Square Foot Gardening (Merged Thread)

ixwood

Vermiculite I guess is to hold water and maybe oxygen and nutrients as well? It's hollow and honeycomb like. Plants roots love it.

I'm going to try out SFG and will use the vermiculite. You only need it once and the amount we use will make no difference to production levels.

Anybody got any pics?

2cats1kid

I think I'm going to be giving this a whirl too, so I'll join you if I may.

I currently have some veggies planted in and some potato bags sitting on the plot that I have earmarked for it, so I have to wait to harvest those before I start in earnest, but I'm thinking about how to make my raised beds. I've found some that look from the photos to be about 6" deep - is this enough for SFG? There are some lovely ones about 12" deep that look really fab and I am coveting like heck, but they are more expensive. Would I get better yields from a deeper bed? If they will pay for the difference in price I will go for them as they really do look nice. I have some wood from an old garden bench kicking around, but it has been weather treated, so I am guessing I can't use that - is that right?

oldMcDonald

Jennio, thank you so much for the link to your blog, you have made any doubts I may have had completely vanish. Your pictures are really helpful and have given me lots of ideas, it looks like you are getting a lot of produce back from using this system. Have you found any problems along the way, or has it all been pretty simple?

Well done on the 10p cabbages from B&Q! They are huge!

I have added your blog to my bookmarks and will look in regularly, I think I'm going to [STRIKE]steal a lot of ideas from it [/STRIKE]be very inspired by it.

Thanks again for the link:)

JenniO

Hi

2cats1kid - I made 12" deep by layering 2 of my 6" boards on top of each other so yes it is double the cost but am using it for root vegetables mainly or dwarf trees/bushes that may really want to bury down roots. Also the deeper boxes for carrots. I only planted cabbages in the deep planter coz I didn't have any other space at the time.

OldMcDonald - thank you so much. You are too sweet. I made sure to companion plant if I could and add marigolds every now and then to the squares as a natural pest deflector. Also when the marigolds die, they will be added to the compost which is fab for it as it adds good nitrogen and phosphorus to the soil. Other than that, just black fly issues which I spray with a weak mixture of liquid soap and water. But that's it for issues really. Maybe would say my cabbage leaves are getting so big they are over taking some of the other veg in the next squares so next time I would plant 2 cabbages per square instead of 6 Good luck with your garden! It's not too late to think about winter lettuces and brassicas you know!

2cats1kid

Update - I did a bit of a tug on the garden bench and the whole end came away, so not worth making the beds with that or they would be rotted away in no time. Had a wander round Homebase and came away with enough stuff to make a 2m x 1m x 30cm bed, but I think for ease of access I'm going to do 1m x 1m beds with a walkway between them. I have room for 3 beds that size along the fence and then another 2 near the back door.

DD and I worked on it last night and have got 3 panels in, so one more to complete the first 1 x 1 bed, but it's hard going as the posts go in about a foot, and by the fence is all the builders rubble, so digging down that far is pretty tough.

I'm not sure I'm going to be putting the 1/3 vermiculite in as by my reckoning each bed will hold 300l and 100l of vermiculite is £20+ so that's over £100 just in vermiculite! Do you think I can get away with less (or even not use it?). I know without the mix, it's not true SFG, but it's going to take me years and years to recoup the outlay at this rate.

Larumbelle

Our beds are cool! They are wood, instead of nails the corners are attached with hinges so they can fold flat. The hinges also extend upwards so you can stack them if you need a deeper bed. They are kind of 'modular' I guess. They come from a friend of a friend who gives them out for nowt.

I used less vermiculite. One way to get it cheaper is to use insulation grade vermiculite from a builders' merchant but ONLY if it is certified 100% asbestos free.

2cats1kid

First bed completed and I just chucked in one little bag of vermiculite to show willing, and the rest compost. It does look pretty smart. I transferred my herbs to go round two sides of it, as the next bed to go in is where the herb wheel was, so the herbs have softened the edges a bit.

DD and I were pretty shattered by the time we'd finished that, so the next bed will have to wait for next weekend, weather permitting. Then I can start planning what to plant where.

I did a big prune of the rosemary bush, which is overhanging where bed # 2 is going, and I have used the cuttings to cover the first bed to stop the cats pooing in it.

2cats1kid

I think I'm talking to myself here LOL, but I'll keep going anyway.

Second bed is now in :T and the first bed is doing nicely.
I had to move some beetroot, broccoli and onions that were growing where the first bed was to go, so figured I'd sacrifice them if necessary, but we popped them back into the bed once finished (in square feet, of course!) and they are coming along well again. I've also put in a square of mizuna (free seeds with Grow Your Own mag) and a square of stir fry veg, plus moved my lettuces out of the grow bag (they were only weeny) and popped them into another couple of squares. They've now had a week in there and all seems well - all transplanted stuff is taking off, and the seeds have all come up.

The second bed went in today and I have done 4 squares of carrots, 3 of swedes (a little late for them, but I'll give it a whirl anyway) and 2 of turnip.

I was thinking in terms initially of 4 raised beds and crop rotation by whole bed, but that's going to mean a lot of time when some squares are out of action waiting for the whole bed to be empty to change from one type of veg to another, unless I can rotate square by square. Do you think that would be ok, or can lurgy migrate from square to square? So when I pulled the carrots, say, I then limed that square (can you even do that?) and left it a couple of months and then put cabbage or something in, even though maybe the swede might not be ready yet. Then gradually as the root crops were harvested that whole bed might become brassicas, but without the delay while I wait for things to get ready. (Timescales might not be right on those veg, but do you get me in principle?) What do other SFGers think?

Larumbelle

You're not talking to yourself. I'm listening

Well, rotation is one place where I don't really agree with Mel. He says that the chance of a square getting replanted with the same plant is remote, and I suppose it is, but lets face it, planting it in the next square instead of the same one is not going to make a lot of difference, and I think you do have to give it a little more thought than he makes out. I keep a note of what is in where and when, and although I don't rotate the whole bed exactly I do plan my squares so that I know what has gone in and what will go in next. I haven't had much trouble so far, but I have put extra beds in and started putting more beneficial flowers in so that everything has longer before rotations. I hope that makes some sense, I'm not thinking too well at the moment, I think my brain is frazzled from reading one too many reports on aminopyralid.

Larumbelle

Sorry for the double post but I forgot to say that someone showed me a really good way of constructing beds a couple of days ago. You screw rings into the end of your four panels then hook them over canes in each corner, so you can build higher/remove to make them lower, and store them flat if you need to. I'm going to try it. I have also finally succumbed to actually putting a grid on my beds. It does have a big psychological effect actually!