No irrigation raised bed gardening system (Hugelkultur)

Step 10: Square foot gardening grid

Square foot gardening (SFG) Involves a grid of 1 foot squares where you plant different crops in different squares. This makes it easy to create a polyculture in your garden and to practice effective crop rotation in your garden.  

Here are some links to some free square foot gardening planning tools:
Gardener's Supply
Smart Gardener

In his book "All new square foot gardening" Mel suggests only using rigid grids. I find rigid grids harder to work with and more expensive to install.   I prefer a simple Nylon clothes line available at any home center. I even got a glow in the dark clothes line from Harbor Freight.

1. Cut a scrap piece of wood to 12" long
    
2. Using the wood as a spacer add a galvanized nail every 12". I chose to drive my nails into the side of the bed rather than the top. This is so I can leave the top flat in case I want to add a green house to the top or otherwise utilize that surface area.
3. Tie the clothes line to a nail and simply start wrapping it around to form the grid. I started in the short dimension first for no particular reason.
4. When you get to the point where you need to change direction you will need to drive an extra nail in that corner.

It is really very simple, however  please refer to the photos for clarifications.


To come:

1 - removable deer protection panels
2 - pvc trellis
3- SFG grid
4- cucumber trellis
5 - pvc tomato grid