When we imagine growing food, we often think of neat rows, planted in straight lines, occupying lots of land. But in 1975, backyard gardening enthusiast Mel Bartholomew was looking for a more space-efficient way to grow food. He applied his engineering background to develop a new gardening method called "square foot gardening," which he turned into a best-selling book and popular television show. Today, more than 2 million gardeners use the square foot gardening method. But is it right for you? Let's take a look.
What Is Square Foot Gardening?
Square foot gardening is exactly what the name says: dividing a growing area into 1-foot x 1-foot sections. In a true square foot garden, an actual grid is placed on the growing area to divide up the space. What you grow in each section depends on the mature size of the crop. Some sections will house 16 small plants, like radishes, or only 1 plant, like a cabbage. Check out these examples:
The same universal gardening principles still apply to square foot gardening. You need a site with plenty of sun, easy access to water, and good soil Miracle-Gro® Raised Bed Soil is an excellent choice, as it provides an ideal environment for plant roots). Square foot gardening also works best in a raised bed that's no more than 4 feet wide (so you can reach the middle easily), though it can be whatever length you like.
Now, let's look at the pros and cons of square foot gardening.
Benefits of Square Foot Gardening
For new gardeners, square foot gardening offers a simple vegetable garden layout that makes it easy to calculate exactly how many plants you need. It's also a handy solution for gardeners with limited room to grow, since the intensive planting style lets you plant more plants in less space. A square foot garden is also relatively low maintenance, since it leaves little room for weeds.
Drawbacks of Square Foot Gardening
Some crops, like large, indeterminate tomatoes, need more space than a single square foot—otherwise they'll start stealing nutrients and water from other plants. Plus, plants can deplete moisture and nutrients quickly in a square foot garden due to the intensive planting technique. Feeding your plants regularly with Miracle-Gro® Shake ‘n Feed® Tomato, Fruit & Vegetable Plant Food will help provide the nutrition they'll need in order to produce a big harvest. Also, be sure to water whenever the top inch of soil is dry.
It's worth noting, too, that traditional square foot gardens are only 6 inches deep, which is too shallow for many plants. Vegetables need plenty of space to stretch their roots and absorb nutrients from the soil. If you choose to try this method, make your beds at least 12 inches deep to allow lots of room for the roots.
How to Tweak Your Square Foot Garden for Success
So, how can you benefit from the helpful aspects of square foot gardening while modifying the approach to fit your needs? Try one of these ideas:
Mix and match. Choose multiple plant types from the same category to give you more flexibility over what to grow in the space you have. For example, instead of planting a square with 4 lettuces, plant 2 lettuce plants and 2 marigolds, which not only attract pollinators but also add a pretty accent to the garden. Or, since you can fit 4 strawberry or 4 basil plants in one square foot, combine 2 of each of the plants in each of the outermost squares to create a lovely edible border around the inside perimeter of the bed.
Think small. Rather than planting a large tomato plant that would require more nutrients and water than are available in a single square foot, choose a smaller dwarf or bush variety, like Better Bush, that can flourish in less space.
Grow up. Adding a trellis to your square foot garden is a perfect way to increase available growing space and vines off the ground. Do this for peas, pole beans, cucumbers, melons, and squash. The easiest way is to attach the trellis to the back of the bed and use the back row of squares for the plants to be trellised.
So, no matter whether you appreciate a highly-organized planting plan for your raised bed or prefer a tad more creative approach, a little tweaking to the square foot gardening approach, plus some extra attention when it comes to watering and feeding, can lead to an impressive harvest. Enjoy your planning and planting!
Popularized by retired engineer-efficiency expert Mel Bartholomew, square-foot gardening allows you to get a high yield from a small area—a win-win situation for beginning and experienced gardeners. It's especially beneficial to gardeners who don't have much time or yard space.
Popularized by retired engineer-efficiency expert Mel Bartholomew, square-foot gardening allows you to get a high yield from a small area—a win-win situation for beginning and experienced gardeners. It's especially beneficial to gardeners who don't have much time or yard space.
The square foot gardening method recommends using an open-bottom raised bed, 4 by 4 feet (1.2 m × 1.2 m) square. The square beds are then divided into a grid of sixteen one-foot squares. Each square is planted with a different crop, and based on the plant's mature size either 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants are placed per square.
Some of these detriments, according to Bartholomew, are the amount of space single-row production requires, the large amount of soil amendments needed, and the amount of seed used to plant the rows.
To keep the planting simple, there are no plant spacings to remember. Instead, each square has either 1, 4, 9, or 16 plants in it, depending on the size of the plant—easy to position in each square by making a smaller grid in the soil with your fingers.
Certainly you can apply the principals of square foot gardening without doing a raised bed . The raised beds do serve a function and help produce better vegetables. With a raised bed you build your bed on top of your existing topsoil and add more soil to fill in your raised bed.
A 4ft. x 4ft. raised garden bed gives you 16 square feet of growing space (more if you add some trellises for vertical space). That means you can grow around 10 to 11 indeterminate, or vining, tomato plants in one raised bed—if you really love cherry tomatoes, that is.
For square foot gardening, you will need to build a raised garden bed or reallocate one that you already have. Typically, for best ease of use and accessibility to the garden bed, it is recommended to start with raised beds that measure approximately 4 ft x 4 ft with depths of 6-12 inches.
Also, be sure to water whenever the top inch of soil is dry. It's worth noting, too, that traditional square foot gardens are only 6 inches deep, which is too shallow for many plants. Vegetables need plenty of space to stretch their roots and absorb nutrients from the soil.
More frequent maintenance : Because a square foot garden is planted so densely, weeds are a huge pain to remove once their roots get established. Your best bet: Remove when they're still tiny seedlings. This may require weeding a few times a week, but it beats wrestling with a full-grown monster.
Don't plant root crops, such as carrots, parsnips, and potatoes nearby. Celery has a shallow root system that can be damaged when a root crop is harvested. Corn is also not a good choice. It is a heavy feeder and can deplete the soil of the nutrients that celery needs, and the tall plants block too much sunlight.
Marigold seeds are planted 1/2 inch deep, 4 per square foot, in the full sun. Take care to notice what plants are around the area as well, see the companion plant section below. Your seeds should sprout within 14-21 days.
Intensive gardening is a generic term used to describe methods of maximizing the garden space you use to grow your plants. Square foot gardening, an intensive gardening technique, was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in his book Square Foot Gardening.
With good soil and close planting, you might estimate a conservative yield of about 1 pound per square foot. So in a 400-square-foot garden — just 20 by 20 feet — you can grow enough veggies for yourself.
The general rule of thumb when it comes to growing a garden is to have 100 square feet of gardening space (traditional row gardens) per person for fresh eating only. To preserve food and put it up for the non-growing season, you're looking at 200 square feet of gardening space per person.
When done correctly, even the smallest backyard plot can produce copious amounts of fruits and vegetables and possibly even a significant saving to the grocery budget. However, it takes time and patience, and a small outlay of money to buy seeds, and tools, if you need them.
Introduction: My name is Van Hayes, I am a thankful, friendly, smiling, calm, powerful, fine, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
