Grow Your Own Magazine

Greetings to all. I'm new to this site, to posting messages, and to gardening and I need help!

After some success with a couple of growbags last year(!) I've been granted a small raised plot for planting veg this year (123" x 41") and I'm stuck and giving myself a real headache trying to plan what goes where.
I have no spatial awareness, I'm inept with a pencil and paper & just cannot visualise or plan it! I'm planning to plant lettuce, fennel, onions, cucumber, 2 types of bush tomato, summer squash & courgettes.

My problem is will it fit and if it does, what should go where Due to the shape & situation of the plot I'll need to plant short rows (41") rather than long ones (123")

My pathetic attempts at planning so far seem to be leaving huge gaps between plants. I know I've chosen some plants that need a lot of room, but since that's what I like to eat it makes sense to grow it, but is there any way I can maximise what I plant and what rules do I need to be aware of (separating the 2 types of tomato plant?). Any advice for this poor confused newbie would be gratefully received.

plant squares 4foot by 4 foot, in the squares divide it into 4x4 so you have 16 little 1 foot squares, then plant your polants in then how many depends on the size of the squares eg carrots you might get 9 or 16, but large cabbages or tomato plants you would only get 1. also with large plants that take a long time to grow ie cabbage or broccoli, plant quick growing plants round them to start with like raddish

hope that helps

a book called "square foot gardening" might help you more

I agree with dragonz - get planting!!

Mel Bartholomew devised Square Foot Gardening. He developed the method as an answer to a problem in a communal garden project. There was a large initial response to the idea of gardening and growing vegetables only for the numbers who continued to tend their plots to drop off over the following months. Those that stayed the course had to find ways of coping with gluts of vegetables, when everyone else also had a similar glut.

This is what Mel devised.
1. Dig a plot 4-foot x 4-foot and build a solid side with wood 8 inches high to enclose the area.
2. Fill the top of the raised bed with a mix of two-thirds, compost and one-third vermiculite.
3. Divide the bed up using a permanent grid system. Each square is 1-foot x 1-foot.
4. You now have 16 squares on the top of your raised bed.
5. Plant a different flower or vegetable variety in each square.
6. Each 1-foot square can accommodate different numbers of plants. Each square brakes down into a smaller grid system for seed sowing. Think of the dots on a dice and you have some idea of how the spacing works. In each 1-foot square. Instead of having dots of 1, 2, 3, 4, etc you would have dots of 1, 4, 9, and 16. This dot system equates to 12”, 6”, 4” and 3” spacing for vegetables.
7. You place the dots in the earth with your finger and then fill the hole you have made with vermiculite. Into each hole you place two seeds. This type of sowing ends the need to go back and thin out the seedlings.
8. You only ever work one square at a time. Not the whole 4-foot bed, unless you have the time or energy to do so.
9. Each 1-foot square can be made to suit the needs of what you are sowing or planting in it.
10. Every time you harvest a crop you make sure that the crop that follows it is different. This will enable you to carry out simple crop rotation.
11. As you prepare a square for planting you add the relevant fertiliser needed.
12. As there will be 16 squares with various crops growing you will be utilising companion planting. This will result in fewer garden pests eating your food before you get the chance to.
13. As crops develop at different rates you can utilise catch cropping.
14. You only sow enough in one square to provide a weeks harvest.
15. Rather than sow five squares with carrots at one go you sow one square every two weeks until all five squares are sown. This will give you a staggered harvest of carrots.
16. A patchwork design not only reduces the loss to pests but it looks decorative as well.
17. Climbing plants such as beans courgettes or squash and other vines are grown at the northerly end of the square so they do not block out the light of the shorter plants.

One square will hold 16 carrots or 9 large onions or 8 peas or 1 tomato or 4 full size lettuce. There are whole groups of vegetables that will fit into the following 1-foot spacing of 1, 4, 8, 9, and 16.

Two raised beds will supply a family of two people with enough vegetables during the year. If you want to grow lots of space hungry varieties like squash or courgettes then add a third bed.

Here is a list of vegetables and the spacing they need.

Vine Tomatoes, 1 to a square foot
Broccoli, 1 to a square foot
Cabbage, 1 to a square foot
Cauliflower, 1 to a square foot
Sweetcorn, 1 to a square foot
Aubergine, 1 to a square foot
Melons, 1 to a square foot
Peppers, 1 to a square foot

Cucumbers, 2 to a square foot


Swiss Chard, 4 to a square foot
Full size Lettuce, 4 to a square foot
Parsley, 4 to a square foot

Peas, 8 to a square foot


Dwarf beans, 9 to a square foot
Spinach, 9 to a square foot


Beetroot, 16 to a square foot
Carrots, 16 to a square foot
Onions, 16 to a square foot
Radishes 16 to a square foot

Bush Tomatoes, 1to a 2’ foot square

Courgettes, 1to a 3’ foot square

Winter squash, 1 plant to two x 1 square feet, side by side in an oblong.

I hope this helps.
Jax

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've looked at the square foot gardening site last week & it does look interesting. My only problem is I think I'll struggle to reach things at the back because of the position of the bed. We knew this when we made it, but as my husband regularly drives over the garden (don't ask!) this was the only place for it. You've given me some ideas about spacings though that are really helpful

As my raised bed is based on square foot method here are two photos. the fist was taken a few weeks ago and the second one was taken today.

Attached Thumbnails

   

Thank you, Jax , for generous post and smashing pics. THAT is square foot gardening. What are the strings made of, may I ask? I presume they're permanent?

B.

The string is plastic garden twine. I have nailed a U staple into the bed every foot and then strung the twine taught, to form the grid.
The twine doesn't rot and hopefully will stay in place for a few years. When it does need replacing the stapples will still be there to use again.
Jax

Jax this is so useful for me. Just to actually see how someone does something makes a world of difference! In fack, I'm so inspired, I'm almost ready to take the plunge tomorrow!! Just a quick question - 4 lettuce in a square is so different to the recommendations on the back of the seed packet (12" apart), I won't be overcrowding them planting this way will I?

It's cos its a riased bed & you dont walk on it Bilbo, you can space them closer then as they have a greater depth of soil to root in.

Sorry to jump in Jax.

__________________
ntg

Never be afraid to try something new.
Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic

http://grief-encounters.blogspot.com/

No problems Nick. You jump in any time you want. Wasn't on the boards as a neighbour just knocked on the door asking me to save his two courgette plants. He had tried cooking them in his greenhouse. They were in tiny pots and the soil had lost all its water.
You are correct in respect of the lettuce. They don't have to fight for room to grow and the crop in the square nest to it is not lettuce either so it has room to spread a little into the next square's space.
Jax

Thanks for the photos of the square foot method. Planning to make some raised beds at the back end of summer for planting next spring. Will definately do it that way. Thanks again. Most helpful.

The Square foot method can be adapted to most places. It does not have to be in a bed four-foot square. I have just planted out my neighbour’s garden for her. The bed in her garden was two foot wide by twenty foot long. It runs along the edge of her garden against the boundary wall. After I had finished she had forty squares all sown up with a combination of vegetables. This narrow bed will allow her to reach the back to tend the plot. The idea of the four-foot bed is that you can work the bed from both sides never having to reach more than two foot in any direction.
It is recommended never to have four foot beds longer than sixteen feet as the temptation to take short cuts across the bed becomes too strong.
If the bed is running along a wall then the temptation to stand on the bed disappears. It is also best, to have only a two foot bed along a wall or fence. as it allows you continual access to the whole of the bed front to back.This means a two-foot wide bed can run for any length you like.
Jax

Jax thanks for the picture, very very helpful. Maybe mine will look like that one day! All my plants are still teeny and in pots (or underneath the soil!). It's great to see the square foot system in action!

Hi

I looked up the square foot gardening book on Amazon and a man in the UK where I am said he thought this was a great idea but he had a nightmare getting hold of chunky vermiculite which is what he says Mel is recommending. Have you had any difficulty getting hold of this material at all - any links to where I could find it please? Many thanks, Martyn.

Martyn
Don't know how chunky is chunky, but I get medium grade vermiculite from Kays Horticultural.
Sue

Thanks Sue I'll check it out.
M

Jaxom,

Are they canes that you have utilised for supports when covering your bed with fleece, netting etc.

Great bed - just built several of my own this winter.

Pippin

Pippin
Sorry for the 6 month delay in replying. I lost my Internet wellies for a while
The canes you can see in the photos are willow sticks. They bend far easier than bamboo. Next year though I will be building a hinged frame to go all round the bed. Then I can clip on plastic sheets to act as early cloches and change them to net/enviromesh in summer to keep off the egg laying nasties that have hammered my broccoli and cabbages this year. The hinged sides will allow me access to carry out any work that needs to be done.