Discussion Board

Are there any Square Footers here?

Don't know if they are still around but last summer these people mentioned they garden this way: Fireshifter, Lacey, Lin, luvoatmeal and gail f. So I hope you get some response!

I am starting my first square foot garden! I have just leveled the spot and am building my frames today Can't wait to plant my veggies! Are you a pro at this or just looking into it?

Oh, I'm glad there are a few! It seems like the topic came up before but I couldn't remember if was on this board or somewhere else.

dkwig, I hope you like the SFG as much as I do! I had my first one when I lived in the city years ago on a postage stamp sized lot. I have since moved out of the city and have lots of land but not much of it has nice soil or sun. We do what we can!

I want to try bok choy this year but can't find my book. Does Mel give guidelines for bok choy planting?

Here in MI we are not ready for planting for a while yet, but I suppose I could put snow peas in. I always wanted to try putting them in when there was still snow on the ground.

unfortunately nothing on bok choy, nothing on mustard greens or asian greens. so...... the closest would maybe be swiss chard ?!?

spacing -4 per square foot for swiss chard

I also have a decent size yard, but not much for planting a garden because it slopes down to a canyon. I am hoping this works well. I will be planting 3 boxes, all 4 ft x 2t. next to a walkway.

What were your favorite veggies to grow?

btw I am in So. California, so it's time to plant!!

Oh, I'm all about tomatoes, baby! And peppers. I would like to grow enough Anaheims this year to roast and can in those little half pint jars.

Can you grow spring greens now? How do tomatoes do in So. Cal.?

Spring Greens! love them! I've had them in a pot since last month, romaine lettuce & swiss chard & arugula My herbs are also overflowing in a pot. Strawberries are also taking off! I have those in a strawberry pot in my flower garden.

Tomatoes and peppers do great here. I'm going to try several varieties in my SFG. I will try building one of those vertical frames that are in the book.

I also plan to put in zucchini and eggplant.

What part of Michigan are you in? I grew up there I remember my mom growing tomatoes there.

D

We are north of Lansing and west of Saginaw. Good tomato country!

I have a strawberry pot, but haven't used it for strawberries. I would like to start a strawberry patch this year. I have a spot that used to have a little wading pool in it, sunk into the ground. The surrounding area is sand, but if I put good black dirt in it the strawberries will do well.

HI! I am in Wisconsin and I just started building my square foot garden! I have the frame lined and filled with Mel's Mix now I need to build m grid.

Does anyone have expeirence building this on a slope? I would like to build 3 more but my yard is hilly.

This is my 1st veggie garden, do you find this helps you stay on track with Mcdougalling?

McV--I have lots of raised beds built on a slope. We used wider boards on the lower part in order to compensate for the slope and it worked out great. The tops of the beds are more or less level.

We really like having oodles of fresh veggies--we did this even before McDougalling, but I would say we appreciate the veggies MORE now that we follow this plan.

I have the book Square Foot Gardening. Hopefully in the next 8-10 weeks I'll be moving into my own home, and my plan is to put in 2 or 3 plots. If all works right I'll even have a greenhouse of some sort. Next year I would put in a few nut trees.

We've been square foot gardening for several years. Initially it was a lot of work and money (although my dh got most of the wood from the cull pile at Home Depot, which saved us a lot). Our boxes are 8" deep. Once we made the Mel's mix, it's so easy now--each spring my dh empties the boxes onto a tarp, we fill the box halfway w/compost, and cover w/Mel's mix. We started the boxes this way, too (bottom half compost, top half Mel's mix).

So each year we add in more compost, and in my mind anyways, since all the soil is getting mixed up, it's similar to rotation planting. Most often, the compost we use isn't totally composted yet, but by the end of summer it is.

We've also done a variation on this method using buckets w/drainage holes. I didn't like the idea of plants that take up more room, like tomatoes and cucumbers, being in my precious boxes. So in a large area of our yard we dug holes to put the buckets in, use the compost/Mel's mix as above, and have those plants in them. This way we didn't have to create a huge area of good soil. This year my dh added a large trellis along the back, so we'll see how that works for things like squash and cucumbers. And this will be the first time planting tomatoes in them, so I'm curious to see if my tomato plants are more manageable since they'll be further apart.

I think Mel's mix is one of the best ideas ever. When we recently came back from vacation (we hadn't planted anything yet, but our boxes were ready), they were covered w/weeds. No problem--they easily pulled out without any hassle.

I liked my square foot, but switched to what's called a "Garden Rack" last year. Soil's deeper because it uses larger plastic cement mixing tubs instead of the large square plot of soil.

I did "square foot" my rack last summer with great success and liked the flexibility of planting some of the deeper roots like carrots and such without them getting a flat bottom.

Wish I'd started my raised bed gardens earlier... way easier to weed when I'm not crawling on the ground.

Just my two cents,

Beth from Minnesota

We have planter boxes and 5 gallon pails sunk into the ground here too. Our yard is all sand so this works well, and I have the squash and cucumbers in the smaller buckets, they won't take up the space in the squares that way. The squares are planted with tomatoes this year. So much for my plans of growing bok choy and other stuff, I have had to run up north to help my parents so didn't get that stuff planted.

Lately we have had extensive critter damage, I have some peppers that I started from seed that I will probably lose because they have been dug up and replanted so many times! Also my pickles are not growing well, they apparently don't like being uprooted either. I'm starting to really dislike possums and raccoons.

And I thought I came up with an original idea!!

Have you grown bok choy before? Any tips? I have seeds but haven't planted them yet. Do you know if baby bok choy just young, regular bok choy?