square foot gardening

has anyone tried this gardening method?

I've expanded my veggie garden this year and laid it out in the square foot method. Had a pile of compost to use up.

Have planted potatoes, beans, peas, carrots, beets, and tons of lettuces. (romaine, red romaine, deer tongue, mesclun, buttercrunch) cucumbers, zuchinni. So far, so good! Thrown in a few of my favourite annual flowers for cutting. Now to keep the dogs from tearing around in the garden........

What are/were your success stories? any dismal failures?

Hiya :)

Last year was my first year of square foot gardening... in fact, it was my first summer gardening ever! My success stories were the tomatoes, zuchinni and cukes. My challenges were battling the white moths against the broccoli and cauliflower. (I lost). This year I'm doing things a bit different... I realized that I shouldn't grow tomatoes next to each other, I'm skipping the cauliflower and broccoli, and instead am concentrating on heritage tomatoes that I wintersowed (along with some lettuce, onions, cukes, carrots, etc).

Good luck with your garden :)

Krystine
http://spaces.msn.com/krystinesblog/

Drivenbonkers
Why don't you dmail jagonjune as she has been doing this with lots of veggies and I know she has had some great success.
I have done corn and carrots which seem to work well. I have found that tomatoes don't as they don't like touching each other.
But you can still put one in every corner of other things.
Have fun!
Ann

will post pictures of this years veggie garden at the end of the week. everything is up and doing well. transplanted my corn today (6" tall presto). and the potatoes i am growing in the old water troughs with shavings are poking through. rhubarb taller than me already.

Has anyone applied this technique to a garden plot which you already have? I've thought about converting it into raised beds, but so far intertia has kept it a regular garden.

Ann

Ann
I almost have always square footed ( done in squares) my carrots as they seem to be fine with this , I have done corn in squres too as they polinate better in my small garden. I don't have raised beds just a regular plot that is flat. My squares are about 3'X3' . Now that I've explained that does it answer your question or did I miss it entirely.
Other Ann

I think that answers it. Might try carrots that way. How about bush beans? (I'm gonna grow them this year. Usually do pole beans). Don't do corn because the squirrels always harvest just before I'm ready to.

Ann

I have four raised beds that I do most of my gardening in. Not officially square foot gardening, but some of it would be close. I find single short rows of beans or peas are much easier to pick. These type of crops I plant around the edges. I never step in these beds. They are small enough for me to reach the center from all sides. Sometimes I lay a 2x8 board across, if I need to work more in the center. I still plant some crop in the traditional prairie garden way, like corn, potatoes, and tomatoes, but even they are usually grouped together, not in log rows.

I 'converted' my veggie garden from long rows to the blocks just this year, so far I REALLY like it. The pathways will always be pathways (set down newspapers, then last years maple leaves on top of that) The blocks were raised (raked the earth from the pathways) about 6 inches.

A black tarp on the ground this spring for 3 months killed the grass, so I doubled the size of the veggie garden. Used the newspaper/leaves to make paths, and used up my compost pile to make the raised beds.

There's another area between the greenhouse/compost pile/squash garden that I'm working on (killing grass, lol) will lay out that area as square foot too.

I'm just 'eyeballing' the distances (I'm a non conformist at heart, lol) but am very pleased with the garden. It's easy to reach into the beds from all sides, no stepping on the beds themselves. I'm watering using much less water, with better results (the romaine lettuces have NEVER looked so good!)

I think that no matter the size of the beds, the theory is valid.

In the past, the weeds seem to take over my gardens, but using this method I have managed to (so far, lol) keep the weeds out of the veggie garden.......

happy gardening!

Sue

Sue, do you have any pictures?

Ann

lol, have digital camera, I'll try to get out tonight and get a couple of pics!

It's still a work in progress!

Sue

here's the patch in front of the greenhouse (it's on the left side out of sight)

I've added another 6 blocks on the other side of the greenhouse.

The sticks seem to keep the three dogs from running through the garden. It's a work in progress, and needs a tidy up!

Sue

This message was edited May 30, 2006 12:11 PM

Good morning, everyone. Just read this thread. I do not know if you would call my method square foot gardening, but have all raised garden beds in vegetable garden, edged by old barn boards. beds vary in size, the largest being 19 x 4 and smallest 3 x 6. I like it this way. the soil is never compacted from walking on it. weeds are easier to get rid of. I left the paths grass, but that is becoming too much of a chore with constant trimming needed, so this year am starting to dig up the grass and make the paths pine bark chips. It will not only be easier to maintain, but will look a whole lot prettier, I believe. Have a lot of things planted, but more yet to do, if the weather ever settles down! BAM