Find out how square foot gardening can work for your garden to grow more food!
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Ditch Gardening In Rows!
If you have a small garden space or you are wanting to try a new gardening technique for next season, this gardening method might be for you! I’m talking about square foot gardening and some questions you might have about this helpful gardening technique.
What is square foot gardening?
You divide up your garden bed into a grid measuring a square foot for each planting section. You can divide up any garden bed into square foot planting sections although a 4 ft by 4 ft garden bed is common that will give you 16 individual square foot planting sections in your grid.
Some gardeners use a grid made from plastic pipes, metal, wood or even string or twine and this is helpful as you are sowing seeds or planting and your plants are getting established. They even double up making a pipe irrigation system and planting grid so you save even more time.
At its core square foot gardening is a seed sowing and transplanting method that helps you maximize the space with intense planting.
Do you need a raised bed for square foot gardening?
No is the short answer. You can divide up any garden bed into square foot sections. But of course, there are numerous reasons why you might want a raised bed such as aesthetics, mobility issues, heavy clay or poorly draining soil, overly rocky soil are just a couple of examples for why gardeners use raised beds make of wood, stone or brick but it isn’t necessary. You can use the same technique on an in-ground garden bed.
The only caution I would raise is that you want to make sure you can comfortably reach each garden bed from either side without over-reaching.
Do you need to dig or till the soil?
Just as you would with any garden bed you will need to add nutrients back into the soil to replenish what is removed from harvesting. Whether or not you choose to dig is up to you as a gardener remember, this is your garden and you grow it the way you want to!
Gardeners who use this type of gardening technique use it on beds where they till things over each season and also in no-till gardening methods. A permanent grid on your garden bed will make it harder for you to add mulch, side dress with compost and weed so think about using a tape measure or making or buying seed planting templates instead of an on-the-garden bed grid.
Because this is an intensive gardening technique you are going to need to be on top of adding those nutrients back into your soil. You might need to add more compost or other soil amendments throughout the growing season to keep your soil fed and those nutrients available for your plants. It isn’t uncommon for square foot gardeners to be adding a handful or two of compost to a square foot section they just harvested and then plant in something else to use the space.
Sowing and Planting
Let’s talk about plant spacing for square foot gardening, and this is where you might want to grab a notebook or a garden journal to take some notes! Proper plant and seed sowing spacing are what gives you a maximized harvest. Get comfortable using a tape measure or a ruler with your planting or make or buy the reusable seeding templates to make things go a bit quicker.
Lots of plants per square foot!
16 plants per square foot is a 3” spacing in each direction. This gives you a square grid of 4 plants by 4 plants in your square foot of space. Carrots, radishes, and scallions or spring onions. Can be grown as 16 plants per square foot.
9 plants per square foot is where you have a 4” spacing so a square planting grid of 3 plants by 3 plants in your square foot. 9 plants per square foot is great for rocket or arugula, bush beans like the snap or wax beans but also drying bush beans. Leafy cut and come again lettuces, spinach, leeks, some varieties of corn and small turnips.
8 plants per square foot is also a 3” spacing but on a trellis. 4 plants are on one side of the trellis, and 4 plants are on the other side of the trellis. Peas, cowpeas or southern peas, pole beans, half runner or semi-runner pole beans like Old Dutch Half Runner or Old Dutch Mountaineer and Malabar spinach would work in this planting grid.
4 plants per square foot is where you get the bulk of your garden veggies and herbs. These are plants needing a 6” spacing so a square with 4 plants. So beets, turnips (if you like a bigger turnip), garlic, baby salad kales, lettuce, kohl rabi, shallots and onions, parsnips, baby leaf Swiss chard, sorrel, parsley, thyme, some varieties of corn and basil.
Fewer plants per square foot
1 plant per square foot is a 12” spacing. These are plants that need room to grow so cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, collards, celery, Brussels sprouts, eggplant, peppers, okra, kale, potatoes, sweet potatoes, heading lettuce like romaine, cos, or butterhead, sunflowers, trellised cucumbers.
Some plants need more space because of how they grow. So 1 plant per 2 square feet will comfortably accommodate a small vining squash or a non-trellised cucumber. Plants that like to sprawl!
1 plant per 4 square feet would be 1 melon or 1 tomato plant, 1 large vining squash.
1 plant per 9 square feet would be 1 bush squash, 1 zucchini or summer squash.
These are general guidelines for planting. You might find that smaller spacing works better for your garden as a result of how good your soil is. Or, you might need bigger spacing to reduce diseases due to your climate. Taking good notes in your garden journal will help you evaluate how things grew later on.
Can you use green manures in square foot gardening?
Yes you can! Just like with any garden where you plan to use green manures, think about the timing of sowing your green manure and making sure there’s enough time for it to grow, be cut, turned into the soil, and for it to break down to release those nutrients.
Take some time with your garden plan and seed starting schedule. Use them to plan your green manures before planting summer crops or adding green manures later in the season.
Pros of square foot gardening
Maximizing your space to get more vegetables and herbs is an obvious winner here. This gardening method really means that you can grow a lot of produce in a smaller space. Meaning this is great for square or rectangular containers as well as raised beds or in-ground gardens.
Intensive planting means less weeding!
Cons of square foot gardening
There are a couple of downsides to this gardening method.
- You need to take careful consideration of how plants grow to make sure you don’t shade out smaller plants growing behind them.
- The measuring and sowing or transplanting can be time-consuming and tedious during a time when there is a lot to do in the garden. A seed sowing tool will help save time.
- Careful placement of neighboring plants not only for shade but also for nutrient requirements and the amount of water needed.
- Crop rotation to reduce soil-borne pests and diseases.
What do you want to try growing using square-foot gardening? Let me know over in the Facebook group.
Dig In and Learn More
If this post has started ideas for your garden, be sure to check out these related posts and helpful books:
- Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Food Gardening Book
- The Ultimate Guide To Choosing The Right Seeds To Grow In Your Garden
- Landrace Gardening: How To Adapt Your Garden Plants To Local Conditions
- Grow More Food In The Space You Have With Intensive Gardening
- Landrace Gardening: Food Security through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination by Joseph Lofthouse
- Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening: Innovative Techniques for Growing Vegetables, Grains, and Perennial Food Crops with Minimal Fossil Fuel and Animal Inputs
What is your favorite way to grow in a square-foot garden? Let me know over in the Facebook group
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