What Is Square Foot Gardening?
It’s a very simple, easy, and unique method of gardening that eliminates all of the hard work, heavy tools, and time-consuming chores of traditional, single-row gardening. Because of all these advantages, gardening can now be easily done by not only the very young, the very old and everyone in between. It adapts to any location in the world. Since we don’t dig up or try to improve the existing soil; we need no tools and no work. It’s the greenest of the green methods of gardening, because it uses only 20% of the space, 10% of the water, 5% of the seeds, and only 2% of the work of a traditional, single-row garden, yet produces over 100 % of the harvest.. Basically, the method involves building a shallow box that sets on the ground, removing any weeds or grass inside the box, laying down a weed cloth or landscape fabric inside the box, and then filling the box with a perfect soil mix of three all organic, all natural materials. A one foot grid is then laid on the soil surface, dividing i
Square Foot Gardening is a specific gardening system developed by an engineer named Mel Bartholemew after his early retirement. His method was popularized by a PBS TV series and his book (which, according to his website, is now the all-time best-selling gardening book), Square Foot Gardening. Today, he has “un-retired” and uses his time and resources to share Square Foot methods around the world– particularly in third-world and other needy communities, churches and missionary schools, community gardens, and anywhere else people request him! We like the guy. Square foot gardeners plant in blocks rather than rows, usually in raised beds, and reach in to tend the plants (often using raised beds with prepared soil) rather than walking on the soil they’re trying to plant. We plant each seed individually, rather than scattering seeds in long rows, and give them exactly the space they need (and no more) to make every inch of space in our gardens productive. As soon as one crop is harvested,
Square Foot Gardening is a technique of intensive planting developed by a retired civil engineer, Mel Bartholomew, in the 1970’s. Mel describes the technique in his book, Square Foot Gardening, as “a system of laying out, planting, and maintaining a productive, attractive garden in any amount of space. The garden is based on a grid of 1-foot by 1-foot squares, with single seeds or plants placed in carefully determined spacings.” Mel goes on to say, “The square foot system lets you make the most of your garden space to conserve the amount of water, soil conditioners, and labor needed to produce a maximum amount of food in that space. A square foot garden takes only one-fifth the space and work of a conventional single-row garden to produce the same harvest.” To find out more about Square Foot Gardening, please visit the Official Web Site of Square Foot Gardening and Mel Bartholomew, originator and author by clicking here: http://www.squarefootgardening.com SQUARE FOOT GARDENING REALLY D
The idea behind square foot gardening is that you can plant fruits, vegetables and flowers in raised beds, above infertile soil and even out of the reach of pets. Seeds are planted in 1X1 square foot plots, and when harvested a new plant is installed in the square. Raised beds can sit directly on the ground, or include a bottom layer and be placed on patios, decks or porches. Because of a bad back, and a dog with a propensity to dig up our new plants, we decided to build a 4×2 foot table-top design.
