Square Metre Gardening

[chickgirl]

Well, I'm thinking about next year and growing my veggies using the square metre gardening method.

I must admit to being keen to have a go but there is a recommended special growing mix to use in these raised beds and I'm not sure.

The book by Mel Bartholomew suggests one third garden compost, one third peat moss and one third vermiculite. So in three 1 x 1-m boxes you would need a total of 600 litres. My issues are that peat is a non-renewable resource and large quantities of course vermiculite seem to be hard to come by and expensive. He does suggest using coir instead of peat?

I'm wondering if anyone would say that Mel's mix is the best thing ever or if alternative mixes do just as well in one metre square plots.......what about good old soil and compost?

[manda]

We did a 3ft x 3ft square foot garden for our youngest ..just used soil with compost mixed in and it worked really well for him...didn't do any specific mix just chucked some in a mixed it up ... sorry not very scientific.

[billnorfolk]

Well, I'm thinking about next year and growing my veggies using the square metre gardening method.

I must admit to being keen to have a go but there is a recommended special growing mix to use in these raised beds and I'm not sure.

The book by Mel Bartholomew suggests one third garden compost, one third peat moss and one third vermiculite. So in three 1 x 1-m boxes you would need a total of 600 litres. My issues are that peat is a non-renewable resource and large quantities of course vermiculite seem to be hard to come by and expensive. He does suggest using coir instead of peat?

I'm wondering if anyone would say that Mel's mix is the best thing ever or if alternative mixes do just as well in one metre square plots.......what about good old soil and compost?

Ioften buy split bags of compost ,doesn't matter which ,to top up my raised beds 2mx3m usually come at half price or less B&Q or local garden centre best places to source them.

[lancashire lass]

My issues are that peat is a non-renewable resource and large quantities of course vermiculite seem to be hard to come by and expensive. He does suggest using coir instead of peat?

What a shame about the vermuculite - where I work, a lot of chemicals are delivered in boxes filled with vermicullite because it is highly absorbent in case of damage and spillage. I can usually get a steady supply.

With regards coir versus peat - I'm surprised coir is a suggested alternative as it always seems too fibrous to be a suitable medium. I've also not heard any good reports about using coir - some of the comments mention that it isn't absorbent enough and often the soil gets dry very quickly in warm weather.

How about leaf mould instead? The downside is that it takes a long time for leaves to rot down but I've started to putting a thick mulch of autumn leaves round the blueberry bushes and covering it with weed suppressant membrane - in time the leaves will rot down but hopefully being on top of the soil surface they will not rob the soil of nitrogen (leaves contain a lot of carbon as in lignin - when bacteria and fungus break it down, they use the nitrogen in the soil. Only when they die off is the nitrogen returned to the soil) Having saying that, I'm not sure how that helps you unless you already have a good supply of leaf mould somewhere. I'd certainly set up a compost bin for future use and fill it with the leaves that are currently available.

In the meantime, I suppose compost dug into soil is a good compromise. What about top soil instead of your garden soil? It's about the same price as compost if not a little more expensive but if you get a good quality top soil, it might be better (my soil is very heavy clay and the top soil I've been using for planting garlic is much nicer, plus pest and weed free)

[Thomassio]

I used coir a bit this year and must say, I didnt have any issues with it drying out. In fact it held moisture very well. The one issue I heard about (although didnt witness) was that it will not hold nutrients as well as compost. That said, it really didnt alter my growing results at all. It sustainable though so eats peat if thats an issue.

[spud]

Hi,
I have tried SMG this year converting it from the conventional rows. I have found it to be more productive, I transferred over dirt from another garden and added homemade compost with coco fibre for moisture retention.

I have found that:
I didn't leave any empty squares to progressive planting of crops
Watch plants that spread like zucchini or grow tall like tomatoes and sun blockage
In some squares it is possible to plant more than one crop at a time
Potatoes are expensive on room and need to boxed up (an additional square added for height on top of the SMG square)

If I knew how to add a picture I would show you

Spud