Square Foot Planning - Opinions?

Hello there.

I love, love, love, love the concepts of square foot gardening. I also am in Houston where growing stuff year round is gleefully embraced.

I want to throw an idea set at you guys, in the hopes that someone can help me perhaps better plan the second bed.

Background of beds: Each bed started as a bunch of hay bales, has been layered with some manure and compost, then leaves and more hay, and finally, more compost and some regular soil. Yeah, I've got the lasagne from hell here. But the actual beds are very, very, very dark and full of worms, so I can probably grow almost anything in there now.

Each bed is about 4' wide by a rather large amount long. With a nice deep thing to hold everything in. It's awesome.

So, because I like to play, this is my layout for my first bed. Please note that it's not really to any scale known to man, but it kind of gives you an idea of how it works. It's also set with the short sides on east/west orientation, so those beans can grow something fierce. I'm showing it so you can see how much I am trying to cram into the space, but still have it all grow happy like. I figure here that the radishes will grow up a bit, then get covered by the summer squashes enough to stay cool enough to be productive, and then get pulled out before they are completely smothered by the plants.

Now, keeping in mind how tight this is, take a look at the second layout.

(To be continued...)

Now then, here's is my second bed, I think.

So far, all I have is the tomato plants in. They're happy, but I don't like all that extra space wasted. So I propose the carrots (a fast growing variety), and of course Marigolds to help drive away buggies.

Now the question.

For the second bed here, do you guys think that there is a better way to lay out some stuff around it to take advantage of all that space? Oh it's aligned so the long parts are east/west in direction, if that helps.

Just a note here. Your beds do not display the characteristics of "square foot gardening", they are simply raised beds. You may want to search youtube for a video on square foot gardening or search some more for people discussing it. The basic concept is to literally layout 1 foot squares and plant within those squares like a checkerboard and if you want more radishes than fit in one square you fill another (non-connected) square (as an example).

Oh, and vining veggies are either not grown via square foot gardening or are done so if they can be trellised. Of course beans, peas and cukes are one thing, but watermelons, other larger melons and squashes can be very difficult or impossible to have within a SFG.


This message was edited Mar 17, 2010 9:05 PM

Yeah, the watermelons are going into their own bed entirely, and then will still have to be corralled into place. I'm putting in a (relatively) fast growing variety this weekend - with yet more radishes to use the space between until they get to vining all out.

Basically, I'm trying to use the ideas that are in SFG - maximum growth in minimum space. And to do that, I'm looking for ideas that might help me figure out better ways to use said space. Hence the request for what can I do with the second bed that is better than the plan.

You're right though, I probably should not actually refer to it as SFG.

In a nutshell though, SFG is just another form of intensive gardening and that is what you are trying to do - maximize the yield in your space. I garden in the SF method in raised beds. I have 3 4x4 beds, 1 2x10 bed and 1 4x10 bed for a total of 108 sq ft. When you plant intensively you can plant things tighter/closer than planting in rows. For example the SFG book recommends 16 carrots/sq ft, but I have successfully planted them 2" apart instead of 3". If you have not read the new SFG book, see if your library has it. It has good info on spacing, although through trial and error I have adapted those recommendations to my own scenario. I successfully grow small varieties of watermelons and cantaloupes so that they can trail over the sides of the bed or be trellised to maximize space. Cucumbers and squash can be trellised as well. There is really nothing that I can't grow using the SF method with a little ingenuity. Be sure to put things in the middle of your beds that require less attention/maintenance - makes it easier on you. And taller plants/trellises on the north side of your bed to prevent them shading other plants too much (unless that is what you want to do). Living in Houston I assume you get pretty brutal summer sun, so take that into consideration when planting as well. If you do not have natural shade from houses or trees you will probably need to provide shade protection, especially for the tomatoes.

Hope this helps!

Kelly

basil grows very well near tomatoes and so do chives, onions,parsley and garlic. It may be too hot for you to grow the onions and parsley, the chives are perennial and here in zone 5 garlic plants in the fall, so I say do some basil in a row behind your carrots and by the time you pull your carrots the basil will be needing more room. you can keep it trimmed down so it doesn't overtake the space. Lisa

Thank you both. And the basil is brilliant! Thank you. Mmmmm..... Now I'm having dreams of large amounts of bruschetta.

The tomatoes I grew last year positively thrived in the sun - but I also watered them every day, so that might be why. This year, however, they are closer to the south fence, so they will get a bit of shade. I get to see how that works out! Woot!

Since we are talking about it, is there a companion for potatoes?

From Golden Harvest Organics...

POTATO: Companions for potatoes are bush bean, members of the cabbage family, carrot, celery, corn, dead nettle, flax, horseradish, marigold, peas, petunia, onion and Tagetes marigold. Protect them from scab by putting comfrey leaves in with your potato sets at planting time. Horseradish, planted at the corners of the potato patch, provides general protection. Don't plant these around potatoes: asparagus, cucumber, kohlrabi, parsnip, pumpkin, rutabaga, squash family, sunflower, turnip and fennel. Keep potatoes and tomatoes apart as they both can get early and late blight contaminating each other.

Oops - forgot the link...

http://www.ghorganics.com/page2.html



This message was edited Mar 18, 2010 10:37 AM

Regarding SFG vs. trying to maximize use of space in a raised bed and calling it SFG: The whole point of SFG is to use the foot squares to reverse the old idea of row spacing and to maximize every inch. Many people will also just stick close together rows into a raised bed and call that SFG as well, when it is not. I used to think maximizing space use was what SFG was too, but SFG is doing that using a very specific set of guidelines that squeezes out more dense use than anything else and makes for easily managed crop rotation...doing another way is not SFG and calling it that mis-educates people. I know, I used to be a mis-educated SF gardener. LOL Then I actually learned real SFG. In real SFG you get more space use than using close rows or designs as shown in this post and the other consideration, that I may have ineffectively mentioned, is the checkerboard pattern of planting where you use multiple unconnected squares for the same crops if you want and can easily put companions throughout (not just around the whole outside of a bed as many people do). SFG is just a completely different and more dense method than any other approach.

Do as you want, but I just wish people would not refer to non-SFG as SFG, I know I had to re-educate myself due to finding info online that was improperly being refereed to as SFG.

LocaKelly, I needed that link. I lost it recently so thank you!

k3n: I understand where you are coming from. And as one who prefers to be exact, I appreciate your correcting me on this.

I am very much in the learning process. Heck, it wasn't too long ago that I thought everything had to be put in rows and tilled in! DG and people who teach in here have done wonders for my look at things - give me time and I will be doing real SFG - not just space density.

I am glad you see what I'm saying. Good luck with your endeavors! :-)

You're welcome! They have some good info on companion planting.

i have done horseradish with potatoes and it does help. I have also put onions on the edges of the potatoe patch and it worked O.K. but the onions stayed quite small.

Hastur, here's an interactive link to help plan your garden, if you're not done yet.
http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KitchenGardenDesigner

Oh. My. Gods! That's one of the coolest things I have ever seen!

*goes and spends a couple hours with it*

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Thought you all would like it. I just happened on the site by accident. A happy accident, I think.

I AGREE! That site is sooooooooooooooooooooo cool!!!!

Now I have an idea of what to plant in my two raised beds!

And I'm getting ideas of what to do to modify my tomato bed and fill the empty one. Whee!

I garden using wide raised rows, planting intensively, so this really helps me too.