropping Intercrops are fast-growing crops (such as leaf lettuce, green onions, spinach, mustard or radishes) that can grow between large, slower plants (like squash, tomatoes or cabbage). Both crops are planted at the same time and the intercrop is harvested before the main crop needs its full space.

Vertical gardening Most gardeners with a small garden look for bush varieties of vining vegetables. You will get more production per square foot by using vining types, but trellising them up instead of allowing them to sprawl. Tall peas and beans grow up poles or a trellis with little work on your part. They will bear later than bush varieties, but will produce more.

Successions The idea behind successions is simply to keep your garden space occupied. When the early lettuce, spinach or peas are done producing, plan for a second (or even third, in some cases) crop for that same space. Don’t let the left-over crop get tough or bitter or go to seed. Rip it out, turn in some compost and fertilizer and plant again.

Transplants We think about using transplants early in the season, but to get the most from a small garden, you need to use them constantly. Sow lettuce seed, for example, and you will be harvesting after 7-8 weeks. Plant out nice-sized lettuce transplants, and it will take only 4-5 weeks. This practice could get costly and it is hard to find good broccoli transplants in July, so grow your own.

Another way to learn about gardening techniques for your particular town is to log on to the agricultural department of the universities in your state.

During my childhood in Pennsylvania, we had a large garden like so many families who lived in the country. It was thirty-feet long and fifteen-feet wide. Taking out the weeds and keeping out rabbits and other animals was a chore. Even if I move to the country some time in the future, I’d prefer the convenience and control of square foot gardening over the method of digging up the soil, fertilizing a large area, and trying to keep the weeds under control.

Square foot gardening reduces some of the mystery about what plants will grow or not grow and I believe it means anyone can have a “green thumb.” Purchasing the book will act as an excellent reference. However, it is also available under the gardening section at the local library.