Square Foot Gardening Tips
Square foot gardening may be easier and more efficient, but the novice gardener can still benefit from a few tips and tricks. In our collection of square foot gardening tips, we look at soil and size and ask the question “Just how square does square have to be?” Square Foot Gardening Tips Of sunshine and soil and separating squares
You may not have a green thumb, but if you have a square foot you can grow a successful garden anyway. Square foot gardening is an efficient and easy method of vegetable gardening that will cut down on work while simultaneously improving results. If you’re planting a square foot garden for the first time, these square foot gardening tips will help you get growing.
Always look on the sunny side
Regardless of which gardening method is employed, all vegetable gardens need lots of sunshine. If you’re starting a square foot garden from scratch, choose a spot that will receive at least eight hours of sunlight every day. Well-drained soil is not as important in square foot gardening as it is in traditional gardening because you’re likely going to be importing a soil mix to fill your raised beds anyway.
Hollywood squares
The square foot gardening method consists of raised beds usually measuring 4 feet by 4 feet that are divided into grids of 16 boxes measuring one square foot each. A larger square foot garden can be achieved by placing additional 4 foot by 4 foot beds about 2 feet apart.
Plant different vegetables in each smaller square to take full advantage of the benefits of square foot gardening. To help you visualize this approach, try cutting old Venetian blinds down to size and crisscrossing them in each raised bed. Your square foot garden should resemble a checkerboard pattern.
The good earth
A common mix for filling raised beds in a square foot garden is 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. You may want to supplement these with coarse sand and leaf mold, as well as standard garden soil.
Remember that with square foot gardening, practically none of the water and fertilizer you provide will go to waste. Employ moderation when watering and feeding. There’s no need to walk on the soil in a square foot garden. Your plants will benefit from the increased oxygen available in the uncompacted soil.
Accommodating vegetables great and tall
Not every vegetable can grow in a space of one square foot. In the case of larger vegetables such as zucchinis and pumpkins, you may want to provide a separate growing area so they have room to spread out.
Other plants such as tomatoes or beans will need space to grow vertically. A simple way to accommodate that is to plant them at the corners of your square foot garden boxes. A trellis or stake can be attached to the corner of the box, providing support for the plant and avoiding interference with the other boxes.
Sizing things up
One of the great benefits of square foot gardening is how easily adaptable it is to your available space. You can start off slow with a 4 foot by 4 foot garden and add further blocks as time and space permits.
Just because you’re thinking inside the box doesn’t mean the box has to be square. If you have a small or odd-shaped yard, there’s no reason a square foot garden can’t be long and rectangular or any other shape that can be broken down into square foot boxes.
Crop rotation
A discovery you’ll make as you gain experience with square foot gardening is how easy crop rotation becomes. Quickly ripening vegetables will free up available squares for new seeds, providing successive yields all through the year — or at least until frost time.
With a large square foot garden you can also stagger your planting times so that new squares will constantly be opening up for “new business.”