Square foot gardening.

[jansman]

What do you grow in yours?

Sorry to be slow on the uptake...

My beds face North to South.On the North side of each is a trellis.( prevents shading) and up those are peas,beans and my wife's favourite ,marrows.Then it is a mix of onions,salad stuff,leeks,parsnips,carrots ,beetroot and perpetual spinach. Stuff we eat.I also grow a few marigolds and nasturtiums which are edible of course! Mind you,I make sure the Nasturtiums are on the edge as they do spread.Hope that helps.

[diamond lil]

Ok thanks. Potatoes I want, and some salad stuff. Kale I hate with a passion but want for soup. Leeks likewise. How hard are caulis to grow? My dad used to grow a ton of them but he was a much better gardener than me. And I'll try turnips again lol for the 3rd time. hopefully lucky.

[jansman]

Salad is easy.turnips and leeks too.Caulis I have NEVER succeeded with! However, if you do then it is one cauli per square foot section.

As for spuds, do you have any 12" pots or old buckets? Carve the bottom out to make it open ended,stand in the bed and press down well,and fill with compost half way.Plant the spud in this and fill with more compost as the leaves grow.Do this til you reach the top.this serves two purposes; 1. It gives the roots more depth and overall a better yield.2. It keeps the foliage above plants in the adjacent squares so they are not overwhelmed. I have gotten as much as 6lb per 12 inch bucket when I have bothered to give liquid comfrey feed.

[diamond lil]

I never ever knew you could feed tatties- thank you

[jansman]

If you don't have Comfrey then tomato feed will do the job.I suspect that you may have sheep nearby diamond lil.Some sheep droppings in a net ( an onion net?) Soaked in a bucket of water makes a good feed.Just make sure it gets watered down so it looks like weak tea before application. Oh yes,and both Comfrey and Sheep feed stinks!

[jansman]

What do you grow in yours?

Growing season now,so what's in mine right now?

Climbing peas ( Champion of England)
12x main crop spuds ( Marfona)
100 x garlic ( Solent White)
64 beetroot (Boltardy)
36 parsnip (The Student)
12 perpetual spinach
24 broad bean( The Sutton)
100 onion (Sturon)

The vacant squares are full of lettuce (Little Gem,All Year Round and Oak Leaf) and radish ( French Breakfast), and these will be cropped in time for sweetcorn and outdoor tomatoes to be planted in early June.

[pitchshifter]

Hi all, I've recently bought a house with a little garden! Now that we have a toddler I want to let her run around in most of it, but I'll probably be able to commandeer a small area for a little veg patch. We've always lived in a flat until now so I'm a complete novice when it comes to gardening, but I remembered this thread from a while back and thought square foot gardening might work well for us. Forgive my complete ignorance, but at the risk of sounding stupid, how many times can you harvest each square? For example say I plant 16 carrots in 1 square, does that mean I will get 16 carrots in total in 1 year, or do I plant and then harvest 16, and then plant and then harvest 16 more? I know I won't be able to start until the spring, but I'm all excited and would like to have the plot planned out in advance

[Yorkshire Andy]

Hi all, I've recently bought a house with a little garden! Now that we have a toddler I want to let her run around in most of it, but I'll probably be able to commandeer a small area for a little veg patch. We've always lived in a flat until now so I'm a complete novice when it comes to gardening, but I remembered this thread from a while back and thought square foot gardening might work well for us. Forgive my complete ignorance, but at the risk of sounding stupid, how many times can you harvest each square? For example say I plant 16 carrots in 1 square, does that mean I will get 16 carrots in total in 1 year, or do I plant and then harvest 16, and then plant and then harvest 16 more? I know I won't be able to start until the spring, but I'm all excited and would like to have the plot planned out in advance

Simple answer it depends what you plant

Eg lettuces plant several and pull bits off as and when needed

Radishes and parsnips grow in same square as parsnips grow slowly you harvest the radish much earlier


Tomatoes can have peppers grown next to them as peppers smaller plant

[jansman]

What Yorkshire Andy said^^ .If you do a search for ' Square Foot Gardening' by Mel Bartholomew in Amazon books,you will get a secondhand copy.Don't be tempted by the new version,its just a re- hash of the first one!

Also,I have a link that may be useful ( yes I know I use it a lot,but its so useful to new and experienced gardeners alike).

https://www.container-gardening-for-food.com

[Brambles]

I came aross this PDF some time ago.

http://thefoodproject.org/sites/default ... de2010.pdf

It really is a fantastic book and goes right back to basics, it also has pictures which as Jansman said, is worth a thousand words.