Affordable Square-Foot Gardening
w/cheap filler strips :(
I'm going with square-foot gardening this year. My garden will consist 5 4'x4' raised beds, with approximately 3' between beds.
Square-foot gardening was introduced in the '70's by Mel Bartholomew. I picked up his book "All New Square Foot Gardening" at Dollar General for $5 (older copy, but so what). I'm not going to get into details here, get his book and read it from cover to cover (like I did - several times). This site is to let you know my methodology, my hits and misses and suggested improvements (no use all of us screwing up, is there?)
I opted square-foot gardening because:
* I have control over the soil (I mix my own), and I don't waste energy digging up and amending this North Texas Clay.
* I plant the amount of seeds I want and save the rest. It's economical and allows me to experiment with heirloom plants. I'm not going to feel bad pulling up one or two plants if I don't like it.
* I don't need a bunch of tools. My B&D rechargable drill, a 1/8" drill bit, a T-20 star bit (for star-shaped screws) and a hand saw and my trusty tape measure were all I needed to put the beds together. As far as the actual gardening tools: a trowel, a pencil and a pair of school scissors. That's it!
* I can add to my garden as time, money and season allow. I'm building a bed at a time.
* No big deal about crop rotation.
You're going to need:
2"x8"x8' dimensional lumber, exterior or deck screws (I used Grip Rite 2-1/2"x9)3 ea. 1"x3"x8' furring strips, landscape fabric (total all your beds and buy 1 roll that will do the job-this will save you money), and landscape fabric pins.
Build Your Beds - For each 4'x4' bed, I need 2 ea. 2"x8"x8' boards. I Opted #2 premium lumber, but you can use cedar if you like, but do not use treated lumber. Home Depot & Lowes both will make a few cuts for nothing, so have them cut the boards exactly in half. I say that, because 2x4s are a little bit longer than stated footage (how much I don't know and don't care). The doofus at my store cut them exactly at 4' and threw the bed size off. Thank goodness it was just one bed. I put the beds together using "corner construction", that is, the side of one board is attached to the end of another (see picture). I used 4 2 1/2" x 9 Grip Rite High Performance exterior screws, pre-drilling two holes at the end of each board.
You can either build your beds where they will be placed, or do it the hard way, construct them on the patio and drag them to where they're supposed to be. Lay 'em out, eyeball them for accuracy I'm running mine parallel to the back fence, so I don't want them catywhompered. Then lay down your landscape fabric
Add Your Soil -
Divide your beds into 12" squares - in my case 16 squared (4' x 4'=16'. You'll use the 1"x3" to divide the beds. This really needs to be a permanent feature. Measure 'em up and screw them down.
*My first dividers I tried to go cheap and used filler strips. They warped and split and don't really offer any
support if you need them to lean over to reach the inner squares (which I need to do with my short self).
Square-foot gardening was introduced in the '70's by Mel Bartholomew. I picked up his book "All New Square Foot Gardening" at Dollar General for $5 (older copy, but so what). I'm not going to get into details here, get his book and read it from cover to cover (like I did - several times). This site is to let you know my methodology, my hits and misses and suggested improvements (no use all of us screwing up, is there?)
I opted square-foot gardening because:
* I have control over the soil (I mix my own), and I don't waste energy digging up and amending this North Texas Clay.
* I plant the amount of seeds I want and save the rest. It's economical and allows me to experiment with heirloom plants. I'm not going to feel bad pulling up one or two plants if I don't like it.
* I don't need a bunch of tools. My B&D rechargable drill, a 1/8" drill bit, a T-20 star bit (for star-shaped screws) and a hand saw and my trusty tape measure were all I needed to put the beds together. As far as the actual gardening tools: a trowel, a pencil and a pair of school scissors. That's it!
* I can add to my garden as time, money and season allow. I'm building a bed at a time.
* No big deal about crop rotation.
You're going to need:
2"x8"x8' dimensional lumber, exterior or deck screws (I used Grip Rite 2-1/2"x9)3 ea. 1"x3"x8' furring strips, landscape fabric (total all your beds and buy 1 roll that will do the job-this will save you money), and landscape fabric pins.
Build Your Beds - For each 4'x4' bed, I need 2 ea. 2"x8"x8' boards. I Opted #2 premium lumber, but you can use cedar if you like, but do not use treated lumber. Home Depot & Lowes both will make a few cuts for nothing, so have them cut the boards exactly in half. I say that, because 2x4s are a little bit longer than stated footage (how much I don't know and don't care). The doofus at my store cut them exactly at 4' and threw the bed size off. Thank goodness it was just one bed. I put the beds together using "corner construction", that is, the side of one board is attached to the end of another (see picture). I used 4 2 1/2" x 9 Grip Rite High Performance exterior screws, pre-drilling two holes at the end of each board.
You can either build your beds where they will be placed, or do it the hard way, construct them on the patio and drag them to where they're supposed to be. Lay 'em out, eyeball them for accuracy I'm running mine parallel to the back fence, so I don't want them catywhompered. Then lay down your landscape fabric
Add Your Soil -
Divide your beds into 12" squares - in my case 16 squared (4' x 4'=16'. You'll use the 1"x3" to divide the beds. This really needs to be a permanent feature. Measure 'em up and screw them down.
*My first dividers I tried to go cheap and used filler strips. They warped and split and don't really offer any
support if you need them to lean over to reach the inner squares (which I need to do with my short self).
Raised Bed Materials List (Per Bed)
2ea. 2"x8"x8' #2 Common Lumber
16 ea. 2-1/2"in x 9 High Performance Exterior Screws3/8"
3 ea. 1"x3"x8' Furring Strips (for bed dividers)
16 ea. 2-1/2"in x 9 High Performance Exterior Screws3/8"
3 ea. 1"x3"x8' Furring Strips (for bed dividers)
The Soil, commonly known as Maya-Grammi's Mix
Since we're dealing with 3 dimensions here, you need to figure out how many cubic feet of soil you need.Here's how you calculate it. The area of my 4x4 bed is 16 square feet (4' x4'). I want 6" of soil in it (1/2 foot). So...
16' x .5' = 8 cubic feet of soil per bed
16' x .5' = 8 cubic feet of soil per bed
Mel's Mix1/3 Peat Moss,1/3Course Vermiculite 1/3 Compost (from 5 different composts), or
2.6cf Peat Moss 2.6cf Course Vermiculite .5 cf Compost each of 5 different types |
Maya-Grammi's Mix2cf Top Soil
1.5 cf Peat Moss* 1.5 cf Vermiculite ** Compost*** .5cf Cow Manure Compost .5cf Chicken Manure Compost (or Turkey) .5cf Mushroom Compost .5cf Cotton Burr Hull Compost .5cf Humus Compost |
* Buy your peat moss in 3.9cf bales. It's compressed so when you use it, it expands to about 8cf.
** Make sure your vermiculite is for gardening use. DO NOT USE PERLITE. It's expensive; look for 4cf bags which is a bitch to find, it's more cost effective. Check feed stores or you can order on line (see links). Mel's mix requires course, but after I got home, I realized I purchased medium at the feed store, but it seems to work okay and it was cheaper and closer (9 miles) than my original destination.
*** Some of your compost will come in bags designated x-cubic feet. Some bags are marked x-gallons, so for reference: 1cf=9.72 gallons. Unfortunately most compost the size you need (and most cost-effective) will come in 25 or 40 pound bags. You can't convert pounds to cubic feet, because you're mixing mass (weight) with volume(cubic feet), However, after much researching and comparison , you can assume that a 40# bag = 1cf. It's not exact, but it's close enough. Shop around for prices. I bought mine at Russell Grain (local feed store), Lowes and Home Depot. You'd be surprised at the difference in the price of mushroom compost at the two big box stores, so compare prices and spend your money on quality seed.
** Make sure your vermiculite is for gardening use. DO NOT USE PERLITE. It's expensive; look for 4cf bags which is a bitch to find, it's more cost effective. Check feed stores or you can order on line (see links). Mel's mix requires course, but after I got home, I realized I purchased medium at the feed store, but it seems to work okay and it was cheaper and closer (9 miles) than my original destination.
*** Some of your compost will come in bags designated x-cubic feet. Some bags are marked x-gallons, so for reference: 1cf=9.72 gallons. Unfortunately most compost the size you need (and most cost-effective) will come in 25 or 40 pound bags. You can't convert pounds to cubic feet, because you're mixing mass (weight) with volume(cubic feet), However, after much researching and comparison , you can assume that a 40# bag = 1cf. It's not exact, but it's close enough. Shop around for prices. I bought mine at Russell Grain (local feed store), Lowes and Home Depot. You'd be surprised at the difference in the price of mushroom compost at the two big box stores, so compare prices and spend your money on quality seed.
Tools
Square foot gardening doesn't require many tools. I have a Black & Decker rechargable drill I used to build the beds and a hand saw to cut the 1"x3". You need a tape measure to measure the 1x3's and to divide off your beds (I eyeballed the first one and it looks weird). As far as planting: a #2 pencil. Yep, you poke a hole in the soil to plant your seed, use the eraser-end to cover the seed, brush it off and stick it back in your pocket. You may a small trowel to plant transplants, but go simple $0.98 at Home Depot or Dollar General. You'll also need a pair of scissors to snip leaves, etc with. I use the el-cheapo Fiskars school scissors (also available at your neighborhood Dollar General).