Square foot gardening

[sthrngypsy]

Does anyone practice it? Does it really work better than traditional gardening? One good thing about starting from scratch is that I can do anything I want.

 

[Chuck]

Does anyone practice it? Does it really work better than traditional gardening? One good thing about starting from scratch is that I can do anything I want.

Sq ft gardening is basically just like any other gardening. Fertile soil is what makes a garden whether it be in a sq ft or any other configuration. Sq ft is mainly used in a limited and fairly narrow areas. You have to be able to reach each sq ft area and a planting bed over 5' wide would be hard to reach each area. Also in sq ft gardening you have to grow similar plants close to similar plants because of their need to be similarly watered and because of their size when mature. Some plants like tomatos do not like to be planted close together. You stated in another thread that you have about an acre for your garden. IMO sq ft gardening in your situation would be an excess of labor, expense and maintainance. In your situation I think raised bed wide rows would be the way to go. By doing this and by carefully selecting what and where you plant you could effectively have a sq ft garden without the sq ft so to speak. And if you incorporate drip irrigation keeping a large garden is made much much easier plus it saves a lot of time and water. I think what you have in mind is not sq ft gardening but rather a technique called French Intensive Gardening and the long wide raised beds are what you are looking for. It is what I do and it works

 

[sthrngypsy]

I have an acre and a quarter here I think, but don't intend to use it all. That would be overkill for what I want. Do you have any links for French Intensive Gardening? That sounds interesting. I never thought of plants not liking being close together. When growing up my family always had gardens, but my grandfather and father always planted things in rows - rows of tomatoes close together, rows of zucchini, etc. I just never thought about doing it differently, so I am glad I posted the question!

 

[Chuck]

I have an acre and a quarter here I think, but don't intend to use it all. That would be overkill for what I want. Do you have any links for French Intensive Gardening? That sounds interesting. I never thought of plants not liking being close together. When growing up my family always had gardens, but my grandfather and father always planted things in rows - rows of tomatoes close together, rows of zucchini, etc. I just never thought about doing it differently, so I am glad I posted the question!

Just do a search for French Intensive Gardening, there is lots of pic and info about it. Appearently sq ft gardening became an offshoot of FIG

 

[Pat]

I did the search for FIG, lots of good information here is the link http://www.vegetable-gardening-with-lorraine.com/French-intensive-garden.html