square foot garden

So I've decided to use the squarefoot method, I have 8 squares to use. Anyone have anyadvice? I've never done it before always been containers unless it was grams garden I was helping in.

Four are going to be dedicated to tomatoes.

Square foot gardening is pretty much like growing in the square foot containers. The only difference is that they aren't in pots when doing them in a garden. For square foot gardening you want to keep the plants in that 1 square foot area in their area so trimming, topping and such is needed to keep them under control.

My must haves in my garden would be green peppers (1 or 2), Cukes (2), Snap peas. Maybe some onions and garlic.

yea!!! I decided to do square foot gardening too this year. make sure to do research on what plants do well near others and planting according to the direction of the sun to the plants height.

If you're going to grow tomatoes make sure to grow the kinds that grow like vines instead of bushy and short. You can fit a vine tomato in a single square foot, but bushy ones need @ least a couple feet space. You can fit tons of radishes(16),carrots(16), beets(9), bunching onion(16) & sugar snaps (9) into a single square foot.

If you're going to plant some greens (lettuce,kale,endive...exc.) you can put 4 into 1 square foot as long as you keep harvesting the outer leaves once they start crowding together.

purpz said:

yea!!! I decided to do square foot gardening too this year. make sure to do research on what plants do well near others and planting according to the direction of the sun to the plants height.

If you're going to grow tomatoes make sure to grow the kinds that grow like vines instead of bushy and short. You can fit a vine tomato in a single square foot, but bushy ones need @ least a couple feet space. You can fit tons of radishes(16),carrots(16), beets(9), bunching onion(16) & sugar snaps (9) into a single square foot.

If you're going to plant some greens (lettuce,kale,endive...exc.) you can put 4 into 1 square foot as long as you keep harvesting the outer leaves once they start crowding together.

Click to expand...

I just put a Tomate Verde and a Black Krim into my sq. foot garden. I put them in the middle of a 3' square. So each tomato gets 9 sq. ft.

I like the concept and will probably go that direction next year for my outdoor garden. Some of the biggest points I saw, were his belief in companion planting. Don't do whole squares of tomatoes, but spread them out. Add bug repellant plants like garlic and marigolds near plants that have strong bug susceptibilities. And don't plant all at once or you will be harvesting all at once and your veggies will go bad before you can use them up.
Topping works against the ideas of the SFG. Mel's method is about getting plants close together to crowd out weeds and not waste space. He would be more likely to train a tomato plant to be taller along a support than to bush it out. In fact he says that he does all of his vines vertically now.....cantaloupes and watermelons included. If you are serious about giving his method a go, it makes more since to me to read the book before you pop your seeds. It's a fast, easy read - I finished it front to back in two days.

I definetly advocate reading first. The idea sounds great until mid summer when the plants have their own ideas of where they want to grow. IDK. Sounds like a lot of maintenance. Good luck though.

I've been doing a little reading and a little youtube watching. Some of the youtube vids cater to the lowest denominator making it very hard to watch. Thanks for everyones input!

Dannyboy, I hear what you are saying, but my issues with SFG are the exact opposite. I like my soil mix better than his, I feel that it is missing a lot of minerals. I also don't like the use of weed cloth - which is a known earthworm killer. My worms are too loved and respected to get this treatment.

But I would love to raise my veggies up off the ground, I like the lack of seed/land/amendment waste, and the idea of NOT grouping like plants to reduce bug issues is brilliant. No one style is perfect. Going to the library and researching the current methods out their first. Is always best. Hopefully you will be able to then derive what methods will be perfect for YOU. Good luck with your garden this year - what ever methods you choose to follow.