Square foot gardening
| 
| Hits: 222
Square foot gardening is nothing new and it you have room for a large garden this may or may not be of interest to you.
Large gardens could increase the yield to 200 times if you plan right and put this into practice. I have a city garden and I do have more space that the average city garden but I love flowers so this limits me from having a bigger vegetable garden. This system give me the yeald of a 20 x 30 garden in a 6' x 12' space.
What is Square foot gardening? Square Foot Gardening is a technique of intensive planting. The garden is based on a grid of 1-foot by 1-foot squares, with single seeds or plants placed in carefully determined spacing’s. The square foot system lets you make the most of your garden space to conserve the amount of water, soil conditioners, and labor needed to produce a maximum amount of food in that space. A square foot garden takes only one-fifth the space and work of a conventional single-row garden to produce the same harvest."
I also use large containers with a 2' diameter or a 20 gallon pot and is great for urban spots and can easily be used for country spots. Just place one by your back door and fill them with your lettuce or beans and easily open the door and pick some veggies. The first photo is of my lettuce plants, then my beans and my potatoes all in a square foot system.
Lettuce is my favorite vegetable to grow and eat and is probably the best suited for square foot gardening. It does not require much room and it does not seem to mind being a little crowded. As you can see from an actual picture of my lettuce plot to the left, I crowd the plants in!
Contrary to popular belief, I believe lettuce is a very hardy plant and is easy to grow. Lettuce will grow better in the cooler spring and fall times of the year, but heat tolerant varieties of lettuce will grow in the summer with some shade protection. I plant lettuce every 2 weeks and in June, July and August I plant them behind my tomatoes to keep them out of the hot sun.
Slugs are the only insect pest of lettuce. The best way to control slugs is by vigilant handpicking, in the evening or early morning.
Share this post
