Square Foot Gardening Planting Guide
For example 16 radishes in one square foot or just one cabbage per square foot.
Square foot gardening planting guide. While they re simple to use we do get a few questions about them from time to time so we thought we d give you this primer. Proper plant spacing can help reduce plant disease and maintain healthy plant. With the square foot gardening method you plant in 4x4 foot blocks instead of traditional rows. Just print a copy and tuck it inside your garden planner and it ll save you from having to jump on the internet to look up the proper spacing every time you go to plant something.
Not only that but also they tend to have less weeds and conserve water by being planted densely. Year after year you can rotate crops around the beds to ensure that there is no nutrient depletion nor diseases introduced. In order to make growing a garden easier we have put together a plant spacing chart to help you. Know your hardiness zone most people focus solely on what hardiness zone they are in.
Set the blocks approximately 4 feet apart on level ground to form a square. The square foot gardening system was developed in the 80s by an american architect to maximise the amount grown in the least space and also to save seed wastage and minimise weeding and watering. If you want kids to eat vegetables today bribe them with dessert. Square foot gardening allows you to plant much closer.
Connect two blocks by sliding a 2x6 board into the respective 2 inch slots. Small space gardeners tend to get good yield and lot of variety with a square foot garden. To make a 6 inch tall raised bed for square foot gardening in a flash buy four planter wall blocks which have 2 inch slots on four sides and four 4 foot long 2x6s at your local home center. It all started in 1981 as a concept developed and coined by civil engineer mel bartholomew author of square foot gardening.
Use my square foot planting guide to figure out how many plants will fit in each square. In essence it is an approach to growing food that incorporates companion planting intensive spacing and getting the most food possible out of a small space. The system works by taking an area of land and dividing it up into square feet patches. So if a plant needs a square foot that could be a 12 x12 but 10 x14 can work too since the occupying area is roughly the same.
Different crops are planted in different blocks according to their size. Gardening guides that are also coloring books. Square foot gardening isn t an exact science but more of a firm guideline toward using small spaces more efficiently by eliminating the typical need for walking rows in gardens. Using this chart it s easy enough to interplant companion plants in your garden.