|
Cute Ideas That Can Save You Money on Your Planting
There are many interesting ideas that can help you save money on your planting and landscaping. Most of these ideas involve a little creativity, but you end up with an attractive and distinctive yard. And some of the ideas look nice and can save you money in...
Perfumed Posies - Ten most Popular Fragrant Roses
The rose attracts people to it for its unique shape, but you've got to admit, most people are attracted for its smell primarily. It's the smell that drives women to request it for a birthday or anniversary celebration. Roses are the premier way to say I love...
Weed Control Facts: Winning the Battle of the Weeds
Keeping your landscape plantings, flower beds, and nursery crops free of weeds is a battle, but if you approach it with...
|
|
Reap what you Sow - How to Choose the Right Rose for your Garden
Roses are delightful plants to grow in your garden. Few other plants are as attractive or burst with as much color as roses do. Successfully raising roses will bring you great satisfaction. But roses can also seem like picky, finicky plants that need a...
Trellis Training - What you need to know about Climbing Roses
Climbing Roses are a wonder of the rose world. Planting one can really spice up your rose garden or enhance the quaintness of your surroundings. You will be amazed at the vigorous, hungry growth of these powerful plants. They can be trained to climb on top...
Herb and Vegetable Gardens
Most people think of landscaping as rocks carefully placed, manicured lawns, and large trees scattered about a property. However, a garden can make a very attractive addition to any landscape. Whether it is an herb garden or whether it is a vegetable garden,...
|
|
Gardening In A Square Foot
If you haven’t heard of square foot gardening, you’re about to learn one of the most useful and versatile gardening techniques ever created. Conceived by Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening, the techniques have been enthusiastically adopted by gardeners all over the world. Square foot gardening is eminently suited for container gardening, patio and roof gardening, backyard gardening, organic gardening, herb gardens, vegetable gardens, flower gardens and more.
The basic concept is to start small – the unit of measure is the square foot. Although Bartholomew’s original square foot garden was four feet square, many schools, community gardens and home gardeners start even smaller – a couple of one square foot containers is plenty to get you started. According to Bartholomew though, a four square foot garden provides just enough harvest for one person.
How to Create A Square Foot Garden
Creating your own square foot garden is as easy as building (or buying) a box in which to garden. My own first square foot garden was a two square foot garden on the cement apron outside my back door in a city apartment. I used four square wicker plastic lined wicker wastebaskets bought for a dollar apiece at the All-for-a-Buck store. Any container that can hold 6-8” of dirt, and has drainage holes in the bottom will work. The biggest requirement for location is sun – choose a nice, sunny spot to place your garden.
Did I say dirt? Amend that. Bartholomew recommends what he calls ‘Mel’s mix’ instead of soil. Mix 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat moss and 1/3 compost to fill the
squares of your box or container. A 10 pound bag of each was plenty to fill my little 2 square foot garden.
Choosing and Laying Out the Plants for Your Square Foot Garden
The most important factor in laying out your garden is the one-square-foot grid. You’ll be planting one type of plant in each square – how many of them depends on the recommended spacing between plants – which you’ll find on the back of the seed packets. Depending on the needs of the specific seedlings, you can plant 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants in each square. To break it down – if the recommendation on the seed packet is 1 foot apart, you can plant 1 in a square. If they need six inches between plants, you can plant 4. Two inches gives you room for 9 plants, and one inch spacing means you can fit 16 plants into one square foot.
My own first square foot garden was a spaghetti garden with this layout:
1 Basil Plant 4 Tomato plants
1 Oregano Plant 16 Onion plants
After You Harvest Your Square Foot Garden
Harvest the crop in each square foot when it’s ready, and continue harvesting until it’s no longer producing fruit/vegetables. At that point, uproot the plants in that square (use them for compost!), and plant another, different crop. By refilling and rotating the crops, you avoid depleting the natural nutrients of the soil, and keep every bit of space productive throughout an entire growing season.
About the Author
This article courtesy of http://www.floral-world.org>http://www.floral-world.org
|
