Has anyone figured out how much water ends up being absorbed by the surrounding ground after watering? I'm going to be using bagged soil with a 2 inch gravel drainage layer. My raised beds will be made from 1x12 boards with 3x3 corner blocks for stability. The ground beneath is hard-packed clay.

I was thinking of installing a collection pan under my planned raised bed to reroute the runoff to a storage tank so I can reuse what wasn't absorbed by the plants.

I live in Southern California zone 10a, which means Santa Ana winds during the winter and scorching heat during the summer.

Hello fellows!

I'm going to prepare my first mel's mix using 1/3 coco instead of peat. I was wondering if I should soak and strain it before placing it inside the measuring cup?

Thank you.

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I’d really like to start gardening with a raised bed, but the only part of my small yard big enough tends to have a bit of water pooling. Is there anything I can do to make it work there?

This bed is 4' x 4' x 11" - that should be around 16 cubic feet Mel's Mix. But, only 12 cubic feet filled it up this much. I was watering as I went about filling it up, so that shouldn't be an issue. Will Mel's Mix settle?

Also, ignore the fact that this is in the shade, it's about Winter here, this will get full sun in the summer.

Basically title, I live in a house adjacent to other ones (kind of like San Francisco), I've got a little terrace but no dirt, so I want to know what do you guys recommend to fill my raised beds without breaking the bank.

Thank you!

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I’m currently building my first raised bed (4’x4’). So I don’t have too much compost, I bought some bagged topsoil from my local garden center and realized it looks a lot like the finished compost I get from my compost share… small wood chips and very loose. Went to the website and it says it’s compost, bark fines, and soil, but doesn’t say how much of each. What should my plan be here? I got enough pure finished compost to fill half my remaining bed space, but I’m worried it will end up being too much compost overall. I know options like Mel’s mix use no topsoil, so maybe I could just use a little less of each and add peat or something else to keep the overall compost % down?

I have an 18x4 section of land on the side of my house that I want to build a square foot garden on. It's southern facing and has great soil. I want to know if this is a good starting point. Is this too much to take on for a first timer? Do these plants grow well together? Any tips or critiques are welcome

Very new to gardening. I've read the SFG book, but have a question around fertilizing/feeding. So, in the book it mentions refreshing the soil with a trowel full of compost while preparing for the next plant. But, what about perennials? How do those get fed?

I’ve been planning on homesteading for a while, and first thing I want to do is to turn half my backyard to a vegetable garden. Doing my homework I found out that most vegetables can only be harvested once, so my question is: is it possible to have a vegetable garden provide a continuous supply of food? If so, how? Or was it all just an exaggeration made by people?

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South Carolina hurricane aftermath. By spring, this should be all cleared up. And there will be some new sunny spots for raised bed gardening.

Yes, I am desperately looking on the bright side. Why do you ask?

I’m just getting in the game and am planning to start my first raised bed next spring. Is there any benefit setting up the bed this fall to be ready for the spring? Or is it wasted effort? I was hoping maybe the extra time could help it settle over the winter and get some worms/critters working the soil too. But at the expense of exposing my wood bed to the winter weather unnecessarily. Thanks!

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.

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?

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

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!