We began square foot gardening several years ago as an experiment, after my husband read a wonderful book by Mel Bartholemew. The concept is that you create small, raised beds accessible from all sides without stepping or placing any weight on the planting area. The optimal size is 4 feet by 4 feet, which is what ours are. You fill these planters with a mixture of peat, humus, and vermiculite, and plant your seeds/ plants in beds instead of rows– by regular garden standards rather close together.The high concentration of nutrients and the fact that the soil stays very aerated and loose, creates high yielding gardens with low weed count.
We created our beds out of 2 x 12 lumber (do not get pressure treated wood, as these contain harmful chemicals), cut them into 4′ pieces, and screwed them together as you can see in the picture below. I know they are just under 4 x 4′, but this made for no wastage in the 8′ long pieces of wood that we bought. We then gave them a couple of coats of a good paint rated for the outdoors. They still won’t last forever, as termites do get to them after a few years, but this is an economical way to go. When you decide how many you want to deal with, place them in a flat (or as flat as you can get) area of your yard with optimal sunshine, making sure to allow enough space between them to allow for easy movement , and, if you so desire (and we do), a lawnmower.
You will then want to put a layer of landscape fabric over the bottom of your square. This will help keep weeds at bay. Remember, the gardening mix you’re going to fill these boxes with is very rich–and the weeds are going to say “yum!” until they are shouldered out by your plantings.
Garden Square Before Planting
The picture above show a square after the mix has been added, and a trellis frame inserted. Next time we will look at what planting mix is, how to make it, and how to prepare your boxes for planting!