Square Foot Gardening Anyone? (flower, grow, manure, cucumbers)

[Debsi]

My hubby built me a raised bed planter. It's 2 x 4. We put it on cinder blocks so I won't have to bend over at all which is great!

I told him I want another one next year.

One is probably enough for me since I am pretty new at this vegetable gardening thing. I am going to have a few plants in containers alongside too.

[Jaxson]

I have a question for all you that have established SFQ. How do you till up the soil in them to ready for your next planting. Just shovels and rakes? Mini tillers?

[southward bound]

Originally Posted by Jaxson

Since I am not a handy ma'am I need somebody to come build me some. In the meantime I have kids that do nice bending.

Can I borrow your kids? Mine are all grown and too tall to do nice bending.

I love this gardening idea. We have beds already - quite large - but I didn't do the planting mixture and had to fight weeds all season last year (our first year with the garden). We have three large frames in a space about 10' wide and 50' long. I can't imagine how much vermiculite that would call for, but it seems worth the effort. Maybe I'll just try it in one box for starters. The smallest is about 6' x 6'.

[Jaxson]

My kids might object a bit.

I have heard if you don't use the soil mixture you will have weed problems just like a plot garden. You have some huge beds!

[younglisa7]

Originally Posted by southward bound

Can I borrow your kids? Mine are all grown and too tall to do nice bending.

I love this gardening idea. We have beds already - quite large - but I didn't do the planting mixture and had to fight weeds all season last year (our first year with the garden). We have three large frames in a space about 10' wide and 50' long. I can't imagine how much vermiculite that would call for, but it seems worth the effort. Maybe I'll just try it in one box for starters. The smallest is about 6' x 6'.

Here are some break downs that I found. I hope this is useful.

Materials for three 4x4 gardens

2 4 cubic ft bags od vermiculite

1 3.9 cubic ft bale of peat moss(it is compressed)

4-5 bags of compost. Use a variety of different composts for 8 cubic feet. You can also check out some Rose Food for this.

Some Conversions-

12 Five gallon buckets equals 8 cubic feet

Use 4 five gallon buckets of the 3 main ingredients for one 4x4 box

[mezzogirl]

I use the SFG concept. I have several of them that I built from scraps. A couple of years ago, we remodeled our kitchen and discovered lots of subfloor damage. We ended up replacing most of the subfloor. We did not throw away the old damaged pieces, but instead cut them into 4' x 8" walls.
AliceT,
Love the tire idea. That is creative.

[Rakhi]

Originally Posted by Debsi

My hubby built me a raised bed planter. It's 2 x 4. We put it on cinder blocks so I won't have to bend over at all which is great!

I told him I want another one next year.

One is probably enough for me since I am pretty new at this vegetable gardening thing. I am going to have a few plants in containers alongside too.

Debsi, I am also planning for a 2/4 feet box for my tomatoes. Can I plant 6 tomato plants in 2/4? Or is 6 too much on 2/4? I am wondering if you or any one can help me with this.

I was reading in another article that tomato plants have to be 2 feet apart...is it true?

I am planning on planting 2 cherry tomato plants, 2 plum tomatoes and maybe 2 big beef.

[Debsi]

I believe you could plant 8 tomatoes because the square foot gardening concept says one tomato plant per square foot.

I am doing different things in each square foot of my box, so just one tomato plant, and maybe another in a pot along side. It will be interesting to see which one does better!

[Rakhi]

Thanks Debsi. But I can plant different varieties of tomatoes in this 2/4 feet box right? I mean, I dont have to be very specific about which variety should go beside what?

And its just going to be me and my hubby...so you think 8 plants would be too much? We use tomatoes moderatly.

[Debsi]

I am sure somebody else can weigh in to answer how many tomato plants you should do. You can do different varieties in your planter.

I've never successfully grown tomatoes before, I'm a fairly new veggie gardener. I got ONE cherry tomato off my plant last year.

There are lots of recipes out there for something called slow roasted tomatoes. You can freeze them or can them for use in recipes all winter. They are supposed to be fabulous but I never grew enough tomatoes to make them.
The recipe I wanted to make came from a website called kalyn's kitchen.