Square foot gardening.

[SaraJH]

Good job you confirmed "mini Varieties" of Cabbage & Cauli Sara as otherwise they would need 1 square per plant.

Indeed BM, I'm more than a little dubious as to quite how small they will actually be.... We shall see

[Bigmallly]

Well if I can try & grow a Courgette in 1 square there is no reason why you shouldn't try growing 4 Cabbages in 1....................

[SaraJH]

Hahaha!

We will both be binning them in a few months lol

[Bigmallly]

I may be ok as some of my Courgettes have been munched to the core................no worries though as they were spares...........

[Sheneval]

I haven't managed to read all the posts on this subject so this may have been covered already.

I made up my own mix for the beds and put in overwinter onions in 3 of them covered by 1 hooped cover - they did all right but not as the biggest of the onions in a normal raised bed with similar cover. I intend to improve the mix this year and use 3 covers rather than one next year as they are difficult to move for weeding.

I used a similar mix for beetroots in two beds last year which proved very successful and a slightly improved mix in 3 raised beds this year - my grandsons aged 6 and 9 made up the mix to my spec this year and all 3 beds have proved successful - I had the covered with fleece till all danger of frost had past. I am in the process of preparing more 4'x4' beds for next year and will make individual covers for each. I can't honestly say I am doing square foot gardening but have adapted some of the methods used to suit myself and I like the results so far. :-)

[Marb67]

Well, after following guidelines here is my poor results. Poor, small Alisa Craig onions and Bolthardy Beets as well as most carrots not forming. Chard is ok but one cut in the spring hasn't produced a single new leaf

I had to have the whole bed under enviromesh all season because of the pests like flea beetle,onion and carrot fly and leaf miner so this may have hindered the growth but what can I do ? I have no choice.

[Scoot]

Sowed my purple sprouting broccoli the other day.

[SaraJH]

Lesson learned from last year - even mini caulis and cabbages don't like to be packed in 4 to a square! 1 per square this year plus some in pots.

[monkeyboy]

Whew!
Made it through all 93 pages in 24 hours. Lots of interesting posts though it was a bit difficult because I couldn't see pictures and I don't know if it's because of the server crash or because I'm a newbie.

I've noticed a drop off in posts in this thread especially 2016/2017. Are people losing the love for SFG? Have you all moved on to a different system? Or are you all just busy with growing and harvesting?

I've made two 6' x 3' beds and I was looking at what to plant. In my head, I'd divided them up into four quadrants but SFG shows I can plant a lot more.

Hopefully next year I can start off in the right way but plan to plant a few small things to try my hand this year.

[chris_m]

Well, I've started. When the last of my current crops are finished I'll get the rest of my part-raised part-sunken beds made, the poor quality sandy soil dug out to about 3 feet down, lined with weed barrier and filled with a mix of what came out plus a load of manure and decent topsoil on top. Two of the beds will be netted with veggiemesh and the other two left for plants that don't suffer too much from pests and/or need insect pollination and/or need to grow higher than 2'6" - that's the height of the netting frames I'm making.

That'll give me just over 100 square "feet", although 78 of them will actually be "square feet and a bit", being 12" x 15". I've got most of what's going where planned out and have already occupied nine of the "squares" in Bed 1 with kale and over-wintering onions.

[plotman]

moon planting? lol

[Martin H]

OK, I'll be giving this sfg lark a go next year. My new raised veggie bed in the back garden is four feet wide so it seems to be almost ideal, even though the gentle curvature means that the squares won't actually be mathematically square.

It will start in a few weeks when I plant out overwintering onion seedlings and garlic.

I was thinking of using strimmer cord to mark out the squares: held into the sleepers with galvanised tacks and short canes to stabilise the interstices. Any better ideas?

[monkeyboy]

Right! I've built my two 2m by 1m vegetable beds. The soil's been prepped with a mix of compost and soil. I didn't have vermiculite but I've managed to find some in homebase. I want to plan things out for next year.

My issue is knowing where to plant what. I've looked up a little on companion planting and a little on heights of plants. I've come up with a couple of ideas below.

Though the diagrams show 12x3, in actuality they're two 6x3 beds since I was trying to get it all on one page. The spinach will be in bed one if that helps with understanding things.

Layout 1:


Layout 2:


Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome. This will be my second attempt into vegetable growing. My last attempt resulted in a tomato plant with blight

Elsewhere in the garden will be a couple of potato buckets and maybe a strawberry plant in a container. I've already got coriander and mint growing in separate planters ATM.

[Lumpy]

Lovely plan MB but I (and I can hear the Vine laughing) might adapt it a bit.
Cauliflowers - only 1 per 12in (are they worth it) and the leaves can grow huge so if you want them it might be worth putting them on the edge of your plan so 2 sides can be trimmed to help light getting to other crops.
Chives are perennials (they come back every year) so it might restrict your growing plan in the future. Try and shove them next to your carrots as they help stop carrot fly.
Anyting from the Mint family will run rampant if left unchecked - they are beter planted in containers or buckets etc.
Celery needs alot of water but basil does not (as a Med plant) so you could end up with dismal basil but wonderful celery or vice versa.
Melon - needs lots of heat and depending upon the variety lots of space. I (and in my opion only) is not suitable for SFG.

Please don't be miffed with what i've written......................have a go and see what happens.
Good Luck

[lottie dolly]

I agree with Lumpy,ref chives and mint,cellery could be grown in a flower bucket sitting in a water trough,the melon,if you have no greenhouse,try growing it inside near a patio door,again with water holder,you can hand pollinate,