Square-foot Gardening

Example of a square foot garden salsa bed, stolen from Pinterest



So, to start, I created a map of my garden and gridded it off.







My garden is surrounded by a fence and is well-lit, except for the very southern-most side, which buts-up against a shed that partially shades that area. I plan to build a little trough going around the fence to plant strawberries in.

Choosing Vegetables So, to start, I created a map of my garden and gridded it off.My garden is surrounded by a fence and is well-lit, except for the very southern-most side, which buts-up against a shed that partially shades that area. I plan to build a little trough going around the fence to plant strawberries in.

Next we had to select the vegetables we wanted to grow. I researched veggies that grow well in my hardiness zone (7a). If you aren't sure which hardiness zone you live in, check this out. I selected the vegetables I wanted and used a lot of spacing guides like this (I don't know who decided to name their company eWood, lol) to determine how many of each vegetable I could grow in each square foot.

Companion Planting

Plants are just like the rest of us, they have enemies and friends, and it's my responsibility as a gardener to make damn-sure my plants are with their friends.

Again, stolen from Pinterest

But I didn't just factor in my plant's social lives when I determined placement in my garden, I also planned for sun exposure. Since I don't have a lot of shade in my garden, I made sure to plant a lot of my shade-loving plants on the western side of taller vegetables. The afternoon sun is the hottest, most intense, and by that time my corn (which will be as high as an elephants eye) will cast beautiful shade on my broccoli and lettuce. Here's the final result:





Square Fence Aisle 1 Corn X 3 Petunias 2 Corn X 3 Chrysanthemum X 1 3 Bush Beans X 9 Pumpkin X 1 4 Corn X 3 Celery X 4 5 Corn X 3 Marigold X 1 6 Bush Beans X 9 Brocolli X 1 7 Corn X 3 Celery X 4 8 Corn X 3 Brocolli X 1 9 Bell peppers X 1 Brocolli X 1 10 Bell peppers X 1 Squash X 1 11 Basil X 1 Squash X 1 12 Peas X 8 Cauliflower X 1 13 Peas X 8 Lemongrass X 1 14 Chili pepper X 1 Cauliflower X 1 15 Eggplant X 1 Garlic X 8 16 Tomato X 1 Chrysanthemum X 1 17 Tomato X 1 Tomato X 1 18 Tomato X 1 Tomato X 1 19 Tomato X 1 Mint X 1 (walled) 20 Tomato X 1 Tomato X 1 21 Tomato X 1 Tomato X 1 22 Cherry Tomato X 1 Tomato X 1 23 Pumpkin X 1 Chrysanthemum X 1 24 Petunias Watermelon X 1 25 Broccoli X 1 Watermelon X 1 26 Broccoli X 1 Marigold X 1 27 Lettuce X 4 Lettuce X 4 28 Lettuce X 4 Zucchini X 2 29 Spinach X 9 Zucchini X 2 30 Lettuce X 4 Zucchini X 2 31 Lavender X 1 Zucchini X 2

Every plant is next to a friend and should get the appropriate amount of sunlight.

Timeline

Next, I needed to determine when I should be doing what. I followed several guides like this:

And realized - I'm late! I gotta get cracking, planting stuff all over my house by every south-facing window (foreshadowing for my next post). Here's my schedule:





Plant Quantity Plant Indoors Plant outdoors Harvest Corn 12 May June August Bush Beans 18 April-June 2 Weeks later July-October Bell peppers 2 March May September Basil 1 May June July-August Peas 16 Feb and Aug Mar, Sept May, November Jalapeno 1 May June August Eggplant 1 March May June Tomato 11 February May July Cherry Tomato 1 February May July Pumpkin 2 February April Oct Petunia 2 April Broccoli 5 February, August April, September May, November Lettuce 16 Mar, Aug Apr, Sept, May, Oct Spinach 9 Mar, Aug Apr, Sept, June, Nov Lavender 1 April Chrysanthemum 3 April Celery 4 Feb May Aug Marigold 2 April Squash 2 May Jul Oct Cauliflower 2 Feb, Aug Mar, Sept May, Nov Lemongrass 1 Mar April 1 foot tall Garlic 8 October or March 3/4 leaves are yellow Watermelon 2 April May August Zucchini 8 February May July Mint 3 Mar April June





We got hit by one last snowstorm, but now that it's all melting off I'm going to get to work setting out a physical grid in the garden.





I don't really know what I'm doing, so if I'm way off-base or you've got suggestions to improve my plans, please let me know in the comments before it's too late and I've planted my vegetables next to their mortal enemies!

I've been meticulously planning my garden. In my first post on this blog I shared a diagram I drew of my yard. Well, now you're going to get diagrams of diagrams. But first, the philosophy.My garden isn't huge, so I'd like to get as much yield as possible out of it. I've been reading about square foot gardening, and I decided I want to apply that method. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it's basically organizing your garden into square feet instead of rows. The result is that you can grow a shit-ton more in a smaller area. Down the road I'll build raised planters, but or now I'll just grid the ground off.