Square Foot Garden Project
This is working out so well I thought I would make a post about high crop density Square Foot Gardening. I see the ability to raise vegetable crops as a valuable skill set should society break down. If it does, Grocery Stores will be empty in days, not weeks.
The concept was pioneered by a man named Mel Bartholomew. I believe he was first doing these in the 1980's and for a time he had a PBS program called "The Square Foot Gardner", going off of memory so this might not be exact. My wife stumbled onto Square Foot Gardening on the web while researching how to grow veggies in flower pots. We got the books from Mel's web site http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ early last summer. Then based on the information contained in the two books on the subject we planned the bed requirements. It is not overy extensive but does cost a few dollars to get going down this Square Foot Gardening path.
We built the beds and filled them up first of October 2011, planting 1 bed out of the 3 beds for some Winter Crops. Living in Georgia it is possible to grow veggies through the winter. Winter crops are; Cabbage, lettuce, Onions, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, (though we didn't get any off the plants until March). Beets and Radishes can also be planted.
Here are the beds just after filling with nothing planted.
I've posted this image before, this is the first planting of our winter crops.
The Winter Crops nearing maturity. This is January people. The white rods are PVC Pipe, 1/2" size by 8' bent over and poked in the bed soil. Covering is on the ground and made of Polyethylene. This is draped over the frame to make a mini green house to help hold in heat and keep frost off the plants.
This is March and I am bending 1/2" conduit to build trelis frames for vining crops like; Pole Beans, Cuccumbers, Tomatoes of certain types, Squash and Cantelope Melons. The green in the first bed planted are Beets that are about ready to harvest at this time.
Here I am installing the finished Trelis frames. This one is a 4' tall section for Bush type tomatoes and Pepper plants. 1/2" rebar by at leat 2 feet length is driven in the ground and then the Conduit is slipped over the rebar. The tall ones are 8' tall and are made from 10' lengths of Conduit. They are joined in the middle with a coupler. Nylon netting just for plant growing is then fed over the upright sections and tied to the top of the treils frame. The openings are about 4" square in the netting so you can reach through to pick the mature vegetables.
Now here is the same bed where I installed the trelis frames just 2 months later. That thicket is composed of; Cylindra beets in the front down low. Left side with the yellow flowers just about top of the wire fencing level are Poona Kheera Cuccumber plants from India, they handle high heat very well. Immediatley behind them are Mosaic Chinese Long beans that will have bean pods about 18" in length and they will be pink in color. Behind those are your basic Green Bean of American type. Beyond those are Jalapenos, Yellow and Green Bell pepper plants, Floridade (a round determinate species of tomatoe from Dade County FL) and Almish Paste Roma type tomatoes. The Almish Paste is supposed to make Romas that are about 3x bigger than typical Roma tomatoes.
These are Spaghetti Squash, a type of what's called Winter Squash, very similar to a Pumpkin in nature, shaped like them too. Only these are yellow and don't get more than 4 or 5 Lbs. When cooked the insides below the outer skin can be flaked into pasta like strings and spaghetti sauce put on them. A very healthy and tasety substitute for the starchy flowered pasta noodles. We have about 7 that are bigger than a large Idaho spud on the plants at the moment. They get about 25% bigger every day it seems if I water them or it rains. Should have the first ripe ones in mid June according to the information on maturity time in days.
This photo is the opposite side of the trelis that holds the Spaghetti Squash. These are two types of Carrots; one has a red skin named Atomic Red and the other is from North Africa, named Muscade species. What isn't real obvious are the Cantelope plants. They are growing to the right side of the bed and are to go up the trelis on that side. I only have one that is of any plant size and it's merly 2 feet in length. It seems they like really warm weather so until June gets here I don't expect to seem them get very big in size let alone make a melon.
Now for a bit of harvest, not much yet but yesterday I found the first two mature Green Beans and I picked one of the Indian Poona Kherra Cuccumbers this evening. We ate in slices, (me and the wife). It was very tastey, crunchy and sweet, not bitter or tough skin. These get 4 to 5" long and are pale yellow green to white in color. As they mature they turn brown colored.
Now I just need about 2 or 3 hundred more to go with this one.
2 days ago this thing was the size of a small coctail weaner, fast maturing it seems!
Last image, the first to appear Spaghetti Squash. This photo is 1 day old and it is already 25% or more bigger than shown here.
Well there it is, Square Foot Gardening, it works and it works damn well. BTW, that isn't dirt they are growing in. The soil in the beds is a mix of 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost. The compost is made up of commercial composts of 3 or more variety / sources. I used Cow Manuer compost, Mushroom compost and Chicken poop compost aslo some made from leaves and sticks it seems. I'm constantly finding small twigs floating to the surface. Well enough for now. Give it a try.
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Originally Posted by Richard Simmons
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