Anyone Interested in a new forum: Square Foot Gardening?

Would love to see it added!

Hi there....Gymgirl, how embarassing is this? I am just now entering the age of digital photography, so I dont have pics to put out there. But we have our raised beds from a company we found online when we first moved to this property (NY state zone 6). Check www.raised-garden-beds.com. It is a beautiful website. We ordered 8 of them back then. Its been 7 years, and the beds, being that they are made from white cedar, are holding up well. I just ordered one more. Also, to get the most out of your garden space, check out all the info under the name "French intensive gardening"if you go into google. This method of garden planting goes great with raised beds. A lot of bang for the buck! I can't wait for the snow to melt...havent seen any of our gardens in months!

I followed Mel Bartholomew's new edition of SFG last year, complete with raised beds and a rather expensive soil mix (all that vermiculite!) I did not HAVE GREAT results; I would love to join the group and get suggestions. By the way, I just found Edward Smith's "Vegetable Gardener' Bible: he recommends a deep lasagna like soil prep (although I'll give Mel another try this year. What impresses me the most (I'm a Cornell/NYS Master Gardener) is that Smith cites the proper pH and NPK amounts for the most common veggies and herbs. Do you think these amendments/adjustments will make a substantial difference? Our soil here is mostly acidic clay.

I also want to pursue edibles in my "flower" beds. Does anyone have good ideas about this?

DRCAT - I did not have good results with Mel's square foot method, either. I found the soil drained too well and I was always having to water the beds.

I have kept the raised beds, but have mixed the native clay soil and coconut coir with the other ingredients. This season I have changed the width of each bed from 48" to 36" so I can more easily reach the center.

I now plant in rows rather than squares.

I looked up websites for "french intensive gardening" that lottabeds suggested, what a revelation! On the wesite http://www.endtimesreport.com/french_intensive_gardening.html they discuss capillary action, which could help you in your watering issues. I am going to pursue more articles and books on this type of gardening also.

westtngal

I'm with you on this one. Our idiot homeowners association doesn't allow veggie gardens in the front which is where everyone gets their sun because we have all these huge trees we're not allowed to cut down even if they're diseased.
I just cut down one, I know I'm going to get fined but I've had it with the thing. Anyway, now that I have a cleared front SW facing front yard (we had the yard regraded after we had some work done). Our landscape architect Joel http://fineearth.com/FEMain/ (sorry gotta give him a plug his work is so good) excels at cottage gardens and says he can work a veggie garden in to the design that they'll never know is there right in the front yard. I'd like to do it mostly raised bed with the beds matching the trim on the house. Of course I have to replant the dumb tree, but I can put in a fruiting tree so I can live with that.

That is a good idea about planting a fruit tree. I have a line of pecan trees down the dirve and the front of the house. Even though I do not have a homeonwers org. to worry about, I do try to make things pretty! A dwarf or semi-dwarf of something sounds good. Contact your county extension agent or go to their website, for the best selection for your area. I usually go to a very nice nursery near me, even though it is more expensive, I get very good advice about what does best and where to plant. Oh I forgot you already have an expert working for you. I am envious, I wish I could afford one. It probably would have saved us a lot of moneym time and trouble with our property. Here is a picture of my front with pond and waterfall.

To be honest I usually do all my own gardening including the planning etc. but I figured since I have him here anyway...

Now I really envy you your yard. I'd kill for a couple acres not to mention a pond. Add a Victorian and I'd never pull my car out of the driveway. I'd love to have one of those off the grid homestead things like in Mother Earth News. You know, a couple chickens, maybe a goat and a huge veggie garden. Oh well, what's meant is meant.

Be careful what you wish for? We wanted land when we bought this place almost 20 years ago. With over 8 acres, now my husband wishes he did not have so much to care for!

Be careful parking cars under Pecan trees. The weeping can damage the paint.

Ohhh...I'd LOVE to have pecans! YUM!!!

I'm too cheap/broke to buy the raised beds (although I'd LOVE to order them!) I am finding materials that I can recycle into raised beds. So far, I've found some unwanted cinder blocks and have a lead on some old bricks. I know one design I saw that guy who did the presentation that started all of this used pallets set on their sides. This idea is brilliant...you take 2-liter soda bottles, cut them in half and invert the top half inside the bottom half (the spout is sticking into what was the bottom of the bottle.) You pack the top part with a soil mixture and plant whatever you want in them. You can then nail them to the pallets in rows. Either design a watering system or just make sure the bottoms of the bottles have water in them and the top (with the soil and plant/seeds in them) will pull the water up and self-water. Brilliant and cheap!!! You can keep things like lettuce, spinach, green onions, radishes, etc. going all summer long and (unless you have those pesky jakolopes) the bunnies can't reach them!! As soon as I get the promised pix, I'll post.

By the way, I D-mailed Terry about this but she must not be available.

I sent the e-mail to the "admin" account a couple of days ago and have yet to hear back from them.

I'll annoy them until I get an answer about our new forum! :)

Wow that does sound cheap! The only problem with small containers here is how fast they can dry out in the heat. I have learned a little late how important a watering system can be. I have tried all kinds and finally hit on a few that work for me. I use the raintree system for my ornamentals. In my veggies I buy black 1/2 inch, and poke holes every so often then I put a female on each end, then connect it to a Y. I find this distributes the pressure more evenly. It really waters quickly, and does not plug up!

I'm in.

I have 8 Square Foot Gardens, that my husband built for me many years ago. I grow mainly veggies in them, but I usually have a least one of them (4' X 4' X 12") filled with overwintering plants that might be too small yet to set out into the garden as well as some I might have divided in the fall. They stay watered much better than plants in pots, but they are moved out once spring has arrived since I want all of them for my veggies.

Over 20 years ago, I started 100 tomato plants from seed and planted them all in the fenced garden. Well, the fence was a meager 3 or 4' high chicken wire. Once the tomatoes started coming in, the gophers got them from the bottom and the deer got them from the top. They did not even get them when they were ripe as there were many left on the ground, still green, with a huge bite mark in each.

Eventually, my husband finally built a decent fence and the square foot gardens. Now I can keep the tomatoes that I grow...or share them with others. I, at first, did see Mel on PBS and had a show - Square Foot Gardening, but did not follow all of his methods to the letter. Still a very good idea. It would be great to have a forum dedicated to this subject.

~ Evelyn

Evelyn, thanks for the pic. I was just laying out a diagram for one of my 4' x 8' raised beds and the marigold on four corners struck me as a great idea. I've never been able to figure out how to effectively use marigolds in my 60' x 100' garden and have had problems with cabbage butterflies on certain crops. Figure this would work well with the square foot garden layout. TYVM

Evelyn - that's a very nice set-up and a great photo.

Hello !
Is me or this thread is double posted in Beginner Vegetables and here?
But i'm in too for a new thread i have a lot of learning to do.
Thanks,
Emily

Here is the bed of basil...

Here are the tomatoes which I have placed close together, 9 to a bed.

This bed has 5 per 4' X 4'.....

I am getting ready to plant my early spring crops, and I still have not gotten my books! How are you supposed to plant peas and leaf crops?

I finished setting up bed number four today. Six more to go. I ache in places I didn't even know I had places!

So what's the status of things...DG Admin, stonewalling on a new forum???

I can't get to the square foot gardens right now....

After having a sunny January and the first half of February we now have snow.

Outside my window this morning...I think our "heat wave" is over...LOL!

I think Admin is waiting for us to decide on a name for our new forum. I think the name should capture the essence of the topic, and be easily recognizable to any newbies stumbling into or purposely looking for the discussion. And, I think it needs to definitely be named something other than "Square Foot Gardens," 'cause that is a trademarked, copyrighted term. We Earthbox growers ran into this problem when we got our own forum that we named "Self Contained Box Gardens," to steer clear of any name copyright infringement. Admin was happy with that choice.

So, how about we kick around some names for our forum, and submit to the admins so they can determine if it is a viable name choice?

I propose the following as names for our pseudo "Square Foot Raised Bed Gardens" forum:

►"French Intensive Raised Bed Gardens" (I don't think "French Intensive" is copyrighted..."
►"Intensive Growing Raised Bed Gardens"
►"Maximized Growing Raised Bed Gardens"

I think the sooner we come up with an acceptable name, the sooner we'll get our forum! ^^_^^

Linda

Gardening by the Square Foot?

I garden on steps (terraces) on the south side of a N. GA mountain. My garden is fairly large compared to most, but each step is long and narrow. I am neither into French gardening methods (as opposed to Spanish or Italian) or gardening by the square foot or in blocks. We grow flowers and herbs up the mountain slopes with our food. We also have fruit trees (apples and pears) along with blueberries. I have grown in boxes, bags, raised beds, blocks, rows and every other para mutation possible and can offer some advice and opinions.

I support the efforts of those trying to start a new forum dedicated to those who are space challenged, but anything that has to do with a gardening guru's books or philosophy, is not broad enough for me. Posters seem to favor a forum named for the specific type of garden or gardening method they prefer. IMO the common situation is maximizing a small space.

Maypop, I agree- I like something such as "maximizing growing space in small gardens"

So, how about
"Maximizing a Small Space"
or
"Small Space Gardening"?

I liked "Small Space" to begin with but think others did not agree. It is neither trademarked, copyrighted or conceptually pinched from any other specific garden methodology. Maximizing small space is an apt description of all the challenges mentioned. Space is a relative term. Gardeners tend to have limited space regardless of the size of their gardens. We are mostly a band of inveterate and incurable plant hoarders.

"MaximIzed Small Space Gardening"?

Linda ~

I noticed that GardenWeb has a forum entitled "square foot". (No caps..) That cannot be possibly trademarked.

~ Evelyn

Oh, I forgot! Here is the link: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/sqfoot/

And my mistake - it is called Square Foot Gardening not Square Foot Gardens if that makes any difference. I think that Mel would welcome the forums as he likes publicity.

This message was edited Feb 16, 2011 9:38 PM

I think the admins don't really wanna touch the proprietary name "Square Foot Gardening" in any form, with a "ten foot pole..."

We Earthbox growers agreed on the name "Self-Contained Box Gardens" and got our forum...

I'm liking "Maximized Small Space Gardening" more and more because the name encompasses whatever you personally define that small space to be, whether a porch step or the back forty!

The thrust of the forum will be to help gardeners maximize production in theIr "small" space.

Linda

What is the essence of square foot gardening???

Gardening without rows???

Small gardens in confined spaces???

"Intensive gardening" is a term frequently used to describe not only SFG but much older French gardening techniques and lots of methodologies in between.

We are reluctant to use the SFG term to name our forum because there is a lot of proprietary "stuff" around it (books, website, etc.). That presents two potential problems:

1. We don't want to wind up in a legal tangle in the future.

2. Even if Mr. Bartholomew welcomes the publicity, we generally don't create forums to tout one particular product or method, especially if it has been commercially "branded" (as in the example of the Earthboxes that Gymgirl so aptly pointed out :-).

Ok. Let's try again.

How about "Maximizing Raised Bed & Small Space Gardens"

I think such a forum title would encompass: the raised bed people, the small space people, the raised bed people with small spaces, the small space people who don't care about raised beds, the people who plant in neat little square blocks within a larger block, the people who plant helter skelter in a cemetary plot of dirt with no borders, the people with 40 acres who still consider that a "small space", the people with 1 to 100 raised beds, the people who grow flat on the ground, the people with just one hole in the ground, the people with one hole in the ground sitting on 40 acres, the people growing in a bucket, the people growing in planters and/or containers, the people growing in a swimming pool (and, yes, we do have at least one DGer who filled in a swimming pool to use as a garden...), the people planting up, up, up on trellises, the people who let stuff sprawl all over, the people gardening on a dime, the people with $$$$ to spend, spend, spend, the people feeding only one, the people trying to feed one hundred, the people who live to garden, the people who garden to live...

We, the people, who truly want to move this along and not spend forever deciding on a name. We know who we are, and what we want. We just want a place to hold our discussion and share our common ideas.

Can we decide on a name for this forum? ♥

I can live with "Maximizing..." however I really like the "Intensive Gardening" idea as that's what us people with raised beds are generally doing.

It seems though that a lot of people like the "Maximizing..." so why don't we go with that and get our forum up and going.

Yehudith

"Intensive Gardening in Raised Beds & Small Spaces"
"Maximizing Raised Bed & Small Space Gardens"


I can go for either of these...

Are we ready to vote?