who does sq. foot gardening?

pugznploons

I am reading All New Square Foot Gardening and I think we are going to build a couple of 4x4 garden boxes to maximize space in our small yard.  Wondering who else follows his method and if you built your own boxes!  It looks easy enough.

I am so excited to be able to fit more veggies in our backyard.   

finger_lakes09

I am doing a 4' bx 16' garden.

I will break it up into square feet...it will just be longer.

scooter028

I was just going to post something similar but also ask what the benefits of square foot gardening are.

nitaw

I picked up the newly revised sq ft gardening book too. I'm really excited about doing it this season. I'm not sure if I'll have enough space to do a 4 x 4 bed, so I may do two 3x3 beds. The area I'm planning on placing my beds is close to my house and is bordered by my dry creek bed.

Thanks to all the ladies who recommended it for reading!

pugznploons

we had an in-ground garden last summer that was about 6x11 and we put up fencing around due to the bunnies.  It made it so hard to maintain, especially the plants in the center and the back (it backed up to our shed).  By doing the 4x4 gardening we should be able to fit more plants into our garden and be able to better reach and maintain them.  

we will still have to fence it in though, but will make sure we have room within the fence to walk around the box.  damn bunnies 

Dr.Loretta

I did a 4x4 box the last 2 seasons, and we plan to add another one this year. They're super easy to put together.

leighzlou

We built our square foot garden boxes this past weekend. Building the boxes was really easy, it was mixing up the Mel's mix that was a PITA. I do not recommend trying to mix up 6 boxes worth at a time.  We made five 4x4 6" deep boxes and a 4x4 12" deep box for potatoes, carrots, and onions. It surrounds about half our back patio and is visible from the kitchen. We've since added the 3 missing grids. Here is a picture of the finished gardens. Cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower are going in this weekend!

 

Mrs. K in TX

I'm new to this board- I've lurked periodically, but never really posted anything.

I just picked this book up at Lowe's on Tuesday.  The lady at the garden area there recommended it, and I'm so in love with it.  I'm starting it this weekend with cold weather tolerant veggies, like spinach, chard, brocolli, cabbage, and brussel sprouts. 

It looks so easy.  We won't waste space, and we won't have to till or plow!  We helped my husband's grandmother till, plow, and plant her traditional garden a few years ago, and it was such hard work.  I'm super excited about this, and I've been telling everyone at work about it.

 

Mrs. K in TX

The one thing that bothers me about the Mel describes making the boxes is that the total width of each square is only 10 3/4 inches, not a full foot- because the boards are 2 inches wide, and the lath boards are 1 inch wide each, so that leaves 43 inches, not 48 inches.

I know that practically, it's probably not going to make a difference, but it kind of bothers the science/math person in my brain.  Obviously, other people haven't had a problem with it. 

On the front cover of the book, his boxes have a post on the edges.  I could do that to help make up for the space, but is it really necessary?  It might just complicate it...

Nebb

pugznploons:

we had an in-ground garden last summer that was about 6x11 and we put up fencing around due to the bunnies.  It made it so hard to maintain, especially the plants in the center and the back (it backed up to our shed).  By doing the 4x4 gardening we should be able to fit more plants into our garden and be able to better reach and maintain them.  

we will still have to fence it in though, but will make sure we have room within the fence to walk around the box.  damn bunnies 

I had the same problem with our garden of a similar size, it was hard to get to everything. How do you prepare the soil for smaller plots within framing after year 1? Can you rotatill or do you do it by hand?

pugznploons

knowing dh he would do it by hand, but since we are switching to raised beds that won't really be an issue as we are just going to set them on top of our old garden.  The bunnies chewed through the fence this winter (only to get into our....empty garden) so we are going to replace the fencing anyway, it was just cheap stuff we put around it anyway, nothing permanent.  

hoping4septimus

I have 2 in the ground beds. Both are next to the house. One is all berries (strawberries and raspberries) and the other is mostly herbs and tomatoes. Here are my SFGs

 

Here is a pic from the middle of the season

carrottopshaw

We do it at home (with an 8x4 box) and I do it at school with my students in four 4x4 boxes. Great success...super easy.