Square foot gardening
Square foot gardeningAnyone tried it? Comments?
I'm reading the book at the moment and since I want to make some raised beds this winter anyway for use in the spring, I thought I might give SFG a go. (The book has lots of good ideas but geez is it irritating to read! I'm sure it could've been written in 10 pages). There's no cure for stupidity.
Square foot gardeningHi heebiejeebie
We originally made our raised bed with wood - these do not last very long even with treatments. This year they were replaced with concrete gravel boards and we are hoping there will be no more maintenance.
www.squarefootgardening.com/
If you're waiting for the book then you can always go to his website and look at that ...it's all there and you can download it so you have a copy you can can get grubby Haven't tried it myself ..do the lasagne gardening..only thing I would say is that the peat moss bit isn't very environmentally friendly (although you can by alternatives I would think they are expensive). I have to say the Lasagne gardening (they just call it Layer gardening here) works for me, you can use all sorts of compostables to make the layers so maybe a mix of the two would work - maybe do the square foot planting idea...might give that a go....only thing is if you have free range chooks...they love the layers too!!! We've used non treated hardwoods to raise our beds. They are still in good condition after five years. I'd be concerned about treated timbers for a vegie garden. You could line it with plastic, however you would need to put holes in it for drainage - obliterating the purpose of the plasic in the first place.....maybe?
cheers Jodi
No, I just meant to wrap plastic around the inside of the wood but leave the base open. I'm putting a layer of weed-control fabric down, then the box, then fill.
I've ordered a humungous bag of vermiculite and I've bought growbags (because I can lift them!) and I was wondering about alternatives for peat moss! There's no cure for stupidity.
Box built! It's a bit shoddy looking but quite strong and at least the diagonals are equal! Didn't bother with the plastic in the end - when it rots, it rots.
I got a couple of pallets from freecycle and made a 3ft x 4ft box. I didn't use the coir, just a 2:1 mix of growbag and vermiculite. There are pictures of it on my blog (plots and plans) if anyone's interested. I planted 4 squares of lettuce seedlings, 2 of kohl rabi and the rest with spring cabbage "wintergreen", 3 seeds per square so I can chop off all but the strongest as SFG man suggests. The "square feet" came out to be only 121 square inches but I'm sure the veg won't notice. Now I want to build more! There's no cure for stupidity.
|
Down the LaneRegular entries focusing on Nature in the Garden and beyond
Click here to go there
Poultry Supplies•Chicken Fencing •Drink & Food Feeders •Health & Wellbeing •Red Mite Products •Poultry Feed •Automatic Door Openers •Chicken Keeping Books
Chicken BreedersOver 400 Breeders across the UK now listed.. Chicken Breeders & Other Poultry UK Pages
Ex-Battery Hen |