Brenda’s Square Foot Garden

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3 Responses

  1. Barry says:

    Hi Brenda, I strongly recommend using the Texas Plant and Soil Lab in Edinburg, TX for your soil test. They’re at AskThePlant.com. Their process detects what nutrients in your soil are available to the plant instead of all of those that are in the soil whether they’re bound up or available. It’s more expensive, but I think it’s more accurate and more likely to give you results that will help you improve your soil. I used them after getting a result from A&M that didn’t make sense for my Dallas area soil. I’m not affiliated with either of them in any way.

  2. Kathy says:

    I have multiple 4×4 beds, too, and I’ve been very happy with the size. I’ve tried different sizes over the years — long narrow beds, bigger square beds, etc. — but the 4×4 seems to be the best mix of space and easy access from all sides. My one exception is my asparagus bed which is 4×10. I have asparagus planted in 8′ of it, and then I use the remaining 2′ at the end of the bed for other plants.

    I wouldn’t worry about only using four kinds of compost. I only used three when I set mine up — cow manure, mushroom soil, and our own homemade compost — and have been successful. We have since had friends who have sheep and horses tell us we are welcome to get manure from their barns, so we’re hoping to incorporate different varieties as we go along, depending on what’s available.

  3. So you decided to go with the 4×4 setup huh? At first, I made a post of small square garden design based on the 4×4, but I am actually going to end up with a 4-6 x 10-15 ft bed when I build my hybrid hugel beds. I think this ends up being a better method since, it adds nutrients to the soil naturally without a massive need for soil analysis like you did, not that I wouldn’t test my soil.