[milly molly]

Hi, I've been reading a bit about square foot gardening and it sounds great! anybody got first hand experience before i install raised beds in my front garden
I've got a bit of a tender back and am planning on raised  beds  about 30", hopefully that will be a good working height not to strain my back as being off work if i strain it isn't an option. I'm a cuddly 5'8"
I've got 2 areas about 16' square ish, planning on installing 1 or 2' wide beds on the circumference with a 3 or 4' square bed in the middle, this to be enclosed in rabbit netting   still to work out exactly how much room that will allow between the beds.
going to put weed membrane down first and either bark or stone on top
would like to grow brassicas, root veg, salad etc.
any input appreciated

Mandy

[doganjo]

Sounds fantastic - just what I need too - I'm an even more cuddly 5'5" with a bad back and bad knees.  Where did you hear about it?

[Rosemary]

Forth Valley Food Links / Forth Environmental Links (not sure about the website address) run courses in square foot gardening. I'm sure I saw something about it in their newsletter.

Re distance between beds - enough for a wheelbarrow and your lawnmower, if you have grass paths.

[milly molly]

Hi i was doing a google search for raised beds and it was one of the links, i sent away for the book and it looks good, but just not heard much about anyone on the forums doing it, its supposed to save wastage on growing excess veg in rows so no gluts, no weeding as u are using compost mixed to his formula, no thinning of seeds as he recomends just snipping out unwanted seedlings so no disturbance of roots. sounds the bizz.
just wondering if their is a catch if nobody's picked up on it?

linky http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

Rosemary, yep was thinking of wheelbarrow and room for my butt .

Mandy

[Wellieboots]

I gotta say it looks a bit "gimmikie" to me, like someone trying to sell books as everything else has been done (think the diet industry and its fads...no offence Milly ). Even if you have a 6ft x 3ft raised bed subdivided into approx 18 1" individual beds, weeds are no respectors of boundaries nor is the wind - so of course you will still have to weed, so that claim on the website is a bit misleading. Oh & it will cost more in raw materials to set it up as well.

"The grid is the unique feature that makes the whole system work so well. To show you why the grid is so important, do this little demonstration: Look at your 4 foot by 4 foot box with the grid on and imagine up to 16 different crops"

I can't help but add that this is an idea from the US........I'll stop there as I will end up in trouble if I say more Espec. re his growing formula nonsense

Best solution is make your growing space suit you & believe in (and use) successional planting of veg (which this alludes to) to spread the harvesting period & avoid a glut.

Rant over...plant to suit YOURSELF

[Sylvia]

My sister and I have tried this and, yes it works well if you only need to grow for yourself, i.e. one person.
We found that a 6ft. x 3ft. bed worked best as we are both five footers with not much reach. We used a frame of light wood to fit the bed and with a one square foot grid of wire to mark out the squares.
To be honest, you have to be a square foot sort of person to make a success of it, with an eye to detail etc. that we did not have, so that it got a bit of a fag, remembering what went where and how many carrot seeds to sow(individually) in a square foot(lots!) that we gave up and went back to our haphazard ways.
I think though that if you have only a small plot it would work well.

[milly molly]

thanks Sylvia, its only for the 2 of us. was thinking if i had the beds more organised i would be more inclined to follow thru. we have a huge garden which my mother and brother used to tend, me being more of an indoor gardener  , but since they have left its not faired well, OH started with good intensions, dug a bed over planted lots of seeds in seedboxed, but thats as far as it went really, fighting the chickens and rabbits is hard, the front garden area is rabbit profed and smallish so thought i could narrow the field down and hopefully get better results.

wellieboots i realise it is a bit gimmicky but was hoping if its proven by the some british gardeners might be worth a shot since conventional doesn't seem to be my bag at the mo bit overwhelmed with the whole thing really.

Mandy

[doganjo]

I'm with you on this Mandy.  Fluffy helped me plant seeds in Spring but the very low raised bed my son made for me was just a nuisance - too big to stretch over and too low for my old knees and back.  I had very little success with veg this year. It was kind of him to help but I'm going to try to find some flat pieces of wood and screw them together in smaller parcels and try this square foot idea instead.  I wonder of there's be anything suitable at the Council tip?  I had really raised beds at my last house and they were a big success - the dogs didn't get in them, nor the chooks and dooks.  The cat had to be shooed off though but nets worked to get rid of him!  And no grass and weeds creeping from the sides as there was gravel all round them.

[milly molly]

Hi Anne,
I got some scaffold boards of a chap near u, sellickboy on the forums, he might still have some.
been trying to persuade the OH to help me build the beds, but might have to look for a handyman to do it instead.
hopefully shouldn't look too naf with a coat of paint.

Mandy

[doganjo]

Hmm, I'll ask Chris, wonder where he got them.  He's a fair old bit from you, isn't he?  So you build the outsides with the scaffold boards, what do you make the inside frames with?

[milly molly]

he got loads from somewhere, he didn't say where, good lot usable but a lot he used for firewood. he kindly swapped me some for a couple of meat chooks.
was thinking they would be joined at the corners screwed to fence posts, thought 3 or 4 boards high.

mandy

[Gregg_C]

I have used my own method based upon "Square Foot Gardening" and "How to grow more vegetables".  I like it better than "normal" gardening.

Also read Jeavons' "How to grow more vegetables". The old edition can be bought for almost nothing.

http://product.half.ebay.com/How-to-Grow-More-Vegetables-than-You-Ever-Thought-Possible-on-Less-Land-than-You-Can-Imagine_W0QQtgZinfoQQprZ4693255

Jeavons promotes a similar method:  Raised beds. Space the plants closely so that when mature it's a wall-to-wall crop.  Very fertile growing beds.  Don't walk in the growing area.  But Jeavons requires double digging.  Too much work!  I do like Jeavons' triangular seed pattern for maximum density.

Don't believe Mel's rants about using exactly his mix.  You need a very fertile growing bed.  It doesn't matter how you get it.

I did not double dig as per the Jeavons' method, either.  In the autumn, I collected bagged leaves set out for trash.  I tilled in as many leaves and as much horse manure as I could manage.  The leaves and manure provided the extra material to raise the beds.  Through the autumn/winter/spring there was a worm population explosion.  The worms did the "double digging" so I didn't have to.  Don't have leaves or horse manure?  Use what you have. 

I really like the square foot method for plants where the conventional method is to plant way too many and then thin to the proper density.  I never thin properly.  Much better to plant the number I needed.

Mel goes on about the need for a grid.  Ignore that, too.  You need proper spacing so that the mature crop will fill the available space.  Squarish areas work better than rows, but it does not require Mel's grid.  As long as you plant in squarish areas that fill as the plants mature, imaginary grids work fine, contrary to what Mel says.

[milly molly]

thanks Greg, great to hear from someone actually using a similar system, sound  like u have taken the best of both methods and got a great result.
do u use any vemilicite to lighten and improve drainage? any chance of seeing some pictures?

Mandy

[Gregg_C]

more about my 'system'

I have used vermiculite only on houseplants and when starting seeds indoors.  My soil has always been enriched by leaves and manure - and grass as I will tell here.

I sprinkle grass clippings over a freshly planted area and add more each time I mow.  I grow sweet corn in rows.  It fills the available space when mature.  I pile lots of grass - 12" or so - between the rows, pulling it back from the corn plants so it does not touch them.  I pull and shred the corn stalks soon after harvest while they are green and till them into the area to prepare for late crops.  I tried just tilling in the stalks, but they don't get chopped up enough by the tiller (contrary to the Troy-bilt claims).  I try to shred and till in all of the plants as soon as harvest is complete.  Green plants and vines break down quickly.  Spoiled or damaged vegetables also get shredded and tilled.

I use grass mulch in lesser quantities over all the crops.  As soon as any crop sprouts, I start sprinkling grass clippings between the sprouts.  I don't put much on at a time, so I let it touch the plant if that is where it lands.  It takes a while to build up enough mulch to discourage the weeds.

I did not fill boxes to make my 'raised beds'.  I just added lots of stuff - leaves, manure & grass - to my garden which increased the volume of the soil in the garden area.  I simply pile up the excess.  At first it seems odd to plant the 'sides' of the bed.  I suppose that it still does, but less so.  Because I don't have a box, grass is constantly encroaching on the garden.   This turns out to be OK, because I like to constantly move the beds, which I could not do if they were boxed.  When I till in the spring, I enlarge the bed on one side and leave a strip on the other side untilled.  A bit of shovel work is required to remove the excess dirt from the untilled area to lower it to lawn level.

I arrived at my method partly because I had equipment - a Troy-bilt tiller and a pickup to haul leaves and manure.  I can bring in lots of organic material and work it in without excessive effort.  The worms do a great job of 'double-digging' to break up the deep soil and they enrich everything.  A large lawn provides plenty of grass clippings for mulch and for composting.  I move the compost pile each season, too, so that the soil beneath the compost heap enriched by leached nutrients becomes garden area the next year.

I guess that I have rambled on long enough.  Best of luck on developing your own personal system.

[northfifeduckling]

Sounds like you got naturally to the permaculture way, Gregg. I would love to do that but we do have the problem of couch grass and dock roots, so digging can't be helped. I tend to cover new areas in cardboard and grass over autumn and winter  before I plant potatoes.