An Introduction to Square Foot Gardening
Square Foot gardening is a concept developed by Mel Bartholomew and detailed in his 1981 book Square Foot Gardening. Square foot gardening is a system based on planting in one-foot squares instead of rows. Each square may contain a different variety of plants. The number of plants per square has been determined according to the particular variety. Plants are precisely spaced in order to maximize production and minimize weed growth.
These two 4' x 8' raised bed square foot gardens grew 16 tomato plants, 128 pole bean plants, 12 pepper plants, 6 Marigold plants (pest control), 45 onion plants, 18 leeks, 8 heads Romaine lettuce, 12 leaf lettuce plants, and 32 radishes.
SIZE OF THE SQUARE FOOT GARDEN
Square foot garden beds are no more than four squares wide (4 feet) so that the center of the bed can be reached without stepping on the bed and compacting the soil. One of the cardinal rules of square foot gardening is to never walk on the soil in the bed.
PLANTING TECHNIQUE
The idea here is to not plant an entire package of seed and then thin the rows. The exact location where the plant is to be located is determined and the single seed is planted at that spot.
MAINTENANCE OF THE SQUARE FOOT GARDEN
The square foot garden will produce the same amount of produce as a conventional garden in one fifth of the space. The area to be weeded is already one fifth of the conventional area plus the square foot garden is grown with the plants closely spaced so as to deter weed growth. The bible of square foot gardening, Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew, states that a space of 15 feet x 15 feet (including walkways) will feed a family of five.
