Easy Gardening: Square Foot Gardening
It’s a family joke that I am a terrible gardener. Actually, I think the neighbors are in on it too. But the truth is, gardening, as I was taught, is too complicated for me, and I end up getting overwhelmed, and then the garden fails.
Yet I love the taste of fresh fruits and veggies, so I keep doing it. And with the cuts in income, it is much cheaper to grow my own veggies.
About five years ago I ran across the square foot gardening method. I bought the book, studied it, and tried it out, just to have it fail again. But I recently ran across All New Square Foot Gardening
This new edition to the method simplifies everything greatly. The boxes are less deep, the soil mixture more manageable, and the charts easier to use.
If you are looking to put in a garden, check out this book. Here are the main points:
Less Wasted Space
Traditional gardening, taken from traditional farming, has you plant long rows of veggies spaced certain distances apart. These rows were also spaced a certain distance apart. Yet very little of this actual space was used to grow plants, and weeds crept in.
The Square Foot method uses much less space to get the same amount of crops. It can also be done in containers, making gardening accessible to those without yard space.
Less Wasted Planting
One thing my father taught me about gardening was you plant the seeds, then you wait until they come up, then you thin the seeds. Why throw away perfectly good plants? I never understood that.
The Square Foot method has you plant seeds at measured distances, so that thinning becomes unnecessary.
No Soil Remediation
People spend so much time and money trying to get their soil up to snuff. The only people I have ever seen with great soil are farmers who routinely apply cow manure to the fields. The rest of us struggle.
Where I live right now, the soil is a mixture of sand and clay like I’ve never seen before. Putting in a garden means remediating the soil, tilling, working, measuring. Way too much hassle.
The Square Foot method provides a perfect mixture to put in the beds for the gardens. Made out of easily-attainable materials, it mixes up quickly and contains nothing that will sprout on you.
No Weeding
I hate weeding. Not only because it is a lot of back-rending work, but because half the time I can’t tell what is a week and what isn’t, and end up ripping up my good plants.
The Square Foot method eliminates the guesswork. Since the soil used doesn’t contain weed seeds, one source has been eliminated. Since the plants are planted at specified intervals, you can figure out if there is a weed just by location.
Where I’m Going This Year
Last year I expanded to two square foot beds. One for veggies, the other for herbs. My herbs took off like I’ve never seen, and I had basil as tall as me. The lettuce, radishes and other goodies I got from the other bed were welcome additions to our table.
This year I will be making the soil mixture and putting it in a large garden bed. I will also be putting in grids on all my gardens, including the large bed, and making frames for netting to go over my blackberries and other bird-attracting crops.
Photo by hughroper
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