Home
List of Articles
Organic
Secrets
Gardeners, Discover The Easy Way To Save Money and Eat Healthy For
Life With Organic Secrets.
Home
Vegetable Gardening
A complete and practical guide to the planting and care of
vegetables, fruits and berries.
Your Garden
Be The Envy Of Your Friends And Neighbours, Save Time, Effort &
Money When You Discover How To Create The Ultimate Garden.
|
 |
Gardening In A Square Foot
If you haven’t heard of square foot gardening, you’re about to learn one of the most useful and versatile gardening techniques ever created. Conceived by Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening, the techniques have been enthusiastically adopted by gardeners all over the world. Square foot gardening is eminently suited for container gardening, patio and roof gardening, backyard gardening, organic gardening, herb gardens, vegetable gardens, flower gardens and more.
The basic concept is to start small – the unit of measure is the square foot. Although Bartholomew’s original square foot garden was four feet square, many schools, community gardens and home gardeners start even smaller – a couple of one square foot containers is plenty to get you started. According to Bartholomew though, a four square foot garden provides just enough harvest for one person.
How to Create A Square Foot Garden
Creating your own square foot garden is as easy as building (or buying) a box in which to garden. My own first square foot garden was a two square foot garden on the cement apron outside my back door in a city apartment. I used four square wicker plastic lined wicker wastebaskets bought for a dollar apiece at the All-for-a-Buck store. Any container that can hold 6-8” of dirt, and has drainage holes in the bottom will work. The biggest requirement for location is sun – choose a nice, sunny spot to place your garden.
Did I say dirt? Amend that. Bartholomew recommends what he calls ‘Mel’s mix’ instead of soil. Mix 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost to fill the squares of your box or container. A 10 pound bag of each was plenty to fill my little 2 square foot garden.
Choosing and Laying Out the Plants for Your Square Foot Garden
The most important factor in laying out your garden is the one-square-foot grid. You’ll be planting one type of plant in each square – how many of them depends on the recommended spacing between plants – which you’ll find on the back of the seed packets. Depending on the needs of the specific seedlings, you can plant 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants in each square. To break it down – if the recommendation on the seed packet is 1 foot apart, you can plant 1 in a square. If they need six inches between plants, you can plant 4. Two inches gives you room for 9 plants, and one inch spacing means you can fit 16 plants into one square foot.
My own first square foot garden was a spaghetti garden with this layout:
1 Basil Plant 4 Tomato plants
1 Oregano Plant 16 Onion plants
After You Harvest Your Square Foot Garden
Harvest the crop in each square foot when it’s ready, and continue harvesting until it’s no longer producing fruit/vegetables. At that point, uproot the plants in that square (use them for compost!), and plant another, different crop. By refilling and rotating the crops, you avoid depleting the natural nutrients of the soil, and keep every bit of space productive throughout an entire growing season.
About the Author
This article courtesy of http://www.floral-world.org
Written by: Shaan Randow
|
|
Recent Articles
How to Grow a Pineapple
The first thing you need to grow a pineapple is a pineapple. The pineapple (ananas comosus) is a bromeliad; in fact, one of the few in its family that is edible. However, the fruit of an unripe pineapple is poisonous and will irritate both your...
Mosquitoes in your yard? Try planting these.
Mosquitoes in Your Garden? Try Planting These!
If you are a serious gardener, you spend lots of time outdoors. And, for sure, you would rather be tending your plants than swatting mosquitoes.
While there are many things you can do to keep...
Mulch Your Flower Bulbs in the Fall for a Beautiful Spring Display
You are welcome to use this article on your website or In your newsletter as long as you reprint it as is, including the contact information at the end. Website URLs must be active links. You are welcome to use this article with an affiliate link, ...
American Gardener
The American Gardener provides over 150 pages of helpful gardening
how to information, and tips that will help you grow plants with
ease without them dying like they did on me!
Homeowners Guide To Landscaping
You can discover the joy and beauty of having a wonderfully
landscaped yard with the help of Homeowners Guide To Landscaping.
|