Square Foot Gardening?

[Lombard]

Just received a book as a birthday gift, titled Square Foot Gardening. Started reading it, and found myself intrigued by the techniques outlined. It touts a method that uses no fertilizer, 100% yield in 1/5 the space. No doubt we will try one of the raised bed 4'X4' grids and give it a go this spring. My question to you gardeners out there is, have any of you heard of this gardening method, and are any of you using the prescribed methods in the book?

[skyarrow]

i have heard of it and i think it works well. there was a writeup in mother earth news about a guy that had a 100 Sq ft garden and it worked very well he made enough to save almost 800$-1000$ a year out of the 100Sq ft garden  i plan to make my first one this spring




sterling

[Pat B]

Mel Barthalamew(sp) has been preaching his Square Foot Gardening for years and it works well. Lots of good ideas in his book for sure.

[aero86]

i need to get the book.  100sq ft is about all i have in my backyard to use without making it small!  lol

[mullet]

 Here are mine. Planted the weekend before Thanksgiving

[jeff halfrack]

this  is  a  little off  the subject, but you  should see  how many tomatoes my  dad got  from  two plants  in an old rotten hay bail!!! we've grown peppers maters and zucinni  I think ten hat bails yielded as  much as a bigger regular garden  but  my  dad has a  GREEN thumb!!! jeffw

[Lombard]

Looks good Eddie. Are you getting any of this killing frost that we have been getting all week here in Alabama?

I've been engrossed in the book most of the day. It is a paradigm shift from the single row traditional garden that we have used since I was a kid.

[stickbender]

     Used to be a TV show on square foot gardening.

                                       Wayne

[HoBow]

I've seen the book and came close to getting it, but never have....perhaps I'll ask Santa about.

[mullet]

 Frost has been hit or miss so far,,miss here. We have another cold front coming in Monday, just in the low 30's for one day. I'm hoping we don't get freezes like last year.

[Hillbilly]

I built a small garden several years ago on that principle. It's amazing how much you can grow in a few raised beds when you don't use all your space for rows. My raised beds are about four-five feet wide (so that you can reach the center to weed and pick from each side) and maybe fifteen feet long, and raised about a foot. I grow as much or more stuff in that little garden than I used to in a much bigger conventional row garden. I double-dug the beds as deep as I could, mixed a bunch of compost and organic matter in with them, and I never use any fertilizer or pesticides on them-and stuff grows like crazy with almost no insect or disease problems. Best way to grow veggies IMO.

[Lombard]

Thanks for the input guys. I've read and understand the simple principles involved. More and more convinced, that this gardening method will produce the results that the author, Mel Bartholomew, claims it will. Got my compost pile working for me  already.

[Sparrow]

Yeah...Raised beds are the way to go. I like 18" height and 4' wide, long as you can go. Knocks out alot of the problems,(Weeds, bugs )  I watched square foot gardening on tv for years. Good stuff.  '  Frank

[n2huntn]

I have done raised beds for several years now with great success. I ferilize with organic material and mulch to keep down weeds.I have grown most everything and use the square foot principle as a guide line. The techniqe has been around for hundreds of years and is called intensive gardening. Google it. It goes well with companion planting also.
Jeff

[mullet]

 I'm hoping mine will make it through a low twenty degree night, tonite.