There is nothing more satisfying than growing and eating your own food. Not everyone has large areas of land to farm, but just about everybody can Square Foot Garden. Here is a square foot garden I built recently. It measures 4′ x 4′ and is 6″ high. I have detailed how I built it below.
Before I get started, please get ‘All New Square Foot Gardening‘ by Mel Bartholomew. It is the new, updated version of ‘Square Foot Gardening’, also by Mel. This book is an invaluable source of wisdom and a must have.
The soil mixture is:
- 1 part Peat Moss
- 1 part Compost (made up of 5 different types of compost)
- 1 part Perlite or Vermiculite
When purchasing the compost, try to get at least 4-5 different types of compost. You will see wood compost, cow manure compost, and various others depending on where you live. In my area, I was unable to find Vermiculite so I used Perlite instead.
I started with 2, 8 foot x 6 inch pressure treated boards. Cut them in half, screw them together with outside decking screws. Be sure to drill small holes before you screw. This prevents the boards from cracking.
If you ever want to move the garden, you will need to add a plywood bottom. Be sure to drill 2″ drain holes every 6 inches, before you attach the weed block fabric (unlike what I did). Holes not shown in picture.
I went all out and used 20 year weed block fabric to line the bottom. This keeps the weeds and grass from growing in from the bottom.
Combine the soil mixture.
The soil after several minutes of mixing.
Adding small ‘lat’ boards completes the garden.
My garden after a month. I added some twine to allow the vertical growth of my beans.
A close up shot of the construction. I simply used screws, and wrapped twine around them.
That’s it for the garden. If you have any questions, feel free to email me
I can’t find a lot of information on the square foot garden on the internet without buying the book.
So what do you put in the 16 compartments so that it produces all season?
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Caution, square foot gardening can be addictive! I now feed my wife and myself from ours and it works! Read the book at your local library of get a copy, even used, on the net, its worth it! Done this way, gardening can grow on you!, Veggie gardening in large flower-pots is cool too! and will extend seasons some if that is a problem where you are. Always start small, gardens that are too big get out of hand fast, and are no longer fun! I find that writing notes on what I have done very handy. Let the net be your greatest source of information, its all there and free too.
What a great idea-square foot gardening. Something that concerned me though is the use of pressure treated wood for construction. PT wood contains a lot of nasty chemicals, including arsenic, and I would sure hate to see you get sick if your plants absorb any of these chemicals. Just a thought.
Best regards,
Mike