It’s not just another raised-bed garden, although the square foot garden boxes are raised beds. The original idea in square foot gardening (my apologies to Mel Bartholomew, author of the Square Foot Gardening books, if it was his unique idea to have raised bed gardens) is the precise seeding of the beds within a square foot allotment of soil.
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| Square foot garden beds for sale at the store in Columbia |
After you create the square foot garden bed, which can be of any length, but usually not more than two feet wide so that the gardener can reach easily across the bed without stepping on the soil, you lay a wooden grid across the soil. Each square in the grid measures 12 inches by 12 inches. Into the square foot, you place seeds or transplants spaced precisely in accordance with their needs. In the early spring, you would set out one broccoli plant per square foot, sow seeds for 16 carrots, or four lettuce plants. Remembering your multiplication and division facts will help you with this process; make four rows of four columns for carrots, to yield 16 holes, or plant your four lettuce plants three inches from each side of the box and six inches apart in the middle. This is a great project for a young child learning math skills.
Unfortunately for my daughters, the square foot gardening box I made for them to use is not precisely square. I had some cedar 4x4s lying around that were approximately the correct length (I didn’t want to saw them to precise lengths) and I laid them in a rectangle. They aren’t the correct 6 inches deep, either, but because I’m putting the beds on good garden soil, instead of clay or sand, the plants will be fine. I’ll let their father teach them precise woodworking skills; I teach them the axiom, “Close enough for government work!”
Then, I cut some stakes to approximately the correct length with some hedge loppers, and used my favorite tool, zip-ties, to hold them together. It’s not perfect, but it will work. I didn’t want to trouble my husband to overbuild another gardening project. I knew I would really need his help later on that day to fix the underground short in the electric fence, and without the electric fence, I wouldn’t need to worry about having a square foot garden because the deer would eat the plants.
I filled the bed with some of the square foot gardening mix I bought at the Square Foot Gardening Foundation’s retail store at 3100 North Main Street in Columbia, and we will plant the garden in a few weeks when the weather becomes reliably warm. The store sells soil mix, gardening books, and premade square foot gardening boxes. They also plan to have demonstration gardens in the spring, and they plant gardens in area schools. The books and the website, www.squarefootgardening.org, give details about making your own soil mix and grow boxes.
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| Storefront of the SFG Foundation in Columbia, SC |
I have helped my children plant gardens every year, and usually they become another chore for mama. I hope that this year, with the organization of the square foot garden, I can instruct them to weed a square, and they will be able to see a clear end to the task. The easily overwhelmed adult gardener may also appreciate finite gardening chores.
The books and the website, www.squarefootgardening.org, give details about making your own soil mix and grow boxes. If you live near Columbia, please visit the store at 3100 North Main Street.