What is Square Foot Gardening?

What is Square Foot Gardening?
By Mel Bartholomew

It's a very simple, easy, and unique method of gardening that eliminates all of the hard work, heavy tools, and time-consuming chores of traditional, single-row gardening.

Because of all these advantages, gardening can now be easily done by not only the very young, the very old and everyone in between. It adapts to any location in the world. Since we don't dig up or try to improve the existing soil; we need no tools and no work. It's the greenest of the green methods of gardening, because it uses only 20% of the space, 10% of the water, 5% of the seeds, and only 2% of the work of a traditional, single-row garden, yet produces over 100 % of the harvest..

Basically, the method involves building a shallow box that sets on the ground, removing any weeds or grass inside the box, laying down a weed cloth or landscape fabric inside the box, and then filling the box with a perfect soil mix of three all organic, all natural materials. A one foot grid is then laid on the soil surface, dividing it up into individual square feet. The standard size for a Square Foot Garden is 4' x 4', producing 16 square feet. You walk around the garden box, and reach in to tend your garden, hence, never packing down the soil by walking on it, and you never have to dig it up and turn it over again every spring.

What are the main advantages of Square Foot Gardening?

No work, no weeding, no digging, no tilling, no thinning, no kidding! What more advantages could you want and still be able to produce 100% of the harvest in only 20% of the space? In addition, the planting method allows you to continuously harvest just enough rather than a whole lot from a 20 ft row all at once. The SFG method not only saves seeds, but it saves water. The other big advantage to S F G is because it takes up such a small space, it's very easy to protect. Protect from what? From the weather, from pests, and anything else that can harm your garden. The biggest benefit for the average gardener, especially beginners, is that you will be successful. Follow the 10 steps, and you can't go wrong.

Who can benefit the most from SFG ?

Because you don't do any heavy labor, and the only tool you need is a hand trowel, it's very easy for the elderly, and those with arthritis or limited mobility, to be able to garden this way. Since there are no weed seeds in the soil mix, there're no weeds to pull, hence no hard work. The box can be built with a plywood bottom, and lifted onto a table, so that someone can garden in a wheelchair, or sit down to garden, or can stand up to garden with a little higher table. You will never have to stoop, bend, or do any strenuous physical movements. Because Square Foot Gardening is no work, and takes very little time for maintenance, those busy households with both husband and wife working can still have a garden, and time to enjoy it. Since Square Foot Gardening takes only 20% of the space, it is so condensed that instead of locating it way out back, where the weeds will grow, and people finally decide not to go out there anymore by July and August because of the overgrown weed garden, SFG can be located right near the house, and since there's no weeds, it never becomes unsightly. This allows people with small back yards, in fact those with just a porch, or deck or rooftop, to easily garden the Square Foot way.

What is the cost compared to single row gardening ?

The cost implications are extremely favorable. Since you don't have to rototill your big garden every Spring, you don't need a rototiller, or don't need to pay someone to do that, You don't even dig up your existing soil every year so you don't have to buy any heavy expensive tools like shovels, rakes, and spades which are ultimately rust and break. Since there's no weeding, there's no hard work, hence no heavy weeding tools, like hoes. Because we plant seeds in a spaced pattern, we don't end up pouring out a whole packet of seeds every time we plant, there's no need to buy seeds every year. We tell you how to save the unused portion for the next year, and the next year. Just another major savings in cost.

Building a box can be very simple. You can get free wood at any construction site and build your own, or you can buy ready made-box kits from the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. The first year, you buy the special soil mix but only that very first year. You never replace that, you don't throw it out every year, you merely add a handful of compost to each Square Foot as you replant it after each crop is finished. You can make your own compost, that is not only green and kind to the environment, it's free, and it also eliminates a lot of waste material that presently is trucked to the land fill. We use NO fertilizer with SFG, a great saving in cost. Since you use only 10% of the water, there's a huge savings in water plus again, kind to the environment. Folks, we are running out of water in this world, long before we run out of oil. If you had to carry a bucket of water for 5 miles as many 3 rd world countries do, that's a huge savings in energy and time. The savings of 90% of the water to grow your own crops is a huge implication for our environment.

When did you invent Square Foot Gardening ?

I invented it for the Bicentennial Celebration in 1976 after I retired from my engineering carrier My first book, 1981, was titled, “Square Foot Gardening”, and became the largest selling garden book in America, ever and sold over 1 million copies. My 30 minute television show, was on PBS for 5 years, and was broadcast on every PBS station in the country. It later went on the Discovery Network and the Learning Channel, for another 3 years, Then I retired again in 1991. That lasted for almost 5 years.

In 1996 I came out of retirement again, (can't seem to stay still) to create a non profit 501 C-3 Foundation to take SFG into schools with a Square Yard in the School Yard program. Then moved to Salt Lake City and got involved in many humanitarian projects happening all over the world. Our program teaches the mother of the family how to improve her children's nutrition with a Square Meter Garden. And it works. No giving a man a fish here.

Over the past 15 years, we have made 10 major improvements to SFG, making it now even easier and simpler, and more economical. These improvements are, not only, outlined on our website, but are included in the brand new book, “ All New Square Foot Gardening”. This is in all color, with lots of photographs and drawings for easy and quick reading. Hope this will encourage you to give Square Foot Gardening a try.

The website, http://www.squarefootgardening.com is the official site of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, and Mel Bartholomew, the inventor, originator and author.




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