Linna Ferguson introduces the Square Foot Gardening method. She explains that the method was invented by Mel Bartholomew and allows people of all types to grow food in small spaces. Some key aspects of the Square Foot Gardening method include using boxes divided into 1 square foot sections, only needing 6 inches of soil, and being able to harvest high yields from a small space. Linna provides examples of how to customize Square Foot Gardening boxes and tips for planting and care.
2. Why is food gardening important to you?
My name is Linna ‘the Locavore’
Ferguson. I am a mother of two, a
wife, a friend, I work full time, and
I raise my own food. I preserve my
harvest for the winter. I have
appeared on the Emeril Green
show. I write for Examiner.com. I
am a certified Square Foot Garden
Teacher.
3. So we are here to learn about the
immensely popular Square Foot
Gardening Method invented by
Mel Bartholomew. Let’s use the
five Ws to teach you its basics.
4. WHAT is SFG, and WHY does it work?
Mel Bartholomew is the founder
of this method and has many
books and tools to help you learn
about this method.
www.squarefootgardening.com
14. Location is a deal breaker. If you
don’t have 6-8 hours of sunlight
and access to water, you can’t
have any type of garden.
15. Be creative, add your personal
touch, make it your space, and you
will spend more time in it.
16. Boxes are neat and tidy, organizes
your planting, and hold’s Mel’s
special soil mix.
17. The basic SFG
The box can be 4 ‘ by anything…
this size allows you to access all
part of the garden without
stepping on your soil. Only need
six inches of soil- so the box is not
very deep.
18. Six inches … really!
It’s true. Only 6 inches to grow
most all veggies, except things like
potatoes, long carrots, etc.
28. Harvest from one 4x4 box
• 1 head of cabbage
• 1 head of broccoli
• 1 head of cauliflower
• 4 heads of romaine
• 4 heads of red lettuce
• 4 heads of salad
lettuce
• 5 pounds sugar snap
peas
• 8 bunches of Swiss
chard
• 9 bunches of spinach
• 16 small ball carrots
• 16 beets
• 4 bunches beet
greens
• 16 long carrots
• 32 radishes
29. Care is minimal as long as you are
checking on your garden, looking
for pests, watering etc.
38. Simplify! Create positive first impression
Relate to target segments Provide top tasks up front
Resources - planning
Loudoun Locavores
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Loudoun_locavores/
Kitchen Garden Planner
http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/
Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Link-Page?id=kgp_home
Planner Tool
http://www.motherearthnews.com/
garden-planner/vegetable-garden-planner.aspx
Examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/food-gardening-in-washington-dc/linna-ferguson
39. Simplify! Create positive first impression
Relate to target segments Provide top tasks up front
Resources - seeds
www.superseeds.com
www.southernexposure.com
www.fedcoseeds.com/
www.cooksgarden.com
40. Where I am speaking next:
Check www.chicamarun.com for
details!
• SEED SWAP- Early March
• SFG- Mid March
• VERTICAL GARDENING WORKSHOP- Early
April
• WILD HARVEST- late April
• SEED SPROUTING- TBD
Also provide demonstrations at the
Purcellville Community Market- my
appearances will be posted at
www.purcellvillecommunitymarket.com/
This presentation is located on
SLIDESHARE:
http://www.slideshare.net/vafoodscaper/s
quare-foot-gardening-101
Booz | Allen | Hamilton
Let’s get to know one another! Let’s start with you since you came to see me speak ….
Why are you all here?
Why do you want to learn more about the SFG style of food gardening?
By show of hands, who CURRENTLY gardens? Who is BRAND NEW to gardening?
My name is Linna the Locavore, the Food Garden Mom… I have lots of nicknames. I am a mother of two kids, a wife, a friend, I work full time and I raise a lot of my family’s food. I preserve this harvest through basic canning and dehydrating. I garden through all (4) seasons. I believe that locally produced food is healthier and is a good choice to make. I don’t want to be held to countless food recalls and to worry what goes into my families bodies.
I chose to become an ‘expert’ in SFG because I felt it was a way for people who don’t have a lot of free time, folks that don’t have a lot of room to garden, to learn to garden. My passion is for teaching people that ANYONE can grow their own food.
So know that we know one another, let’s get into the goal of this presentation, HOW TO SQUARE FOOT GARDEN!
By using the five Ws I hope to show you how you can leave tonight and get gardening!
So let’s start with Mel. Mel Bartholomew. He is the founder of this concept. This is his story, in 1975 he retired from being an engineering consultant. He moved to the North Shore of Long Island and decided to take up gardening. He attended a lecture on composting at a local env. Group but the teacher never showed up. He then asked the group to stay, talk about their experiences, and then they formed a weekly gardening club. Mel then got a community garden established, which initially flourished with energy and gardeners. They plowed, spread manure, planted rows of veggies…and by midsummer it was a disaster of weeds. Mel thought THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY.
Why do we fertilize the whole garden when you walk on a large part of it?
Why do plant long rows of single crops?
Why do we spend so much time weeding?
Why do we walk on our most precious resource, our soil?
WHY? BECAUSE THAT IS HOW IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN DONE!
This method is actually best for beginners, not experts, who seem to have a hard time accepting the method. In an hour or two, you can have the basics down and begin the process of starting your garden. So your first hour begins here!
To get you inspired, let’s look at some examples.
While we look, let’s realize that they all have their own character, their own look, their own purpose.
With so many options, this must mean that this method is well suited for ALL KINDS OF PEOPLE, all ages, all physical abilities.
This covers our WHO.
This means you don’t even need a backyard! You can be on a balcony, patio, deck……. And this makes it possible for all ages to garden.
Add ‘flare’ … a birdbath, a sun catcher, whatever you want!
Did you know that an average home garden is 20 x 35 feet long which equals 700 sq feet. To grow the same amount with SFG, you only need 20% of that area, you need 140 square feet.
Note this is sitting on a patio ….. Not on existing soil … this is a precursor to a later topic.
Live in a city? No problem!
Live in a warzone? No problem….
Location is a deal breaker, if you don’t have the following items, you can’t have a SFG, or any other food garden.
Make sure it is:
Close to home
6-8 hours sunshine
Careful of shade from trees and bushes
Area should not puddle after rain
Don’t worry about existing soil, you aren’t using it!
Access to water
Once someone knows they can have a food garden, the typically wonder how many boxes they will need to feed their family, the book gives some general calculations you can use. I started with 2 4x4 boxes for a family of 3 and had plenty left over!
Do example of cutting room down…… compared to single row gardening, you only need 20% of the area to grow the same amount of produce.
Be creative with your layout, but remember to leave room so you can access the boxes from all angles…. Line things up, make a rectangle, make an L shape, do whatever will make you happy and get you into the garden. Add in chairs, a bird bath, anything that will make this an inviting space. Remember this not only can provide your family with food, but also is a retreat and stress reliever.
Remember, you can put bottoms on your garden boxes and put them on your patio or deck. So if you don’t have a yard, or room to spare, that is ok with the SFG method!
Why boxes?
Neat and tidy
Organizes your planting
Holds special soil mix ‘above ground’
Add protective features …. Or extend season
So you may notice some similarities in the example gardens you just saw…… primarily they were all :
RAISED BEDS
had planting grids
plants seemed to be thriving,
Not a lot of visible weeds
All shapes and sizes!
The box makes all of this happen!
The box is your basic element of the SFG. It can be 4x4, 4x6, 4x anything! It keeps things organized, makes sure soil stays where you put it, and limits the ability for someone to walk on it! The 4 foot rule is so you can reach every part of the garden without stepping on the soil.
Recommended lumber size is 1 x 6 for economical, low traffic garden or 2x6 for sturdier boxes. DO NOT USE PRESSURE TREATED LUMBER. Use cedar, raw rood, composite, or vinyl.
One of the key things to note is how DEEP the box is, you only need 6 inches of soil! Yes, you heard me right. You will be creating soil, not using your own.
Boxes also allow you to add protective elements on top of a box! If you have a problem with rodents, build a barrier!
You can also put the wire underneath the box to keep out moles, voles, and gophers.
You can even turn your box into a ‘cold frame’ or ‘winter hoop’.
Aisles are so important to allow you to move around your garden, to enjoy it, to work in it etc. It is recommended to have 3-4 ft aisles
At first this may look huge, but once your garden fills in, and overflows the edges, you will be happy you gave yourself so much room!
The aisles can be grass (and those wide aisles allow you to mow them), mulch, whatever you choose!
Note the room to mow…..
Use whatever you have on hand
This is your MOST IMPORTANT ASSET! Your soil dictates if your garden will survive (some think you need to have a green thumb, you just need good soil!)
Since soil varies, Mel created a recipe for a consistently perfect soil. He calls it Mel’s Mix and is made of 1/3 blended compost, 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 Vermiculite.
By making your own soil you:
Don’t need to dig
Don’t need to till
Don’t worry about weed seeds
Don’t worry about nutrients
Try to use 5 different kinds of compost to get a wide array of compost
Building Soil:
Vermiculite- mica rock that has been heated and popped like popcorn
Peat Moss- light, friable, holds water
Compost- Note that SFG is an ‘organic’ method of gardening as you don’t need to use chemical fertilizers, the compost is doing all the work!
In the book there are volume calculations based on how many boxes you are building.
When making this soil, you pile it all on the tarp……and fold over, like making a large cake! Use abit of water to keep it moist….
Why does this soil rock?
No weeds
Chock full of nutrients
Ability to hold a lot of water
Ready to plant IMMEDIATELY!
Note on average people say it takes 7 years to turn your soil into good soil.
Essential Tools:
Trowel to move transplants….add compost….
Pencil to plan your garden, and poke holes to plant seeds
Scissors to thin plants, cut off diseased areas, harvesting lettuce and greens
Although there are huge catalogs on gardening tools, you don’t need them.
More tools ≠ Better garden
I know this concept is hard to grasp- but most all of you already have what you need!
If you don’t have a grid on your boxes, it is not a SFG.
Grid provides specified space for each plant, keeps things organized, allows you to know what you are planting. It must be a fixed feature on your garden box.
SFG recommends using wood lathe
By using a grid, this is what you can get from one 4 x 4 box…..
Garden care and weeding seem to be a chore that is synonymous with food gardening.
Using the SFG really reduces the need for both of these activities …..
Care requires watering and checking your garden for disease and pests. Since it should be close to your house, this shouild be something easy to do.
Weeds? Not an issue. Since your soil started weed free, and anything that grows ‘flew in’, should be easy to pull out.
Weed barrier on the bottom helps ensure nothing sneaks in
Here is the garden I grew when my son was first born…. Not bad!
Why? Why not!
Saves space
Looks cool
Grow better crops
Use in tandem to grown cool weather crops
It is not a myth that 35 lbs pumpkins can grow 7 feet in the air….. The catch is, you have to train them…….
Vertical supports include metal conduit and plastic netting
Not all veggies go up, the ones that do are:
Gourds
Tomatoes
Cucumbers
Pole beans
Melons
Pumpkins
Summer squash
Watermelons
Winter squash
Each square has optimal room for a specific number of plants ….. Either 1, 4, 9, 16
Since you have a prescribed number of seeds to use, you don’t need to waste any! If they all don’t come up, you know where they didn’t’ come up, and you know where to replant
Transplants are a good way to get a jump on the growing season
Don’t forget to plant flowers with your veggies. They will not only attract pollinating insects, but will also help with disease (e.g. marigolds)
A visual on the planting technique
Water. We know plants need it, but how much, how little?
SFG recommends ladling out a cup of sun-warmed water from a bucket that can be left in the sun.
Best to water at base of plant, keep away from leaves, and get the roots soaked.
You may think this takes too long, but if you currently water from above, you are actually wasting water…. and promoting fungal disease. By watering by hand you get water to where you need to. Note, with Mel’s mix you cannot overwater….
Benefit is that with SFG, you don’t have to harvest a huge row at one time, you control what you want to grow.
Make sure you visualize your harvest, and plant just what you think you will need.
Plant variety, and you will harvest variety. You can also easily replant once you have pulled a square.
Crop rotation is not needed, but still a good idea for pest and disease control
So here are some best practices to fix the biggest offenders.
We try to make sites as simple as possible. Too many choices at once confuse users, but through a combination of removing, hiding, grouping and displacing features, we can make them less complex.
So here are some best practices to fix the biggest offenders.
We try to make sites as simple as possible. Too many choices at once confuse users, but through a combination of removing, hiding, grouping and displacing features, we can make them less complex.