Anyone Interested in a new forum: Square Foot Gardening?

Hey, Rick,
I'm all for edible landscaping, and would love to mix some companion flowers into my veggie garden. But, I believe the real interest is in getting the most veggie yields, since we're in the Vegetable Gardening forum...

Also, the Self-Contained Box Gardens and other forums address container gardening.

Hugs!

This message was edited Feb 19, 2011 11:16 PM

What about "High Yield Gardening" as a forum title?

Wow. I came to read this (whole) thread when I noticed all the "Maximizing" posts, one right after the other. I thought it was spamming at first and was a bit irritated by it. Like Rick said above it seemed like a sales pitch. However, after reading all the discussions ya'll have been going through, ideas created, ideas nixed, more discussion, etc, I realized the reasoning behind it is to generate interest and discussion threads along this topic, as Terry suggested, so they could eventually be easily moved into whatever-named forum is decided on. Good idea.

I like the "High Yield" suggestion above, much better than "maxing" though. Even though I do field gardening as well as boxed beds I'm a high yield gardener in both areas. And remember, whatever forum title is picked there is always the descriptive paragraph under the title that can brief the visitors on just what they can find within the forum, be it "working with boxed beds and window boxes to open fields or patios". That would help define the forum/title, eh?

Shoe (off to enjoy another day of WARM weather in Feb)

I sometimes thing there are way too many forums on Dave's Garden website especially when I visit Communities/Discussion Forums and see all the non garden related forums. It so unreal to the point that I have to wonder if I really belong here. Instead of adding forums some consolidation may be in order....just my $.02.

Some of those forums haven't been visited in a while and some in a long while. Most forums seem to be visited only by a handful of regulars that use the forum to visit and chit-chat. If we could eliminate the "he, she or it is so cute" or "thanks, ________ (some user id)" posts our website may only be about 1/3 its size in terms of threads and posts and easier to navigate when trying to find information about a specific topic. Some of our threads are so long and so off topic that they are waste of time to read.

I grew up on a farm and at around 20 years of age I married and moved to the suburbs on a 50 X 100 lot. You all know the saying, "you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy". I nearly went crazy on that small lot until I turned the entire back yard into a veggie garden.

Back then in the in the early 60's we called it simply "backyard gardening". That included dirt rows with furrows along each side and damed up on the ends for irrigation, raised beds, whiskey barrels cut in half, old wash tubs, old car tires and anything else we could find that would hold enough soil for roots to spread and grow.

We have what we need right here "Vegetable Gardening". It's already about vegetables and gardening. Gardening denotes small scale as opposed farming being large scale.

If you guys want to discuss maximizing veggie production in small spaces, raised beds or what ever then start a thread about that and see where it takes us. If you want to discuss the results of growing in over crowded conditions then start a thread on that topic. If you want to discuss how growing in over crowded conditions can result in high rates of disease, fungi, mildew, and in general sickly plants then start a thread about that.

OK, I may be venting just a little here, but I have read and reread my post a couple times and I'm sticking to the story. :)

I feel bad for SusieR, she started the thread,122 replies, and she's made 6.

In a diffrent thread it was suggested that I use irragation pipe to plant strawberries in. I searched the forums and didn't find any info but found elevated beds in Access Gardening. This is something I want to try.

I have tried these technics before with a flat bed. I'll just use this knowledge to experiment with my elevated bed.

Thanks, dmtom...I've had a busy week and am really glad to see this take a life of its own. That means a lot of us are interested, have information, and will keep this thread active with lots of new ideas and success stories!!! :)

My only thought on the name is in Corey's vein... I'd like to see something short and sweet that anyone can understand the idea of the topic by just looking at the name. I think that keeping "raised bed gardening" is a part that we need to keep. IMO, yield is implied. One doesn't plant a garden in order to get a poor return on the investment of time and care.

I started this in the Veggie Garden category because I looked through the forums and it just seemed to go best here. That said, I have absolutely NO intention of using this methodology for only veggies. I have a really cool idea using Castor bean plants in an octagonal raised bed with three other heirloom plants ringing it also in raised beds. I've seen other really cool uses of this methodology with small fruits (like strawberries and blueberries). Yields were GREAT and it was easier to harvest and keep the birds out.

So, that said, I don't think the name really matters as long as someone can get the idea of what we're discussing by just looking at the name.

Lets just go with" Raised Bed Gardening" then. A raised bed is a raised bed, it doesn't imply things like containers, growbags or window boxes. I don't think anyone is out to talk their eggplants into yielding only one fruit so we don't have to address that issue. Threads can be introduced covering "square foot" "french intensive" "hoof and mouth" what ever if that's the sort of raised bed that people are using/interested in. That's probably going to be easiest.

I think Gymgirl has made that decision already.

This message was edited Feb 20, 2011 1:21 PM

Goodie, I just found it

TX, while I understand your point I myself don't simply see Dave's Garden as a informational website. It's a social network to bring people who share a common interest. Sure lots of forums need to be cleared out and I'm sure that it's something Trish and the others have discussed but one of the few things that keeps me paying is the social aspect. If information gathering is your main goal I think I'd rather save the money and make a trip to my local library and extension office.

Me Too. My friends in this Garden helped keep me from going postal in the trying year I just had going through a divorce...

Just an FYI. Since the consensus seems to be that the terms "Maximizing" and/or "Maximum" suggest

No need to update links, that happens automatically if you are watching the thread. It was the first thing I noticed when I came in to cool off (yes, it's 75º here; hot!).

Thanks, GG. And I hope your back is better now...stay healthy.

Shoe

UberShoe!
I'm a little bummed 'cause I couldn't do anything I planned this weekend. But, after enough drugs, last evening I got out there and put together exactly ONE eBucket. Planted a small Bull's Heart tomato seedling in Tapla's container mix. I went 3:1:1, pine bark fines:peat (MG potting mix): perlite.

It was a strange medium, since I'm just used to the MG and/or Black Kow Composted manure. The perlite and PBF made the mix really, really light and airy. I can see how these components would provide great soil aeration as well as excellent drainage. I'll be modifying the mix depending on how much water it retains. I believe I learned that it's the peat component that controls the water retention, so, Tapla has advised adjusting between a ratio of 3:1:1 or 2:1:1.

Time will tell.

One tiny seedling............

But it was standing up saluting the morning sun, and NO transplant shock!

^^_^^

Hah! Congrats! Slow and steady will getcha there.

Yep, Al's mix is quite something. I've been using it for several years now, even in my nursery pots for my perennials/shrubs, etc and for repotting tomato seedlings up to 4" pots. I sometimes make it a 6:1:1 mix, sometimes add more perlite, less perlite, depending on the size of the p-fines or the needs of the plant. It works great!

Break be over...heading back out. I believe my pale skin may end up sunburnt today. In February?

Shoe

I think that, if chatting and socializing were not the norm, many people would drop out - especially people who contribute information.

Also, I have never seen any forum in any website that was able to "stay on topic" in the sense of not socializing with each other. There is always a conflict between thread police who want a forum to do nothing but provide them with ionformation they want as conveniently as possible, and the people who joined and contrbute because they enjoy participating, usually for more than one reason.

My theory is that, if you don't form a community with the people in a place, you don't go back to that place. Then there IS no place. Just my two cents.

I'm more of a "flower guy" than a "vegetable guy" anyway, so I'm off topic from birth.

Corey

And, see, Corey, I just sat here and read your whole off-topic post, and love, love, love that theory of yours (I might make a wall poster out of it...), so what does that make me?

Heheheh, ditto, GG, and I also liked the "off topic from birth" part! Grinnin' here! Love it!

Shoe

I know this is sidebar to the point of the thread, but in our early years, one of the discussions we had was around the question of what exactly was the purpose of DG? Was it to gather and communicate information, or to be a place to socialize? The answer was yes.

And indeed it is both: we have repositories of information (and opinion) within the Plant-, Bird- and BugFiles, Garden Watchdog, Bookworm, Botanary, Go Gardening, etc.

And then we have forums which are both serious and social, sometimes all at the same time.

That said, I do think we have some forums that are severely underused, and their status will be reviewed fairly soon. I doubt anyone will notice a drastic change in the layout of the main forums page, but hopefully we can tidy it up a bit and put a few forums on hiaitus...they can always be brought back later if/when there's a need.

Terry,
Any thought being given to the search engine? I know we have personal tags, and that works well, however, there have been times I wish I could just type in a phrase to find what I was looking for.

Just a thought.

That is a good point. You're meaning a Boolean search, where you can ask for an exact phrase by enclosing it in double quote marks?

Just lurking and scratching my head while busy sprouting seeds for our garden. Many good ideas as well as criticisms have been posted.

I'm still not clear on several points but the main one is this:
There seems to be a group that wants a forum specific to raised bed gardening. That selfsame group seems to be comprised of those that are followers of, or want to follow, the "square foot gardening" method.

Then there is another group that wants to be more inclusive, expansive and non-proprietary. They seem to be at the forefront of naming the forum but not what others want the forum to be about.

Then there is the group that is willing to have the inclusive name but wants to only have a forum relating to square foot methods in raised beds.

I am going back to my seeds and head scratching while remaining supportive and curious.
L

Laurel,
Check out the threads I started in a post above. You'll find what you're looking for. If it's not what you're looking for, let me know...

Laurel,

I think that the goal is to be INclusive but easily understood by people who read the name of the thread.

Sounds like my kind of forum.

(blush)

Thank you.

But those who know me well, if they heard me admit that I was "off-topic" would remind me that I was being too verbose again: really, I'm just "off".

The Pacific Northwest forum found a solution to threads drifting off-topic. A 100% effective solution. They named one thread "Appropos of Nothing" so that it had no topic, so nothing COULD be off-topic.

People looking for hard data don't go there much (I guess), even thought the thread does get into gardening topics now and again.

To be good neighbors, maybe we should be careful to move any posts that drift ONTO gardening subjects out of the big chat thread and into short data threads, so people could find the information more easily.

The funny thing is that the no-topic chat thread has grown and grown, until it is up to something like Volume 24.

To stay on topic: I learned to sprinkle vermiculite under and over my seeds from the SFG book, to protect against crusting. And I ALMOST learned from it not to plant more Bok Choy than I could possibly eat ... but since that is a form of "planning", the lesson has not really sunk in ALL the way yet.

Corey

I didn't know you could eat Bok Choy! I plant the purple BC among dill and Lycoris Radiata Red Spider lillies in a raised bed (25 gal black nursery pot). :)

You all know there is a forum right here on Dave's Garden, http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/backporch/all/ , dedicated to Chit Chat and socializing. :)

Really!!!! Bok Choy is soooo good. Its one of the work horses of Chinese greens and there are a lot of heirloom as well as hybrid varieties out there. Its also really really healthy for you. Let me get myself together and I'll post some recipies. By the way I can't resist since we're now off topic, the two sweeties are my babies (big one is 16 on Fri) we took the pic on our Chanukah cruise this Dec. He's my lily grower. Malki the little one works with me in my veggie garden. She can't get enough Gai Lan and Bok Choy.

I forgot to add since we're off topic anyway, the two older guys are not only holocost survivors, the one on the right was thrown into Aushwitz when he was 12, survived obviously and and came to the U.S. and now is a multimillionair and bankrolled the movie Shindlers List. He's a major philanthropist, but you'd never know it to meet him. The one on the left is from Hungary and was thrown in to the camps when he was 7 came here and is now a Rabbi in New York. He is one of the nicest people you could ever meet.

Yehudith,

Thanks for sharing...AMAZING movie. I think I lost 5lbs. crying through that one...

Since you said something about recipes (I like bok choy, too!) do you have a great (and easy) one for cinnamon babka? I have an amazing Jewish holiday cookbook but the recipe scares me a bit and I'm sick of paying $13/loaf plus shipping from Dean & Deluca! We're just finishing a Jewish apple cake (the layered one) I made over the weekend. Yum!!!! :)

Good morning, threadies...taking a quick tip toe thru the posts...Ok, I am inspired. I am adding bok choy to the garden this spring. RickCorey, I am on your page. It sure is fun to grow, pick, and eat out of the yard, but all the while, I am loving those flowers, flowers, FLOWERS!. The flowers will be here, there, and everywhere, between all the edibles. Some of the flowers ARE the edibles. Getting ready to go to work now. Again, Yehudith, you sure do know some hot info websites, glad you keep them coming. "the only dumb question is the one not asked". I love the info sharing, story telling, and the socializing combined. Bye.

I'm with you, lottabeds! I find a lot of beauty in mixing fruits, veggies, and FLOWERS!!!! ;)

Hello All!

Admin has started a poll for a name for the new forum. Please go here and cast your vote...

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1160543/

dito

1. If "Square Foot Gardening" is allowed, that's my vote.
1a. If "Square Foot Gardening" is NOT allowed, then my vote is for "High Yield Gardening".

2. OPEN TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC.

The Voting is now Over. Check out the New "High Yield Gardening" forum.

There is already a High Yield Gardening Forum listed.

but it started in 2001.