Square foot gardening.

[Bigmallly]

Hi the peas grow to 55cm and I plan to grow the first lot up sticks in front of overwinterd broad beans which are already about 5 inches high.

The oregon sugar pod mange tout (1.2metres) are going in a north square.

I hope it's going to work!

Sounds good, I was going to suggest using the uppermost north squares. That's where my outdoor cucs are going.

[cazp]

Hi Bigmally, I'm hoping the broad beans will be big and strong enough by the time the peas grow up in front - what do you think?

Are you doing one outdoor cuc per square? The cucumber is my experimental plant of the year - I am growing dragons egg!

Other things in north squares for me are french beans blue lake and sweet million tomatoes

[Bigmallly]

Hi Bigmally, I'm hoping the broad beans will be big and strong enough by the time the peas grow up in front - what do you think?

Are you doing one outdoor cuc per square?

I can't really comment on peas & beans as I have not grown them before. as for cucs, they will be planted one per square growing up a trellis structure in the uppermost north squares so as not to cast shadows.

[Matt94]

ive just started to draw my plant for this year - and im thinking about going down the square foot path. ive jsut read through all your posts and written down how many veg i can get per square foot. i curently have 3 beds, i have one for beans, one for peas, and one ive just made (7 by 4) which im hoping to make into a square foot bed. by the end of the month i will have hopefully have built anothe three bed in which i can also do square foot gardening in! - sorry for it being a bit long winded!

[Gemmalaveen]

Having just moved to a house with a big enough garden for a veg plot, I have dedicated one of the beds to square foot gardening. I am not following Mel Bartholomew's methods to the letter because I cannot afford raised beds at the moment.. instead I am using string and garden pegs from Wilkos. I have posted some pictures and a review of the book on my blog:

Strawberry Jubes, An experiment with square foot gardening

[Bigmallly]

There is no reason to use raised beds or as you say to have each square measuring exactly 1 foot...................I wonder how long before they call it the "Square 30cmm Gardening"........

[Gemmalaveen]

Lol

I am really enjoying growing veg this way so next year I will use two beds. I probably need a more sophisticated grid next year... I have noticed my neighbour has an old trellis lying at the bottom of their garden, taken apart and reconfigured I think it might make an excellent grid (with permission of course)!

[cazp]

Enjoying this method of gardening too. My grid is made of bamboo, which I bought already in lengths of 1.2m - just right size for the beds, works well....

[Sarico]

me too but.. i don't have a garden where i can put a bed and also i'm in a rented house so i adopt the SFG in pots... as you can see are 16 square foot size pots... plus i build a cage with loose pin hinge so i can open when i harvest and water them... the cage are to protect them from a light frost at night ( a put a lid on top) and in summer time to protect from wind ( without lid in sunny days) so far everything ok

[cazp]

me too but.. i don't have a garden where i can put a bed and also i'm in a rented house so i adopt the SFG in pots...[ATTACH=CONFIG]28998[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]28999[/ATTACH] as you can see are 16 square foot size pots... plus i build a cage with loose pin hinge so i can open when i harvest and water them... the cage are to protect them from a light frost at night ( a put a lid on top) and in summer time to protect from wind ( without lid in sunny days) so far everything ok

Great idea Sarico.. at least having everything in individual pots means you can easily swap things around. The fleece screens are great too.

[Sarico]

Great idea Sarico.. at least having everything in individual pots means you can easily swap things around. The fleece screens are great too.

in fact i made 2 of this cage but now i put in one cage 16 flowerpots with potatoes and if my plan are good i will harvest them in the end of may and then replace with tomatoes, pepper, marigold,chilly, etc that are in my blowaway...i keep the finger cross...

[Bigmallly]

Getting there slooooooooowly...................still about 20 to fill.............

[cazp]

Wow, they look good. Wish I had that much space!

I only have 2 x 4ft square beds and am thinking about interplanting to get maximum use of the space I have, and I had this idea today..

I would love to grow Sprouts but they take up 4 squares which is more than I really want to spare for just one plant. I wonder if it is feasible to plant something around the edge of the 4 squares whilst a sprout plant is growing in the centre - perhaps little gem lettuces, rocket, or (pushing the boundaries further) even parsnips?

Don't know the growing pattern of sprouts to know if this would work... any advice appreciated. Thanks

[veggiechicken]

I have a question too! Does the framework for the individual square inhibit you when weeding or planting out. So, do you weed each square individually, when its empty? And do you plant within the square, rather than to the outer edges of each square - as you would if you were planting a row?
I'm sure that doesn't make sense but I know what I mean

[cazp]

I have generally been treating each square individually as much as I can.

When it comes to planting I plant within the square rather than right up to the edge of the square to avoid clashes with neighbouring plants. For example if I were planting 4 to a square I first divide the square in to 4 quarters and sow right in the centre of each quarter.