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Square foot veggie gardening
Anyone manage their veggie gardens this way? Thoughts? Tips? Ideas? I just put in a 4'x4' raised bed this year, and planted it square foot style yesterday. It feels like there are a lot of plants in such a small area! Anyone care to share pictures of how you set yours up?
The back has tomatoes, beans and cucumbers, and I need to put up the trellising for them before they start getting big. Coming forward, there are a few peppers, some broccoli and then a bunch of lettuces in front. Oh, and one winter squash that will spread across the lettuce plots after the lettuce is done. Before this, I've always just done plants in pots on my deck, so I'm starting with just this one 4x4 square to see how I do. I've never grown lettuce, broccoli, beans or cucumbers before. I'd love to hear about your adventures with veggie gardening! I'm also looking for advice about some kind of bedding - mulch or straw or grass clippings - what do you use and to what result?
Re: Square foot veggie gardening
We did something similar last year in a raised bed. To be honest, based on my experience, you have way too many veggies in each square foot. I'm not criticizing you for doing it, because to be honest ours looked a bit like yours but had even fewer veggies in it. We planted 3 tomato plants, 3 green bean plants, 3 jalapeno pepper plants and 4 or 5 herbs (which took up no room).
What happened as the veggies grew is that they were so crowded the growing veggies didn't get enough sun. All 3 of the veggie types I mentioned grow downward, ie the vegetable forms underneath leaves. Picture yourself standing under a tree with a lot of leaves........you are in the shade. They expanded a LOT and we were disappointed that we didn't get more production, even with using soil with fertilizers in it.
Just based on your picture, I'd probably take out one of each type of vegetable and plant those in pots/containers, and spread out the ones that are left in the raised bed. We are going to plant MUCH less this year.
Good luck.
This is exactly what I am afraid of. My tomatoes, peppers and broccoli are all flying solo in their squares, and I'm counting on the beans and cukes climbing the trellis that I haven't put in yet. The lettuce will be done by mid-july when everything else is really getting huge. I will definitely keep your advice in mind as things start to grow, though, and I'll thin them out if I need to.
I was looking through the square foot gardening book that I got from the library, and it really blew my mind the number of plants that they recommend per square! 9 spinach in a single square foot seems way too close! Even the four lettuce per square that I did (which is what the book recommended) seems like too much in one square.
My herbs are all going in post and bowls on my deck for easier access right outside the kitchen. Thanks for the input!
Sugar & Spice