Square Foot Gardening (Merged Thread)

njb286

Bunny200 wrote: »

Right I've built my bed, filled it with peat, soil improver & vermilicite, got the chicken manure on standby. Deceided what I'm going to grow, need to order the seeds from Alan Roman and I'm soooo excited! Hope something grows!

Bunny200 I'm with you. My beds are built. I've filled them with home made compost and general compost from Homebase (hope that will be OK), and a bit of top soil. Today I have planted mixed salad seeds (hoping for an Indian summer), cress (just cos I had some seeds in the garage), and Dwarf Beans to get me started.:hello:

I have raspberry bushes in another part of the garden that we're returned to grass so I need to move them. They're under a tree so are leafy but have not produced any flowers let alone raspberries. Don't know whether to sacrifice space in my beds for them. Would they grow in a pot? I know they die off in the winter but I don't want them to take over next summer.:think:

Lisa46

Good thread! We are just about to embark on SFG, so this is most helpful. Purchased the SFG book, used, from Amazon for 34p. The Link-a-Bord place is quite near to us so we got our beds from there. Now all we need to do is fill 'em with growing medium, which looks quite expensive. Anyway, here we go!

Bunny200

Planted my first seeds yesterday, spring onions and lettuce, mainly cos I can't wait til spring!! Hope they grow. The only problem I had was that since I prepared the bed, next doors cats had found the bed and deciced it was their new litter tray! Yuk! I had to dig out loads of poo so now I've covered the surfac with some netting to discourage them, was half expecting to find a kitty trapped in there this morning!!!! lol

geomot

If you are looking for cheap vermiculite or perlite track down your local cannabis growers shop - the sort of place that sells hydroponics equipment. They sell 100 litre bags of vermiculite or perlite for about £15.

I think they thought I was a drugs squad copper when I called in and bought 300 Litres and spent 15 minues looking around - I made sure I paid cash though - I didn't fancy explaining that entry on my credit card.

Steel_2

Bunny200 wrote: »

Planted my first seeds yesterday, spring onions and lettuce, mainly cos I can't wait til spring!! Hope they grow. The only problem I had was that since I prepared the bed, next doors cats had found the bed and deciced it was their new litter tray! Yuk! I had to dig out loads of poo so now I've covered the surfac with some netting to discourage them, was half expecting to find a kitty trapped in there this morning!!!! lol

I had that too when I did SFG. Horrible to see those big lumps next to something you're planning on eating.

I'm currently trying to find some photos to add to this thread of a square foot garden I kept when I was a tenant a few years ago Because I wasn't allowed to do anything other than maintain the existing garden, I had two 10ft by 2ft wooden troughs (about a foot deep) made with wheels and I could move them round the patio as I wanted. I grew some amazing stuff, including sweetcorn in one end that reached over six feet one boiling hot summer. I think that was back in 2003.

When I find them I'll post.

I was very naughty and did actually use peat in my mix with standard compost, sand, and blood, fish and bone fertiliser. I also watered religiously twice a day and started feeding them about six weeks after I planted them up.

I always had the best crops of turnips, carrots and parsnips from the troughs - I've never had that kind of success in normal soil. I found slightly shorter varieties of carrots and parsnips that worked well and they loved the free-draining mixture.

However, for the few years I did SFG I always turfed out the old soil (onto the flower beds) and put in new fresh every year. One year I decided to test what would happen if I simply took out some of the existing soil and replaced it with fresh and added some fertiliser, and the crops were definitely smaller and puny-looking compared to the other trough. I think the soil was so depleted by the intensive growing that there was hardly anything left for the next lot to grow in.

If you grow in containers rather than raised beds it might be something to think about....

Lisa46

Finally got round to planting the SFG yesterday. Spinach, baby turnip, winter lettuce, rocket, radish, mustard, land cress and we've popped a few carrots in just to see what happens! What a lovely weekend we had for gardening:T

Bunny200

I planted onion sets and garlic cloves in the garden today. Was a bit skeptical that 16 plants could successfully grow in that space but will give it a go. Has anyone else put 16 onions/garlics in 1 sq foot? How did it go?

RAS

Bunny

Am assuming this is at 3 inch spacing? Will produce smaller onions than if you did it at 4 inch spacing but should be OK.

kyssyn

silvercharming wrote: »

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.

These are called pallet collars. I got some free from a factory and have seen them in B&Q (for stacking stock, not for sale) so it's worth asking around. Originally I was going to use them for a SFG but I'm not sure how weather-resistant they'll be and I don't want them disintegrating after spending loads on the filling! My new plan is to use them for potatoes, I reckon that whenever they need earthed up I can add another collar and fill that up.

Also, if you're not happy about peat coir is supposed to be a reasonable alternative, there are often bricks of it for sale on eBay.

As for the compost, does anyone really go out and buy loads of different kinds to fill the beds? Any recommendations? A lot of composts I've bought have been quite dry and woody.

mardatha

I have a plot where my aviairies were, its 12ft by 12ft but is very rough ground, full of wrack, sand, big gravel,and stuff growing wild, mainly baby fruit bushes, mixed in with nettles & next doors compost heap that fell over into it. I want to grow our own veg this year and this is the only space I have.
I am ill and cant dig. My husband is ill and cant dig. I can blackmail sons into coming home to dig, but its exhausting & they dont always turn up . I was looking at containers for sq ft gardening and wondered if they might be viable . It would be £50 for two to begin with--it this going to be moneysaving ? and am I going to get that money back the first year ? Or am I better to lean on the sons ...:rolleyes: