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Quote:
Originally Posted by OnTheBrink
I want to get it set up this weekend. A few questions:
How big do you do? How many "gardens"? How many total squares?
We have 3 beds that are 4' by 8', 2 that are 4' by 4', and 2 that are 1' by 4' (we have a trellis behind these), and we also have 2 tires that we use as well. So 136 squares plus the tires.
What do you plant? How many per square?
We plant tomatoes, peas, cukes, onions, summer squash, pumpkins, chard, beets, carrots, green beans, peas, and strawberries. I follow the guidelines in the SFG book for how much to plant per square.
What do you put under the grid? (between the soil and the ground)
Put down cardboard at the bottom of the bed and then did a mixture of sifted top soil (must not have been sifted well enough as we do have weeds in it), compost, peat moss, and vermiculite.
What do you use to mark off the squares?
I have no desire to have to work around actual square markers. I don't actually use the grid but instead just mark off with a trowel the squares as I am planting.
HTH
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Bobbi Jo
His appearance is the spitting image of his daddy but his will, heart, and attitude are the spitting image of his mama.
I want to get it set up this weekend. A few questions:
How big do you do? How many "gardens"? How many total squares?
We did a 4' x 4' garden last summer - so we had 16 squares.
What do you plant? How many per square?
We had: tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, beets, a couple varieties of beans, peas, brussel sprouts I don't remember what else. The radishes did best. Cucumbers were good, too. Some of our beans came up and the kids ate those, too. We have some weird issues with bugs here (moreso than anywhere else we have lived) and not much else came to fruit. At the square foot garden website, they have a formula to use to figure out how many you can plan in each square foot.
What do you put under the grid? (between the soil and the ground)
Nothing. We used 12" deep boards, and filled about 10" of soil. Our soil is super hard.
What do you use to mark off the squares?
We put nails every foot in the boards, then tied twine around them, making the grid that way. It worked just fine for us.
Thanks![/QUOTE]
If we were to do it again, I would make a couple of gardens or make a 2 or 3 x 8-12 foot garden, so that the taller and vining plants (cucumbers, tomatoes, peas) didn't shade out the shorter plants.
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We tried it this last year, as did my sil. Hers was much more successful then ours, but she's been gardening for years and this was our first attempt (plus we got a late start) so we felt pretty good with what we got. Dh is an instructions guy, so we bought the book and did it pretty much by the book. We did 3 4x4 beds and 1 2x8. So what's that, 64 total squares?
We did herbs in the 2x8. We had a mix of other things in the other beds. We had zucchini, cukes, and watermelons going vertically and then tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, beans, beets, and salad greens in the others.
We put our beds over the top of a graveled area in our yard (we're renting.) Seemed to work nicely for drainage and this way we can take our beds with us easily when we move. We got a late start, as noted, so we bought the Mel's Mix from our IFA rather then mixing our own. My sil mixed hers from scratch and had extra compost to put in and I think that's a lot of her reason for success.
We did twine to marl off squares, but my sil actually had grids of wood made by our dh. I really preferred hers and we're going to go that way next year.
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I've been thinking about checking out a book from the library on this, because I have very little space for a garden.
Anyone have pics you could share?
How big do you do? How many "gardens"? How many total squares?
What do you plant? How many per square?
What do you put under the grid? (between the soil and the ground)
What do you use to mark off the squares?
Thanks!
I have a space that's about 14' x 10', on the south side of the house. I have a path down the middle, & short paths through each side, with one 4'x4' garden at each corner. So I technically have 64 squares, but one corner has been reserved for pole bean tee pees. Maybe I'll get the weeds out of it & see what I can do this year, last time, something ate my baby bean sprouts.
I do radishes (9- 16/sq), lettuce and tomatoes (1/sq), did calendula once... My carrots never come up (9/sq). And it gets really hot here sometimes as early as June, so I stop going outside.
I didn't do boxes, I add a layer of my own compost (a couple of inches) every year or so & then grass mulch. i have to pull the mulch aside to plant, but it definitely cuts down on the weeds.
And we did grids of lath strips, staple gunned together. I like them because when I'm adding compost or mulch, it's easy peasy to pick them up & move them.
I should take some pix. I got out a couple of weeks ago & pulled all the weeds in the side I use the most, put down compost & mulch...
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I will be following this thread too and I would LOVE to see pics.
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I don't do this, but we tried container gardening last year. Tomatoes did the best. I'm going to be adventurous this year and try blueberries.
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I have 3 4'x8'x8". I stapled a wire layer to the bottom between the soil and the ground because i have a lot of subterranean rodents. I divided them with lines in the soil and not exactly even.
How big do you do? How many "gardens"? How many total squares?
I have two 2' by 8' beds. That gives us 32 squares. We have a small lot in a tract neighborhood so while we have room for more, I wanted to make sure I'd keep it up before dedicating a lot of the kids' play space to it.
What do you plant? How many per square?
I way over-planted last summer. To the point that it all had to be ripped out after yields were poor. I skipped fall/winter (which is a big planting season here in AZ) and I'm late for our spring planting. I have better luck with tomatoes in pots on the patio. I've successfully grown small watermelons, yellow squash, zukes, cukes, carrots, radishes, etc.
I'd recommend buying Mel's book and sticking to his recommendations on spacing. It seemed wasteful to me to plan so littler per square, but I really regretted not following the guidelines!
What do you put under the grid? (between the soil and the ground)
We put down weed-block cloth. I have worries about leaching from the ground below. I wasn't sure how to deal with that.
What do you use to mark off the squares?
I used heavy string last year....we have lathing to use this year. Hopefully dh will set that up for me this weekend.
One tip....if you're growing anything viney at all, put up some trellis or lattice on one side for those to climb, so they'll go up and not all over the adjacent squares.
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~shellie~
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How big do you do? How many "gardens"? How many total squares?
I had four 4'x4' gardens, 16 squares each. I used a mix of topsoil, peat moss, sand, and compost (no vermiculite).
What do you plant? How many per square?
A few herbs in each, marigolds throughout in corners.
tomatoes (3 plants each square)
squash
peas
peppers
strawberries
etc. (most of the etc. died - too wet last year)
I just followed the square foot guidelines for each on how many squares I used per plant. (Can't remember the exact details.)
What do you put under the grid? (between the soil and the ground)
I didn't have a barrier. The GA clay is hard and nearly impermeable.
What do you use to mark off the squares?
I used twine. NOT a good idea. The dog ran right through it, the twine rotted, and the staples that I used to fasten the pieces rusted. I also tried sticks. HAH. That was just plain silly. In the end I just laid the twine down as I planted, and then used the any twine that didn't rot to tie up the vines.
We are thinking of doing a 2x16 foot bed along the north side of the house. Any reason that wouldn't work?
I like the idea of nails and twine to mark it off.
The north side of the house is the shady side and vegetable gardens need full, all day sun (at least 6 hours full sun). If the garden is far enough away from the house it might work.
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