Friday, May 29, 2009

No Weeding, No Digging, No Tilling, No Kidding!

THE TEN BASICS OF SQUARE FOOT GARDENING

LAYOUT – Arrange your garden in planting squares, not rows. Lay out 4 ft. by 4 ft. planting areas separated by 3 foot wide walking aisles.

BOXES – Build 4 ft by 4 ft by 6 in deep bottomless boxes to hold a special soil mix above ground.

SOIL –You don't dig up your existing ground, just remove any weeds or grass inside the box, lay down a weed cloth, then just fill boxes with a special soil mix: 1/3 compost (made from many different ingredients), 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 coarse vermiculite

GRID – Make a square foot grid for the top of each box to organize the garden for planting.

CARE – Never walk on the growing soil. Tend your garden from the aisles. Soil then stays loose and friable.

VERTICAL FRAME . – Build a sturdy vertical frame to train all vine crops to grow up to conserve ground space.

ELECT – Plant a different flower, vegetable, or herb crop in each square foot, using spacing of 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants per square foot. Crop rotation happens automatically thereafter.

PLANT – Conserve seeds. Plant only a pinch (2 or 3 seeds) per hole. or place transplants in a slight saucer-shaped depression. Plant only what you will use during each season. No waste. from overplanting

WATER – Nurture plants by watering by hand from a bucket of sun-warmed water (hose or drip system okay).

HARVEST – When you finish harvesting a square foot, add a handful of compost to replenish nutrients and replant with a new and different crop.

Read entire article here.

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