Square foot gardening is a simple, easy way to plan your garden bed. Look at your garden one square foot at a time to choose your seeds and plants. The square foot gardening method was developed by Mel Bartholomew and has become a popular gardening method. Get started with square foot gardening by just choosing one garden bed and starting your plants with the square foot garden strategy. (Video #152)
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30 Comments
I am new to your channel, I have been searching for information on Square foot gardening, and I found it all here! Thank you so much for this video! 😊
Thank you for taking the time to explain and breakdown the book. I have it and I get so excited over the pictures that I can’t concentrate on the content lol This was very helpful, as with all your videos I’ve seen.
Ordered the book. I’m gonna try this. Right now I’m daunted by figuring which soil to get. I can’t seem to order fox farm or happy frog without paying $40 or more shipping charges. My Lowe’s basically only has miracle grow.
What about plants that don't like each other and those that cast shade?
I’m trying to do this right now and I am overwhelmed. I have 48 total squares and idk how many of each square how many plants to put in there. I even bought the book lol
The best summary of square foot gardening I've heard, very thorough and easy to follow. Thank you!!
Great video! Your explanations were very clear and concise, keep up the good work👍
This actually taught me a bit, Thanks! I'm a very new gardener.
Great job on this video.!! I remember watching Mel's PBS TV show when I was a teenager – I was reminiscing this afternoon and typed in his name, and eventually came upon YOUR video here – You did an awesome job describing the system and making gardening seem easy enough for anyone to do. Hats Off to ya. I'll be checking out more of your videos..!
I am confused by your beet distribution. Couldn't you just plant 16 beets in all the beet squares, eat half of them as baby beets, and thus thin them out, and let the rest grow to size? That way you could use one of the beet squares for another crop.
After several fails, I have finally found the best place in my little condo yard to grow a garden. My garden is small, only 63 square feet. I am planning to try a combination of square foot gardening, raised beds, vertical gardening, companion and succession planting. Not sure yet how to make it work so I can use every inch. I really appreciate your videos (I take notes).
Thank you for another very interesting video. I cannot duplicate this but it gives me hope that maybe I can put something in the ground this year. I use containers presently except for a few collards and garlic. I'm disabled so I'm somewhat limited in digging, carrying, etc. So it's baby steps. I'm not complaining. It's finding helpful, practical and fertile ideas that keep me going. I appreciate your genuine helpfulness and interest in the gardening community and for people in general. I'm so inspired by planning a garden that my brain has graph paper squares embedded in it. 😂😂😂 Thanks for all you do every day to make gardening an even greater joy.
I am a new gardener exploring square foot gardening. How do you add new compost after harvesting a square?
Thank you for explaining! I actually find SQF more confusing than looking at my garden and dumping the plants wherever I want but it's nice to understand our limitations.
Excellent tutorial. Square Foot Gardening well explained. Thank you.
Interesting tips but use of peat should be verboeten. Peat bogs should be used only for domestic fuel or ancient pagan sacrifices.
Best explanation of how to plant a basic garden i have ever heard
I have never seen a Square Foot Garden that looked good. That, 4×4 is enough for all the veggies you can eat, is absolutely goofy. Perfect soil content might keep everything alive in there, perfect soil is the hardest thing for newbies to learn.
first thing i learned about gardening, give the garden what it wants.. not what i want. Like worrying about waste and space, like engineers from New Jersey.
No offense to anyone. But if you want easy garden, its no till. Like Charles Dowding. That way you learn the soil first.. you dont need to dig into hardened old soil. And by year two, youll have a bonified garden.
Awesome stuff Scott!
Thank you. Straight forward. ☺️🌿
Will be doing my first Square Foot gardening this growing season. Have been wanting to do one for quite awhile. We now have constructed raised beds that are gopher proof. Great informative video!
What about companion planting in a square foot garden? What goes together well or even compliments each other without damaging their neighbors?
Hi Scott! Love the video, planning a 4×8 ft front yarden bed for this spring. I was thinking of how to do drip / soaker irrigation in it. Have you tried combining drip irrigation with square foot gardening? It seems so easy with rows but the grid makes it complex!
I use the square foot gardening design but I plant whatever I want in the spots, I don’t adhere to a rigid design. Works amazing.
Thank you Scott, you introduced folks to Mel Bartholomew. I am one of those, I love it, when a plan comes together. I'm going to use pvc pipe for my grid. With adapter for my hose that is idea I pick up from NC extension, they teach SFG
Thanks!
Hello @Gardener Scott,
I've been reading the latest edition of the Square Foot Gardening book. I love the book and want to start doing square foot gardening.
The author (and Mel Bartholomew in his own words) both state emphatically that you only need 6 inches of Mel's Mix to grow vegetables in a raised bed. Can you actually grow vegetables in just 6" of Mel's Mix? I find this hard to believe (particularly in a hot south Texas climate where I'm located). I'd like to be able to grow all but the largest vegetables (no pumpkins or non-determinate tomatoes for example).
I'd like to the fill a 12" bed as follows:
Bottom 6 inches with about a 3-1 ratio of Peat Moss and Composted Cow Manure.
Top 6 inches with Mel's Mix.
Would that suffice?
Would it be better to use 3" of Peat Moss and Composted Cow Manure and 9" of Mel's Mix?
Thanks again in advance for all of your help. 🙂
No need to refer to the book to determine spacing. Use the information on the seed packet and the “thin to” recommendation. If a seed packet says to thin to 4-6 inches, you can plant 4-9 seeds in a square. If it says to thin to 3’”, plant 16 per square. Plants with large leaves, like squash, can be planted in a corner so part of the plant drapes outside to bed. It only requires a 6” depth of Mel’s Mix, so if you have deeper beds just fill the bottom with top soil or sand, leaving enough room for 6” of Mel’s Mix and 1-2” for mulch. If you want long carrots, place a “top hat” on the one square that you will be planting 16 carrots. That can give you a 12” depth of Mel’s Mix for those few crops that need a greater depth. You don’t need the entire bed full of 12” of Mel’s Mix.
Can you use square foot gardening methoh for flower beds ?
Great video Gardner Scott is that raised bed you're sitting on are those 2 by 8 lumber?