Sunday, August 4, 2013

Square Foot Gardening

I'm SO excited about planting my first 'real' farm garden next year!!  I can't wait!  I've already started to plan it.

I want to use the square foot gardening technique since I'll be using raised beds, and there's no reason to stick to planting in rows.  This way I'll be able to fit way more into a smaller space and maximize what I can plant with however many raised beds I can cobble together!

I found a great chart here on recommended spacing for different plants.  There are 4 basic categories on how much you can fit per square foot of garden space:

  • 1 giant item (i.e. tomatoes, potatoes, peppers)
  • 4 large items (i.e. basil, garlic, onions)
  • 8 medium items (i.e. beans, beets, peas)
  • 16 small items (i.e. carrots, radishes) 


Even if what I want to plant isn't on the chart, it's still easy to figure out based on info given on the seed packet.  You just use the plant spacing instead of the seed spacing.  If the seed packet calls for 12" plant spacing, obviously that's 1 plant per square foot.  6" plant spacing means 4 per square foot, 4" plant spacing is 8 per square foot, and 3" plant spacing a 16 per square foot.  TA DA!

So what I want to do it create 3 press boards by taking a 1 x 1 board and putting screws or dowels on the bottom at one of the spacing rates.  That way I can just take the board, press it down in the dirt, and drop the seeds into the newly created holes.  Here's an example of what I'm talking about:

Multiple Dibble Matrix
Photo from http://www.foodforestgarden.org/diy-multi-dibble/


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