Square Foot Gardening

I’ve had some friends ask me for suggestions on planting a vegetable garden lately, so I thought I’d just put a couple of suggestions up here. First of all, I really have to suggest this book. I got hooked on the idea when I was a kid and watched the show on PBS on the weekends. I think it fit somewhere in the This Old House/New Yankee Workshop Saturday Powerhouse Line-up. The great thing about Square Foot Gardening (SFG) is that it works for real land, for container gardens, pretty much anything.

The book itself is a great reference, with details on all the different approaches, questions, and even crops. Definitely feel free to think outside the book though and plant whatever you find you want to plant. You’ll get a feeling (by comparing the recommended spacing on packets) for how to adapt non-listed crops. Beyond the book, I do have some specific suggestions (read on):

Find a nursery you like – Area-specific knowledge is key, and having knowledgeable people to ask questions for is critical. Quality plants and products are important as well. Home Depot is not a good gardening center, nor is OSH. In the Berkeley area I’m enamored with Berkeley Horticulture at Hopkins and Monterey, and Flowerland Nursery near the BART tracks on Solano.

Soil matters – Tomatoes I planted in potting mix had pretty much no flavor, and had absolutely zero flavor when compared to the ones I grew in my real garden last year. There’s no such thing as bad land in California. If anything, you’ll have to adjust the consistency (usually to break up clayish soil). The quality is great though, there’s a reason CA feeds a large portion of the country and the world’s population. Usually around here you can start with what you have in your back yard and mix in some good quality chicken manure compost (buy big bags at your nursery). Again, getting advice from your local nursery is your best bet. Take the time to prep your soil solidly. Double dig it all to break up dense chunks, rake out rocks, and mix in all kinds of amendments to get you a nice, loose loam. Remember, plants grow in the spaces between the soil, not in the soil itself, so dense dirt will stunt your plants. A solid base of soil can be maintained for years with minimal additions.

For growing a container garden, you’ll need to mix together a number of quality sources. You’re gonna want to get some really quality compost in there to give your plants the food they really need (plant food does not come out of a bottle. Local nursery can help.

At the end of the season, pull your plants, mix in some compost so it has the winter to break down, then mulch it. I made the mistake of skipping this step last year and had a huge bed of oxalis to clean through.

Start early – The growing season in most of the Bay Area is surprisingly long. Since the goal is to have vegetables throughout the whole summer, starting early will get you eating early. For example, I planted my first sets today (Feb 1st) of lettuces, chards, radishes, etc. We’ll have home grown salads as soon as we get back from our honeymoon (beginning of April). This is two months earlier than I started last year, and I’m very excited about it. With the Square Foot method, it’s very easy to stage in different crops, so that you have a continual rotating harvest, and don’t have to spend a whole weekend getting everything planted. I put an hour in this morning and will probably do similar each weekend this month and leave the country with 80% of the garden planted.

Feed plants often – Plants need nourishment to grow. Get a good organic fertilizer (I like the E.B. Stone products) and mix some in with your soil every time you plant a new square, or on a monthly basis for large long living plants (especially tomatoes!)

Start your own plants – I could have started even earlier on this. I had terrible luck last year with store bought seedlings (except for tomatoes, those grow great anywhere). Five bucks for a two month seedling is ridiculous when you can buy a whole pack of seeds for two. Sure, you’ll want the convenience, but just take my advice and save the pots from the plants you buy this year (wash them!) and try starting some of your own next year. You’ll get hooked.

Create focused gardens – Everyone has some specific favorites. Tomatoes are always a winner, be sure to put in plenty and take care of them. I’m also a huge fan of fresh herbs, so I’m going to try (again) to build a thriving herb plot this year. Perhaps I’ll build a whole new box for herbs and lettuces and create a hot house structure above it. Anyways, since you’re growing food to eat, think about what you want to eat. (OK, I’m sure this is covered in the book).

Hmm, that’s all I can think of right now. I spent half my day putting new stuff in then the other half ripping old stuff out (we’re clearing the stuff we know we don’t want in the back yard as a first step to putting in stuff we’d actually like!) Please let me know if you have any questions.