What is Square Foot Gardening?

The Square Foot Gardening method is a way to grow vegetables in a very small space.

Guiding Principles
There are several guiding principles that you follow when using the SFG method:

• Rather than planting seeds in traditional rows, you organize a raised garden bed in 12" squares. 
• You only sow as many seeds as you plan to harvest, and you plant in small batches every couple of weeks. You won't be overwhelmed with too much food at one time, and succession planting and crop rotation happen almost automatically.
• By sytematically amending the soil with compost, and routinely feeding your vegetables with a homemade compost "tea", your garden remains organic.  Pest and weed management is done naturally, no chemicals if at all possible.
• Think of plants as being small, medium, large, and extra large. The size of a mature crop at harvest time is what determines the amount of space you allow when sowing seeds.  1, 4, 9, or 16 seeds are sown per 12" square accordingly. This in turn maximizes how many plants of each crop are grown in a 12" square.  
• Because of this tight sowing pattern, there is virtually no room for weeds, and no wasted water.
• You only plant one seed per hole. That avoids a dilema that many gardeners face, unable to bring themselves to "thin" the seedlings and kill those innocent young lives, wishfully thinking that all those plants can avoid choking each other out.  

How much room do you need for all this?

The original square foot gardening book written back in 1981 suggested that one 4'x4' box (16 squares of 12" each) is enough garden space for one adult to enjoy a small dinner salad most evenings throughout a growing season.  And there is a planned method for increasing the number of 4'x4' boxes that you can expand into if needed.  You can always add more garden later, better to start small and learn the system before taking on too much.

The second edition of the book, published in 2005, had some major improvements to the system, including the suggestion to build raised garden beds.  Many people, including myself, had already been doing this for years.  The days of back breaking labor are over! The only garden tool you will ever use again is a 6" hand trowel if you construct the garden boxes to be reached from all accessible sides.  And speaking of accessibility, these garden boxes can be made into table top gardens with room for a wheelchair underneath. 

Where is this blog heading?

Here is a "map" that shows my initial thoughts of how I will organize my blog entries. I know that is a lot to chew on.  So think of today's blog post sort of like a table of contents.  Future blog entries will explain each of these facets in more detail, and we will cover many more topics as well. 

Please Comment Below

Are you a gardener?  Are you here in the desert Southwest? Do you currently use the SFG method?   Successess, failures?  Bring it.