/r/SquareFootGardening
Square Foot Gardening (SFG) is one of the simplest things you will ever learn that will improve your life. This sub is for conversation around SFG specifically. Anyone interested in SFG should read the book "Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew. Currently in its third edition, it's the original resource on the SFG method, and remains the primary resource for SFG enthusiasts.
The Square Foot Gardening method is one of the simplest things you will ever learn that will improve your life.
It's a simple method for planting seeds in a specific way in a raised bed garden. It was popularized in the 1980's and has helped home gardeners across the world grow their own food. It's a foolproof way to enjoy a beautiful garden and plentiful harvest every year.
Frequently asked question:
HOW DO I CREATE A SQUARE FOOT GARDEN?
Read up on SFG here and here, and in the SFG book, available in libraries. You'll emerge with the following basic knowledge:
Step One
Build a raised planter box with interior dimensions in increments of one square foot. Example: two feet by four feet.
Step Two
Fill with potting soil. You'll blend a custom mix of equal parts peat moss, coarse vermiculite, and assorted brands of compost (or better, your own homemade compost).
Step Three
Add a grid and start planting! It’s that simple!
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/r/SquareFootGardening
43,353 Subscribers
Winter cover crop
Does anyone do a cover crop over the winter? If so, what do you recommend and what's the timing like? I'm right at first frost in my zone, is it too late?
Maybe I'm just missing it, but can't find anything about this in the book.
14:51 UTC
Second try after taking some planting advice. Zone 9B and going to be starting one bed at a time.
Side note, wow it’s crazy expensive to do Mel’s mix. I’m using peat moss, perlite, and 5 different composts and at this rate it’ll cost me about $250 a bed to fill. It’s worth it to me for the long term investment but that up front cost is hefty.
I’ll be starting with the bottom right bed in December then moving on counter clockwise as the weather gets warmer.
16:41 UTC
Deep raised bed - different soil on lower layer?
Hi everyone, a new square foot gardener here who has built a raised bed to get ready for next season.
I've got multiple sections of raised bed, some are 1 foot deep, and some are 2 feet deep.
I know that I want a foot of 'Mel's Mix' on the top of each of the two beds.
But for my deeper bed, is there any guidance on whether I can get away with a decent quality commercial garden soil on the bottom half before adding Mel's Mix to the top half?
Does this take away the advantage of good drainage qualities? Or is a good choice because it results in some cost savings by filling with slightly cheaper material?
13:48 UTC
Hoping for feedback for my planned garden. Want to start with one box at a time to make things easier
17:11 UTC
new gardener here. ihave 4 grow bags that i have filled with about 8 inches of soil on concrete, i sowed a big variety of seeds including beans, cucumbers, tomatoes , zuchinis, chillies and herbs randomly to see what will grow
02:42 UTC
Interested in feedback
This is my first garden I am working with limited space so these are two 3x8 I have a trellis set to be built for the north side box
Thanks for comments
14:39 UTC
Feedback welcome
Messing around and looking to spend the next couple of months learning more about gardening / the SFG method. Starting off with some indoor herb plants through the winter. Downloaded Planter and messed around with a potential garden for next year. Would love feedback or thoughts!
Note: looking to do herbs, veggies, and flowers together. Also tried to choose things we use/eat frequently!
03:18 UTC
First upcoming Spring Garden - NJ
My wife just recently moved to Nj (zone 6B) and are prepping for our first spring garden. I dabbled a bit this summer and fall with minor success with cucumbers, herbs, determinate tomatoes, and hopefully carrots/beets soon (initial germination went smooth)!
Attached is our plan for the spring, the south west is a fence line with my neighbor. The 2 bottom raised beds and the square one at the top were wood beds already in place when we bought the house (and the blueberries). The 2 middle beds are newly placed metal beds. We plan on adding a trellis/arch between the right most beds to act as the garden entrance.
Any thoughts or suggestions from the experts here?
13:48 UTC
Kakai pumpkins - 30 of them 🥴
I planted these kakai pumpkins on 7/28 with the plan to build a 6 ft trellis. I’m a bit behind building the trellis obviously. I’ve never grown pumpkins, wondering how bad it would be if I skipped the trellis at this point? They are a small variety. Anyone with experience that can weigh in?
21:17 UTC
New to gardening
I or anyone in my family has never grown a garden and I’m wanting try to grow one this coming year. Given it’s my first attempt I plan on starting small with a 4x4 raised bed. Just wanting some opinions/help as I don’t really have any clue as to what I’m doing. Thanks!
22:20 UTC
Fertilizer for fall vegetables??
I’m getting ready to plant my fall vegetable garden here in 10b, south Florida. I have the plan. I know when to plant each plant. I have a base of topsoil, compost, and peat moss (30% mix of each). But now I’m confused about fertilizer and when to fertilize. Below are my notes on plant types and fertilizer. Does this seem reasonable?
Garlic - silver skins soft neck - when planting a few weeks before and when leaves are 4-6” high Onion - yellow onion - when planting a few weeks before and when leaves are 4-6” high
Carrots - Nantes - apply extra compost, no fertilizer - seed sow and add shredded cardboard on top and water. October-Feb planting, can stagger planting by 2 week to get carrots at different times.
Radish - Cherry Belle Radish - compost no fertilizer when planted - when planting keep wet by adding shredded cardbarod on top and wet it
Beets - Detroit Dark Red - 5/10/10 1x a month
Tomatoes - beefsteak and heirloom Pink Brandywine - every 2 weeks with 5/10/10
Lettuce - Romaine - 4/4/4 when planting
Broccoli - Calabrese Broccoli - 5/10/10 when planting, 6-8” and 12-15”, and when they first form buds - bone meal for promoting flowering
Sugar Snap peas - plant late November - 4/4/4 before planting (no more unless stunted or slow to set flowers)
16:51 UTC
Help with my tomato placement!
I am debating between these two set ups keeping in mind the shadow the tomato will cast.. They are 4 foot tall determinate tomatoes. What would you do?
Edit - North is the corner by the bean trellis!
01:23 UTC
My Raised Beds
I scraped off the top 4 inches of an open 16x20' dirt plot, then layered in a 16x20 pine surround to contain the crushed gravel. The soil I scraped went into an open plot. The beds are 4x8', redwood, bare inside with four layers of Marine grade lacquer on the top and outer sides. Underneath, I put down cardboard to prevent weeds and encourage worms. 1/4 inch screen was stapled to the undersides of the boxes to keep critters from burrowing under. Additionally, I bracketed 1" PVC lengths inside the box so that I could slide 2x4' panels (with dowels) onto the beds to keep cats, dogs, kids and critters out. All this laid out beside my burn pile for easy discarding after harvest.
21:23 UTC
Three Sisters in 8x8 section
Hi Everybody, I just stumbled across SFG and I am excited!
I am preparing a garden for next spring, and one of the options that I am considering is to plant an 8x8 section exclusively with the Three Sisters (Corn, Pumpkin and Beans). I would like to know how I go about deciding what the right spacing is? I would really like to maximize yield, but I also don't want to make harvesting impossible or have the plants crowd each other out too much.
Any advice would be much appreciated :)
PS: I am not yet firm on any specific type of beans/pumpkin/corn. If this is step zero then please make some suggestions about what you think I should choose.
I am in Boise, Idaho, USA :)
01:40 UTC
What are these bugs in my grow bag?
I have spinach, green bunching onion & 1 tomato cutting planted in this grow bag.
14:37 UTC
Coconut coir for top soil?
I'm in the process of building raised beds for my garden next year and was wondering if coconut coir alone is suitable for top soil in my beds or if I should mix with perilite and organic soil? If I should make a mixture, what ratios should I use?
I am trying to be cost effective as possible, but also want my plants to thrive. Looking to do your standard veggies next year (lettuce, tomato, peppers, corn, radishes, carrots, etc) with a mix of herbs and flowers as well.
21:53 UTC
SAVED! Raised Bed gone to grass and root clumps
I didn't use one of my raised beds last year due to my travel schedule. Unfortunately it went to grass. In the spring I covered the [winter killed] grass with cardboard. Just this week I uncovered it.
I was able to pull the dead grass (and some live grass around the edges which saw sun.) When I turned some dirt over it was full of roots and clumps of roots (see pics).
The nursery told me to remove the soil and refill. I didn't want to go through the expense and headache, so I decided to take a different route. I dug down to the 1/4" Gopher screens underneath, turning the soil over. Then I used a 1/2" screen panel, which I use to keep critters and kids off the beds, as a makeshift 'sieve' to sift out the roots. Pour soil on top, tamp it with the rake to shake the soil through then remove the bad stuff. An added bonus was it helped me remove old labels, which had sunk into the soil, and even rocks >1/2". Here are some pics of the process.
Now I have loosely sifted soil. I'm going to mix in more compost and minerals. It will be all set for my garlic in October! Hoping a straw mat will keep grass from growing up through in the spring.
20:28 UTC
First Year Mistakes
So our first year didn't go so well and looking ahead for recommendations next year.
- Trellising
- Our solution this year did NOT work well. We bought a pack of six-foot-tall spiral stakes from HD, and thought these would work. They were nowhere near tall enough for our indeterminate tomatoes causing them to fall over and the branches to break. Cucumbers went wild climbing all over everything else and our pepper plants suffered and are only 8 inches tall.
- Thinking about getting 10ft 3/4inch PVC pile and basically building an upside-down U frame for next year. Securing to the raised bed with brackets and screws. What type of mesh would you recommend for the cucumbers to be able to grab onto easily? Will probably be building the same for the tomatoes and using twine w/ those tomato clips on amazon to child the branches up better.
- Sweet potatoes
- Again the vines went EVERYWHERE not sure if there is a way to control this or what we should do.
- Fertilization
- Outing myself this year but we didn't do any of this and just planted HD seedlings right into Kellogg Organic Raised Bed Soil
- Would like to use an organic foliar fertilizer next year to make it easy just to spray onto the leaves daily but need recommendations on brands/products. We will be getting compost and mushroom soil from our city's free composting program in the fall once we pull the plants out at the end of the growing season.
19:36 UTC
Raised bed construction advice
Hi everyone.
I'm planning to build a 40cm tall raised bed. I have: 4 2400mm x 200mm x 100mm sleepers 2 1200mm x 200mm x 100mm sleepers.
I don't really want to cut the sleepers as they are treated.
Is there any reason I should not add 100mm x 100mm corner posts as part of the shape which would mean the bed could be 1200 x 2400 or pretty close to 4ft x 8ft? I would secure these into adjacent posts with 150mm sleeper bolts.
Any other arrangement has me at 3.5x8ft or 4x7.2ft etc. and Id like it to be a cleaner measurement for SFG.
Thanks all!
22:16 UTC
Garden Layout Feedback
Looking at a 4x8 raised garden bed. This is my plan for full sun in Florida “winter”. Any feedback appreciated! Is it too crowded? Can I sneak anything else in there (herbs)? Thank you!
17:06 UTC