Yesterday Lucy the Puggle Dog and I spent some time working in our square foot garden. As you can see she is very interested in growing food. If there is one thing she loves it’s fresh vegetables {and biting!}.
I was only able to get a few lettuce seeds out of the packet before Lucy ran off with it. By the time I got the packet out of her mouth the remaining seeds were gone. It will be interesting to see where she “planted” them. I guess I’ll find out in a week or two when the seeds start popping up.
More of my favorite French Breakfast Radish seeds were planted.
The Walla Walla onions are doing great! I hope I’m not over crowding them with 5 planted in one square foot.
So far this whole square foot gardening thing is going pretty good. I have 18 squares planted and 14 left to go. I think I’ll plant tomatoes, beans and cucumbers and a few other seeds in the remaining square.
I must admit, it’s kind of fun planting a little of this and a little of that. I think it will be interesting to see how many pounds of food we can grow in just one 4×8 foot bed.
Have you tried square foot gardening before? Do you think I have too many different things planted? I’d love some advise.
Mavis
For more information, check out All New Square Foot Gardening. It is an amazon bestseller and the author, Mel Bartholomew is basically the king of square foot gardening.
Allison says
I have a square foot garden for the second year. I had 4 x 12 last year and added another set for a 4 x 20 this year. I love it! I planted all sorts of things last year and will go with what did best this year. We love radishes, so I planted some and will continue to plant every week so they mature all summer. I have started planting small, early veggies like spinach and radishes around the plants that take longer to mature like eggplant and zucchini. While those plants will get bigger and take over the area (more than one square foot is needed), the radishes and spinach will be ready to eat before they get to that point. I hope it works!
Your yard is awesome! I plan to add more each year as I have the money and I see how things go. I added blueberries and rasberries last year and hope to have strawberries and blackberries from the plants from the year before. Fruit trees are next and then more beds. I wish I could have chickens, but the HOA says no-no. We will keep working on them.
Grandma PattyB says
Allison, I used to plant my zucchini in the sq ft garden but it t’m ook over a whole 4×4 area! So I’m giving each zucchini plant it’s own large pot this year. It can get as big as it wants without crowding out anything else trying to grow there.
Grandma PattyB says
“it took over”…. sorry, I have a new lap top and I hit some key (still haven’t figured out what) and it bounces my curser all over the place… very annoying.
Joanne says
Grandma Patty B# – not plant related, but new laptop related; I just bought a new one & have had the same problem with the cursor jumping around all over the place .. turns out i was lightly touching the ‘mouse’ square just below the keyboard! lol Hope it helps 😀
christie says
happy earth day Mavis ! Starbucks is giving away free drinks if you bring your own container. I went and got an ice tea and lots of coffee grounds for the garden !
~ Christie
Elise says
I’m building my 2×5 square foot garden this week. I bought all the materials yesterday (except the compost I’m getting chicken compost from anAWESOME neighbor), and I’m going to build trellises around the entire little think, growing 2 tomatoes, string beans, zucchini, peas and pumpkin all vertically.
So now, my question is, do I put the $175 into my household budget, or my groceries budget? I know everything will last for years, so not too worried, just a little quandry.
I also stopped and picked up some wire fencing off the sidewalk to make potato towers! Not as tall as I would have purchased, but FREE!!! and lots of it…
Elise says
I’m building my 2×5 square foot garden this week. I bought all the materials yesterday (except the compost I’m getting chicken compost from an AWESOME neighbor), and I’m going to build trellises around the entire little think, growing 2 tomatoes, string beans, zucchini, peas and pumpkin all vertically.
So now, my question is, do I put the $175 into my household budget, or my groceries budget? I know everything will last for years, so not too worried, just a little quandry.
I also stopped and picked up a roll of used wire fencing off the sidewalk to make potato towers! Not as tall as I would have purchased, but FREE!!! and lots of it…
Tali says
Mavis,
I think it will be interesting if you could keep a tally for the square foot garden by it self like you do for your entire garden. it would be nice to see how much you can really produce from just a 1 bed of square garden.
Mavis says
I think it would be too. I plan on keeping a tally. 🙂
Grandma PattyB says
What I love about sq ft gardening… Usually a garden has rows and furrows. One has plants, one doesn’t. Sq ft gardening is only 4 ft wide by however long you want to make it so you can reach to the middle of it. Here’s the best part… you plant only rows, so to speak. Meaning, there are no furrows to waste.
So Mavis, I bet you can get twice as much produce from all of your others 4x? long beds. Without adding more garden space you can probably grow almost twice as much as you are planning to this year.
Barbara H says
I love that you will soon have “Lucy Lettuce” 😛
Jamie says
I am planting 4, 8×4 square foot raised beds this year. I am taking the lead from you on this and we r planning on weighing everything that comes out of it. I have started tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash and peppers in my basement and I can’t wait to get them in the ground. I usually just grow tomatoes and basil so this will be an exciting season for us! If it turns out well, I will send in pictures. Wish me luck! 🙂
Mavis says
Cool beans Jamie, send us your pictures! 🙂