Do you feel overwhelmed at the idea of starting a vegetable garden? Don’t know where to begin, or how far apart to space your plants, or which plant should go where? Or maybe you think you simply don’t have enough space or time to grow anything more than the lonely tomato plant you picked up outside the grocery store. After all, what would you do with a whole harvest of swiss chard, anyway? Tah dah! I give you the concept of square foot gardening!

Advantages of gardening by the square foot method

Heralded as a way to grow more in less space, the square foot gardening method allows you to mix and match a variety of veggies, herbs, and even flowers in a user-friendly, compact area. This works for experienced gardeners as well as beginners. No endless rows of carrots and cabbages here, all ripening at the same time.

The square foot method makes it easy to plant, to plant only what you need, and to care for your crops throughout the season. If you have children (or grandchildren), the compact size of the square foot garden makes it easy to spend time with them. You’ll even get to show-off your carpentry skills when you build the box for the square foot garden grid.

Square Foot Garden (photo by Sarah Marcheschi)

Where to place the square foot garden

Choose a good spot for your square foot garden with 6 – 8 hours of full sun every day, and preferably in an area where water doesn’t pool or puddle after a heavy rainfall. Site it close to the house where you will be more likely to tend and harvest it regularly.

Use raised bed when gardening by the square foot garden

Strangely, perhaps, my favorite aspect the square foot method has turned out to be the use of a raised bed. I had no idea how much this would simplify my life! The beds look appealing in the landscape because they add visual interest. They also impose some limits on the size of my veggie patch, which is a discipline I need. It also eliminates the feeling that I can’t keep up. Tasks like weeding and watering are focused and doable.

Gardening by the square foot starts with the quality of the soil

Let’s face it, the average backyard does not necessarily have dirt that is well-suited to growing robust flowers and vegetables. Properly conditioning your soil across your entire yard will take time, and the work and expense involved is often prohibitive for beginning gardeners. Using the square foot gardening method reduces the scope of the soil improvement task. It also eliminates the need for a soil test since the contents of the raised bed will become the growing media for your garden.

Many of us in the Midwest have a yard filled with heavy clay soil. Raised beds allow us to tinker with the soil mixture until we get it just right. For growing vegetables and flowers, a combination of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 organic compost works like a charm. The light fluffy texture from the peat moss and vermiculite ensures good drainage, and the compost provides plants with a hefty dose of nutrients and minerals essential for healthy growth. Since a depth of six inches is a good rule of thumb for boxes, creating your perfect soil mix won’t break the bank. Long-term, I recommend amending the soil in the raised bed annually.

Construct a basic ‘box’ for the square foot garden

Square foot gardens need a basic box. I prefer a manageable size such as 4’ x 4’ (or even 3’ x 3’). I prefer to construct the box with untreated lumber for the sides, or even bricks or stones. Of course, you can get creative with sizes and shapes depending on your space. What ever you decide, I recommend keeping things small. That way, you’ll be able to reach into the center to tend plants without your footsteps compacting the soil. Boxes should be bottomless – but I suggest they be lined with landscape fabric to keep out grass and weeds.

Laying out the grid when gardening by the square foot

Once you’ve assembled your bed and filled it with soil, you’ll want to lay out your grid. Don’t skip this step! It will help you visualize where to place each of your plants, and breaks the garden down into manageable bite-sized chunks. Strips of wood, PVC piping, or even string or twine can all serve to create grids. If you create a 4 ‘x 4’ bed, you’ll have sixteen individual square foot spaces to plant in. And when one square is harvested, you can add a little more compost and replant it with something completely different without disturbing any of your other plants!

Laying Out the Grid in the Square Foot Garden (photo by Sarah Marcheschi)

Planting the square foot garden

Now for the really fun part, planting! When choosing what to put in each square, take into consideration the size of the plant at maturity. For example, a single pepper or broccoli plant will take up an entire square foot, but smaller plants like onions or radishes can have multiple plantings in each square. And lettuces or herbs like basil and parsley, whose leaves are snipped throughout the season, can be packed in a little tighter, too. Each square foot can grow one, four, nine, or even sixteen plants!

Starting with seeds or seedlings is fine, just subdivide your squares and plant accordingly. And don’t forget to go vertical. Supports for plants like tomatoes, squash, and even cucumbers will help keep stalks and leaves from crowding each other in your raised bed. Also, takes care when laying out your bed to place taller plants where they won’t cast too much shade on the shorter ones. Place bush-type tomatoes and pole beans in the back, low-growing lettuce or cabbage down front.

Planting the Square Foot Garden (Photo by Sarah Marcheschi)

Gardening by the square foot extends the growing season

Extending your growing season is easy with a square foot garden. Start the season by growing cool weather crops like salad greens and root vegetables in early spring, then add another planting in late summer. Because a square foot garden has such a small footprint, covering and protecting plants when temperatures drop is not a labor-intensive undertaking. Arches covered in plastic, floating covers, or light blankets can be attached to your bed to protect plants from frost.

When you are ready to put the garden to bed for the winter, simply tidy it up by removing dead plant material and debris, take off grids and clean them, (or you can even leave them in place, if you’d rather), and smooth out and level the surface of the soil to make a neat and attractive canvas for next spring’s planting.