Square Foot Gardening

Square foot gardening is the practice of planning and creating small but intensively planted gardens. The phrase "square foot gardening" was popularized by Mel Bartholomew in a 1981 and subsequent PBS television series.

Mel Bartholomew was a retired former owner of an engineering consulting form who picked up gardening as a hobby. He quickly realized that the single-line gardening needed a lot of improvement in order to become practical for the average person. He applied tactics that he perfected as a business consults and his quest led to the discovery of the Square Foot Gardening (SFG) methods. Despite doubts by the gardening experts, his first book sold more than 1 millions copies and became the bestselling gardening book in the U.S.

Here is Mel's blog: http://www.melbartholomew.com

The garden beds, grid and mix can be purchased online from: http://www.squarefootgardening.com



How many plants to plant per square?

Select a 4-foot-by-4-foot section of your garden and divide it into 16 squares (each section is 1 square foot). Each square will have a different number of plants, depending on what you are re growing. See here: SFG planner PDF - http://goo.gl/r84OL

Examples:

1 plant per square: Tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, eggplant, corn, melon, squash

4 plants per square: Lettuce, garlic, Swiss chard

8 plants per square: Pole beans, peas, spinach

16 plants per square: Beets, carrots, radishes, onions

By planting so few plants, you will have many small harvests, and you can easily make more succession plantings and rotate plantings each year.

Mel Bartholomew Introducing Square Foot Gardening:



References:

Square Foot Gardening - Northeast USA - Wayne NJ Plant Hardiness Zone 6 - 7 http://goo.gl/DaRbf
Square foot gardening - Wikipedia http://goo.gl/t8Mg
List of companion plants - Wikipedia http://goo.gl/yojD:
Growing Vegetables by Succession Planting and Square-Foot Gardening - For Dummies  http://goo.gl/hn56J
Extension Online Store - Iowa State University free PDF guides http://goo.gl/8uvwN
How to Practice Square Foot Gardening: 10 steps (with pictures) - wikiHow http://goo.gl/bbvTW
Plant spacings in a Square Foot Garden http://goo.gl/A488D
Square Foot Gardening - Planning  http://goo.gl/88Bj3
Eat Live Grow Paleo: GROW  http://goo.gl/zpWXE
Creating square foot gardening plans and layouts | My Square Foot Garden  http://goo.gl/vFP8m
SFG planner PDF - http://goo.gl/r84OL
Indiana Square Foot Gardening Plan | My Square Foot Garden  http://goo.gl/hUh1H
Vegetable Planting Guide Worksheet PDF  - http://goo.gl/CF9u2
Erin's Square Foot Gardening Plan--Chicago | My Square Foot Garden http://goo.gl/8Yzw1
Tim's Square Foot Garden Tips and Tricks - http://goo.gl/zhbJT
Tim's Square Foot Garden Plant List - http://goo.gl/Hpi1i
My 2012 Square Foot Gardening Plan | My Square Foot Garden http://goo.gl/jj4ow