Building a Beautiful Square Foot Garden

A square foot garden is basically same as a normal garden only; in this case, the garden is divided into boxes. These individual boxes can be used to grow multiple plants side by side. This method is mostly used for vegetable gardening as it’s easier to maintain and control your product.

Many people consider this to be one of the easiest gardening methods as very little work is required.

Step 1: Building the Square Lattice

A square foot garden layout starts by creating a garden bed of whatever dimensions you need. Then using corresponding sized planks to build the borders. After this add planks in a grid-like pattern of 1x1 feet boxes and then add your soil mixture.

This completes a general overview of square foot garden layout. It’s best to build these square foot gardens in a place with plenty of sunlight.

Step 2: Filling the Grid with Soil

The composition of Mel’s mix (a special mixture used particularly for square foot gardening) is 1/3rd vermiculite, 1/3rd peat moss, and 1/3rdd compost. The soil mix is made according to the size of your SFG but a common 4x4 garden would require approximately 8 cubic feet of Mel’s soil mix.

This particular mix is extremely light, so the growing seeds are not blocked in any way. The soil bed should be 6 to 12 inches deep.

Step 3: Taking Care of the Plants

When using this method, it is important to keep in mind that, these vegetables are not grown in the traditional way rather they have specific patterns and guidelines for each type of vegetable. Each particular vegetable has its own particular square foot garden plan in order to ensure maximum yield. A lot of the major vegetable families use the same formation for most of their members.

Few Points to Keep in Mind….

The first and most important thing you need to remember is that do not plant everything side by side as some plants are unhealthy for others. So it would be best for beginners to read a book about companion planting.

Second thing to keep in mind when planning a square foot garden is the condition of your soil. If the soil is good and properly fertilized then a garden bed is not required but if the soil is no good, then a bed needs to be created and a new mixture of good soil is to be added so that the plants can grow properly.

As a general rule, a good quality soil produces better tasting veggies and fruits.

A small thing to remember is that, if you are growing plants that can reach quite high, then plant them in a position where they do not obstruct the sunlight for shorter plants.

If you are unsure about what it is that you should plant, then you need to look no further than your dinner table. What you eat regularly is what you should grow and maybe add some exotic veggies to a couple of the boxes to impress the occasional guests.