Hi Guys
Welcome back, to the GiiA blog, I hope you're enjoying it so far and are feeling informed and inspired. I'd love to hear from you if you have any tips, comments or suggestions.
For this posting I'd like to keep it fun and lighthearted, yet still inspiring.
So... square-foot gardening... it may sound a little goat's-wool hippy socks but to be honest, it's super hip and in it own way is contributing to a positive impact on our environment, plus it's so easy!
What is square foot gardening?
Well square foot gardening is:
* Fresh fruit, vegies, herbs and edible flowers all year round!
* suitable for everyone!
* simple and easy to learn
* straight forward,
* uses far less seeds and water
* not at all time consuming,
* far cheaper than conventional gardening methods
* quick and wonderful rewards (we are already harvesting fresh rocket everyday and I've just harvested the first few radishes, you can see the rest still growing in box #12, Yum!)
To get started
1. Assign or build a box/area of 1 x 1 meter, and fill with a good light soil (you can find various soil "recipes" online, but I simply used a couple layers of compost underneath and then a top layer of seed-raising (which you can buy from your local garden supply shop).
2. Divide this into 16 squares.
3. Then simply sow the right amount of seeds per square (see seed spacing info below)
4. Water and watch it all grow
5. Enjoy your fresh produce!
This is pretty much the basics.For those interested I highly recommend you take a quick look at this video
here which is a good summary.
Personally I find square foot garden a fantastic system and pretty much fool proof. I love, the speed and ease of it, once you have it up and running, and the fact that if you choose the right seeds the you can plant most seed straight into the ground (just keep with a plastic container, with air holes, which I make from recycled fruit containers see photo above) and then keep them covered until the seeds have sprouted and are doing well.
Then it's pretty much a matter of watering, pulling out the occasional weed (I havent had to do this yet) and letting nature do the rest!
Seed Spacing Info
Every plant needs a certain amount of space. For example, if you look at the photo above you'll notice box 3 (from top left-right) there are lots of plants, this rocket (lettuce) box and I went a little overboard with the seeds, but officially they reccoment planting about 16 seeds. and then in box 16 you'll notice only 4 plants, these are my Calendula flowers and they can be grown 4 plants per square. (you can find guides on how many plants per square on the various website listed below, in the various square foot gardening books available or from a simple google search.
Whats in my square foot garden?
You'll see my garden in the photo above. Because I have so many different seeds I decided to plant most of my herbs and lettuce plants in separate pots instead of in the square foot garden. So what I do have in there (from left to right, top to bottom) is:
1. Empty square (still trying to decide if I want to plant my coriander and chives which are in the plastic pot ontop of the sqaure.
2. 2x Cherry tomato plants (which don't need support poles or excessive pruning) and around it (still to come up) I sprinkeled a bunch of basil seeds, which grow and taste good with tomatoes.
3. Heaps of rocket leaves (I pick these as I need them and they keep growing back)
4. 2 x cucumber plants (which are hiding under the plastic bottle) and the big plant is a nasturtium plant which has edible leaves and flowers with a peppery taste.
5. 4x Bushbeans (like the cherry toms these also stay low to the ground and don't need support)
6. 4x Summer brocoli
7. 16x Spinach greens
8. 6x Kale mix
9. 8x (Half a box) Spring onions
10. 16x Beetroot
11. 16x Chard Mix
12. 16x Radish
13. 2x Marigolds (+2x self seeded rocket plants)
14. 8x Red Carrots & 8x Mini carrots
15. 16x Carrots (colour mix)
16. 4x Calendula
So for the moment thats about it! If you don't have access to a meter squared you can start with a single box or two on your window sill. (I also started like this with lettuce) You got to start somewhere.
There are so many reasons why gardening is great for our our health and the health of the planet and I have come to realize that square foot is the quickest and simplest way to achieve this. For me, the most important reward I gain through gardening, which ultimately provides me with further tools and inspiration to protect the environment, is the connection formed with nature and the appreciation of
life that comes with it.
* Some useful links *
* The website of
Mel Bartholomew who popularized square foot gardening in the 1980's.
*
My Square Foot Garden.net - a sweet and personal website with some nice tips
* A simple Google or You Tube search will help you find many more interesting sites!
* And finally, something I'm yet to try out, but it looks rather interesting, is the square-foot garden i-phone app!! Yes one really exists and you can find it
here!
