Comments on: Gardening by the foot

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:43:50 +0000

I had used metal 'dog' fence. Just put 2 stakes in the ground and attach the fencing to it. The fencing comes in 4, 5 and 6 foot heights to help with anything you grow. And it is re-usable for years.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:40:23 +0000

I have used a variation of this in my 26 x 39 foot garden. I plant things into 'only' 1 square foot, in rows as long as I need them. It takes time to calculate and lay it out when planting, but the time to care for things as they grow is so much easier. For example, to plant corn…each row is 37 feet long (1 foot at each end separates the garden and lawn)…2 plants per square foot…2×37=74 corn seeds per row…74 per row times 4,, the number of rows, equals 296 corn seeds for the patch. Now the rows cannot be more than the required 4 feet wide…hence the ease in caring for it. (sometimes I will plant it in 5 row plots) This translates into 24 DOZEN ears of corn, at 1 ear per stalk! Most corn produces 2 ears. I use the same for beets, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, radishes, etc…except that I might only plant rows 1 or 2 feet wide instead of the 4 feet, and only as long of a row as I want. Every January, I sat down with graph paper and outlined what I wanted to grow and how much room it took. I also considered where it was going to be planted because I had last years garden graph and used a crop rotation of never growing anything in the same place until the third year. This is a great way to easily care for a garden!

By: Susan Sharma

Susan Sharma — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:20:29 +0000

Backyard garden can be of all sizes. I like your idea. This way each one can grow his/her own organic and healthy vegetables.
[img]http://blissfullydomestic.com/wp-content/upload/Mano Garden 012.jpg[/img]

By: Laura

Laura — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 16:21:39 +0000

I have my first garden this year. It's going okay. I started it before I read square foot gardening so it's not quite right. I have 3foot plots instead of 4 foot plots but since I had to restart it after the rabbits ate my first go I just adapted to use the principles. I love it! I think it will turn out better next year.

Anyway… I mostly wanted to comment because my peas are starting to get big so I need to get the vertical supports put in. I like your lattice on the back. Did you put it together yourself or did you buy it. I think he recommends higher ones but maybe that will do. What are you growing vertically?

By: astersia

astersia — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:16:26 +0000

just wondering why the tomato cage is upside down in the photo?

By: T

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:41:04 +0000

I have two 4×8 beds going right now, with a smaller 2×2ish I added yesterday (it was a leftover frame from a project that my sister was working on. We live in Houston, TX, and the weather is getting hot. Daily watering is a must. My container plants are wilting big time by about 3:00 pm. My garden does a little better, but I water every morning before it gets too warm. My cucumbers are trellised and growing and flowering like crazy. My tomatoes are too crowded (oops, misread an instruction), but they are doing well anyway. My zucchini got hit by a fungus that also almost took out my bell pepper plants. That's the only thing I worry about in a garden like this – the plants are so close together that problems can spread from one plant to another easily. The plants seem to be bouncing back, though, and I'm looking forward to my first zucchini soon.

I like this type of gardening, because I am always short on time and this is easier and quicker to handle. Once I eliminate my black thumb entirely….

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 02:15:01 +0000

I'm doing this as well. It is my first garden and it is doing very well! Although I will say, cucumbers really should have more than 1 square, we already had to transplant one plant and now it is trying to take over the entire area! I wish I had known that ahead of time, but it is a learning process!

By: zoe

zoe — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:22:03 +0000

I'm doing this, I have a slightly bigger bed at 6 by 4,

By: Jane Wentwoth

Jane Wentwoth — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:50:34 +0000

awesome!

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 03:06:44 +0000

I have been to that website (Square Foot Gardening) and printed it out so hopefuly I can get my husband to make a few of them for me. I do have tomatoes and green peppers growing in large containers and I have a small strawberry patch that is producing scrumptous berries right now. Boy are they good sliced up in my cereal and also on ice cream!! Thanks for sharing your ideas.