Planting Tips

The grid for square foot gardening is very attractive, but it is when planting and maintaining the garden that the true function of the grid becomes apparent.  In his book, Mel Bartholomew describes how many of certain seeds or plants can be planted in each square.  For example, 1 tomato, 2 cucumber, 4 lettuce, 9 beans, 16 carrots.  In this blog post I'm going to walk through some of Mel's suggestions with my own pictures as samples.

After the initial construction of the square foot garden, it is good to let the Mel's Mix settle a bit.  Mine got rained on for a few days which helped.  After this I used a hand rake to loosen up the top few inches of the square I was planning to plant.

I then poke holes in the square where I'll be planting taking into consideration Mel's guidelines for number of plants per square.  Mel suggested drawing lines in the dirt before poking holes but I just found that disturbed the dirt and made it harder for me to figure out where to put my seed holes.

Then I put a seed in each hole.  The beauty of square foot gardening is that you don't have to waste seeds but doing a whole row of them and then thinning as they start sprouting.

For beans and peas it is recommended the seeds soak for 2 to 4 hours prior to planting.

Some seeds are very small (carrots in particular) and a tool for seeding such as this seeding spoon from Lee Valley is a very helpful implement.  Waste not, want not.

After the seeds are planted I gently cover the holes moving the soil and patting with my hands.

I label each square at the time it is planted.  These markers come in a 10 pack from Dollarama.  On the front side I indicate the name of the vegetable.

On the backside I indicate the date the square was planted.  In this case I was planting both Chantenay and Nantes carrots so I indicated the variety of carrot on the back for my reference.

 After the square is planted I water thoroughly.  Initially I use a watering can filled with sun-warmed water from a water barrel I keep next to the garden.  Once the seeds start sprouting I will use a plastic container (in my case a 7-11 plastic slurpee cup) to water the garden.  Watering each square manually allows you to admire each and every leaf as seeds start sprouting.

I planted my first batch of beans on May 29th.  On June 12th when I went out to plant the second batch, I already had a couple seedling showing their heads.

Lettuce also sprouted within 2 weeks.  Note: Because I planted only 4 seeds in this square it was very easy to identify a weed coming up where I knew nothing should be sprouting.  Overall SFG does have very few weeds and they are generally very easy to identify because of the planting grid.

 I used the cardboard trays from purchasing my bedding plants in my square foot garden.

With the side removed and then the main piece cut in half it is exactly the right dimensions to fit inside one of the squares in my grid.

 These squares serve several functions.  They keep the soil moist until seeds sprout.  (The cardboard should be removed a couple days before sprouting is expected.  It also keeps the area slightly warmer as it is an insulator.  And lastly it keeps away bird and critters who might be inclined to eat the seeds.  Overall, a great idea to help the germination process.  Thanks Mel!

I had intended to talk a bit about companion planting in this blog, but it's past midnight and I need my sleep.  So I'll address that in my next blog along with some of the ways I journal and keep track of the progress of my garden.

The Evolution: Functional and Beautiful

When we decided to move early this year, I knew we would have to find a place that would allow me to continue square foot gardening.  Though we looked at the property in March, I knew the backyard was south facing and a little larger than what I'd had before.  When the snow finally melted I discovered there would be a lot of work to do.  In this blog I will discuss how I conceptualized a Square Foot Garden for my new yard and how that concept became beautiful reality! 

 

So here's the new yard early in the Spring before it had even been mown and full of clutter.  I wanted my new SFG to be close to the backdoor where I could run down quickly to grab something fresh from the garden for supper and where it would get lots of sun.  I needed to have easy access on all sides.  I also wanted it to be more than just the plain box I had used in the previous year.

I made several drafts with detailed measurements.  There would be three boxes roughly 2' X 4' (8 squares in each box).  The middle box would be slightly deeper using 2 X 10 material (9 1/4" deep).  The other two boxes would be made from 2 X 8 material (7 1/4" deep).  I also chose to use 4 X 4 (actually 3 1/2")  fence post material to join each corner. The plan took into consideration width of the 1 X 1 nailing strips I'd be using for my square foot grid.

I had all my lumber pre-cut at Totem.  All together the wood, screws and L-brackets cost me about $50.  I attached the L-brackets to the wood where it would attach to the fence posts.  I opted to use L-brackets because I didn't want screws visible from the outside of the box.

Then I used a good quality exterior paint with primer on all my boards.  The L-brackets helped keep the painted boards off the ground.  I didn't bother painting the inside of the boards where the dirt would be.  I did however paint all the fence posts because they were pressure treated lumber and I didn't want any chemicals to leach into my Mel's Mix.

The painted wood was laid out on flat concrete and prepared for assembly.

My wonderful boyfriend Chris and my dad Les assembling the new box.

The new box was laid down in it's final resting place.  We use a level to make sure it was roughly level from side to side and front to back.  Some shims were used at one end to prop the box up a bit.  Then we use high quality weed barrier to line the boxes.  In the past I bought cheep landscape cloth from Dollarama but I could tell it was already disintegrating after only 1 season.  This time I paid a couple dollars more and bought high in stuff in bulk from Cobblestone Garden Centre and I know it will last.  We secured the cloth with small screws on the inside.

My mom Donna and dad Les drove down to Calgary over the May Long Weekend to help me assemble my new SFG.  A new garden requires time and effort and without their help I'm not sure I would have gotten it done in a single day.  Thank you!

The boxes filled up with Mel's Mix I moved over from my old house.  In this picture you can see the elevation of the middle box which I plan to use for plants requiring a little bit more depth.

The new grid laid in place.  I cut one foot lengths and used a melding plate to join them together with a 3/4" gap in between.  In that gap I laid down the four foot length that would bisect the middle.  This was a bit more effort than laths but I think it looks nicer and certainly took but a little less space.

The fence posts joining each corner were cut 3 inches taller than the depth of each box.

I found some plain white caps at Totem for about $1.50 which I used on the lower boxes.  On the upper box I used these lovely Tiffany glass caps which cost about $13 each at Home Depot.  For me my garden is a sanctuary and as I've mentioned the garden is not just functional but also beautiful.

 I ended up making a modification I hadn't anticipated after the boxes were built.  I found hundreds of huge slugs in my grass and rather than put down chemicals on a regular basis I found this copper mesh at Lee Valley which I stapled around the bottom of the box.  Slugs won't cross copper so I thought this was the best permanent and physical solution to dealing with the slugs.

So here's how the final product looks right after it was planted.  I was ecstatic when it was all done because I never imagined how perfectly my little sketch on graph paper would have turned out.  I am utterly delighted with my new Square Foot Garden and now have no regrets about leaving behind my old box.  This will provide me with hours of joy throughout many summers to come.

In my next blog I'll be sharing some tips about planting seeds and seedlings using the SFG method and discuss companion planting.

Snapshots of the first year

Today I'm going to share the remainder of the pictures from my first year square foot garden.  As before I'll post a few comments with each photo.

Picture taken right after the initial planting.  I used some seedlings: tomatoes, peppers, herbs, chives and flowers.  Flowers!  Yes, I planted marigolds and nasturtium to keep away the bugs and add colour to the garden.  Nasturtium flowers are also edible and added a nice peppery flavour to my salads.  I also planted beans, carrots, swiss chard and lettuce from seed.

I put a cage structure at the back to eventually support my bean plants.  Over the seeds that had not yet sprouted I laid a square of cardboard to help keep the soil moist and prevent any birds from taking off with my seeds.

I love this picture!  I took it low down right next to the garden so you can see the baby lettuce sprouting and the little tags I used for identifying my crops.  Those tags are expensive in a garden centre but you can pick them up cheap at any dollarama.  Of course I knew what my crops were but really liked the look of it and it was nice for any visitors to my garden to be able to identify the various vegetables.

Shortly after I planted my second crops of carrots and beans.  Second and third seedings ensure everything isn't harvestable at the same time and gives you fresh veggies for a longer period.

View from the other side with my pots of petunias in the foreground. 

Tomatoes!  They thrived in the SFG!  Tomatoes are heavy feeders and I wasn't sure how they'd do without fertilizer but based on the huge crop I harvested I don't think anyone could say I didn't have a bumper crop!

Jalapeno peppers.  I didn't get a great yield on the peppers which I attribute to the very short growing season in Calgary  In the future I'd make sure I use cloches for as long as possible when the plants were seedlings.  I'd also consider buying more developed seedling in the future. 

Crops are maturing.

Beautiful carrots fresh from the dirt.  The added advantage to using Mel's Mix is how easy it comes off root vegetables.  With only 16 carrots per square though I will defenitely be planting more square in the future!

|Yellow Beans.  I love fresh beans steamed with butter.  Unfortunately this year was not a good one for beans.  I had to re-seed after the first seeding produced a single plant.  Apparently I was not the exception though.  I think it was just a bad year for beans all around the province.

My harvested tomatoes.  This is what I got off my 4 tomato plants.  Of the 4 varieties I planted (Sub Artic Maxi, Oregon Spring, Early Girl and Roma) I like the yield and fruit best from the Early Girl and the Roma.

End of season after the first frost.  Just lettuce, chives and marigold left after the clean up.  I still had fresh lettuce for a few weeks as it's very frost tolerant.  It was slightly more bitter but we enjoyed it all the same.

|End of season.  At this end of the SFG all that remained was swiss chard and marigolds.

I made salsa and crushed tomatoes with my ripened tomatoes.

So that's how things went last year.  This year I've decided to double my carrots and beans planting and skip the peppers.  The planting is done and in my next blog I'll share with you the construction and planting of the new SFG boxes.

My first attempt with SFG

When I assembled my first box I documented my progress, so that's what I'm going to share in this blog.  Underneath each picture are some comments about what I was doing.  At the end I'll make some comments about mistakes I made or things I learned from my first attempts and what I would do differently.

Cleaned up the yard and started removing grass from the area under where the box will go.

Box constructed with 2 X 8 spruce.  Dimensions of the box is 4 feet by 8 feet.  I rotated the corners per the instructions in Mel's book (my bible).  All the grass has been removed from the inside and I made sure the box was level.

I laid landscaping cloth on the inside of the box to prevent grass and weeds from growing up through my precious dirt.   I left lots of room on all sides so I could easily get around the box for watering, weeding and maintenance. 

Mel's Mix!  Equal parts of peat moss, vermiculite and compost.  The vermiculite was very hard to find in large quantities.  I finally found 4 cu ft bags at Cobblestone Greenhouses in Calgary.  They ran about $50 and I used 2 to make up enough to fill my box.  I also used several kinds of compost as Mel recommends at least 5 kinds.  Altogether it cost me about $200 to build the box and make the Mel's Mix.  In future years I'd only need to add compost so it really is just the first year that's expensive.  I used a tarp to blend my Mel's Mix (per the book).  I did it in two separate batches since I had a lot of volume.

Mel says a garden without a grid isn't really a square foot garden.  For my grid I took a suggestion he made in his book and used wood laths which are pre-cut to 4 ft lengths.  I used melding plates in the middle to make it into an 8 ft length where needed and small L-brackets to attach the laths to the sides of the box.  I also used nuts and bolts at each intersection to hold it all together.

The assembled box full of Mel's Mix and ready for planting.  Not only is it functional but also very attractive in my opinion.  More pictures to come showing it all planted up and throughout harvest!

So now a few comments about what I learned.  First, a 2 X 6 piece of wood is only 5 1/4" wide, so if you're growing root crops it isn't very deep.  Mel recommends 2 X 6s but he also says the dirt should be at least 6" deep.  (Yeah, he contradicted himself a little bit.)  I recommend using at least 2 X 8s (7 1/4") or 2 X 10s (9 1/4") or even 2 X 12 (11 1/4") for construction.  Also, by rotating the corners you lose 1 1/2" (the depth of the wood) off your interior dimensions.  Then each lath is also 1 1/2" wide which means in my case that my squares ended up being about 10 1/2" square instead of true square feet.  In future blogs I'll explain how I modified my new box to get past this issue.  Ultimately I recommend getting out some graph paper and writing down measurements before buying wood and assembling a box.

Ok, so in my next blog I'll show some pictures from planting right through harvesting.

The function of this blog

A couple years ago I read the the book All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.  I was absolutely fasinated by the ideas he suggested for building garden boxes using a square foot grid and his special soiless 'Mel's mix' instead of dirt.  He explains how it is possible to use a very small space to have a huge crop of vegetables.

Last year I built my first square foot garden.  It was 4 feet by 8 feet and was extremely functional.  I was excited during the entire gardening season about how it worked.  It was so easy to water and I never had to fertilize because I had used Mel's mix.  This Spring I moved to a new townhouse and decided to leave my box behind.  I did however dig up all my Mel's mix because it was quite expensive to originally make.  I've now made a new box in my new backyard.

Once again I am very excited about gardening this year and in particular, my square foot garden for my vegetables.  In fact I even started working at a greenhouse over the summer to see what hints I might pick up from other people.  I really would like to share the progress of my square foot gardening, hence this blog.  Maybe I'll get some cool comments from people out there who share my enthusiasm!  In my next post I plan to share some pictures and comments about what I did last year.  After that I'll plan to share what's going on with this year's garden.  Maybe I can get more people interested in what I think is a truly phenomenal way to grow a vegetable garden!