My Square Foot Garden » Reference

Bulk Compost in Utah

emilyrhp — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 16:43:52 +0000

Salt Lake Valley SWMF Compost
801-674-6920
6030 W California Ave
SLC, UT 84104

$30 for a truck bed full

Timpanogos Special Service District
801-756-5231
5050 W 6400 N (Utah County)
American Fork UT 84003

$20 for a cubic yard (will not fill your truck bed)

When to Plant by Spring Frost Date

emilyrhp — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:37:07 +0000

The “last frost date” is the date that, on average, is the latest you will have frost in your area. After this date it is generally safe to transplant frost-sensitive plants and seeds.

To determine your frost date:

Click here.
Under “Select a State(PDF)”, click on your state. This will bring up a list of locations and frost dates.
Search for a location near you, preferably one at a similar elevation, with similar weather conditions.
The MIDDLE date is the best (middle column, middle row).

If your frost date is between March 15 and June 15, click here for a planting schedule (done by color group). Otherwise, use this chart to determine when to plant:

13 weeks before the spring frost date

12 weeks before the spring frost date

11 weeks before the spring frost date

10 weeks before the spring frost date

9 weeks before the spring frost date

8 weeks before the spring frost date

7 weeks before the spring frost date

6 weeks before the spring frost date

5 weeks before the spring frost date

4 weeks before the spring frost date

3 weeks before the spring frost date

2 weeks before the spring frost date

1 week before the spring frost date

Week of the spring frost date

1 week after the spring frost date

2 weeks after the spring frost date

3 weeks after the spring frost date

Suggested Plant Varieties (by State)

Emily — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:27:05 +0000

Iowa

Missouri

Utah

Why Square Foot Gardening?

Emily — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 01:00:43 +0000

So I have all sorts of ideas and hopes for this site, the least of which is to document my gardening efforts and keep all the information I research in one place. We’ll see if this turns into anything bigger than that!

To begin, I thought I’d explain why, when I wanted to garden, I chose the square foot method.

Easy Setup: The gardening bug hit me hard, but my husband has yet to catch it. I needed a garden I could plan, build, and maintain all by myself. I ordered my boxes from www.squarefootgardening.com, hauled peat moss, vermiculite, and bags of compost in my Ford Taurus, and put it all together with the help of a 15-year old neighbor girl.
Space: Our lot is about 1/5 of an acre, and while I could have made room for a traditional garden it would have taken up most of my backyard.
Simplicity: While there are a ton of things you CAN do to grow a successful garden, there are only a few things that MUST be done. Mel Bartholemew’s book All New Square Foot Gardening gives simple instructions to build, plant, and harvest a garden. BTW, the cheapest place to buy the book is Amazon.com.

Now, the best reason to do SFG became clear about halfway through the growing season:

NO WEEDING. One of my boxes sits next to a weed-infested city park (separated only by chain link), and it grew maybe 10 weeds total. The other boxes had no weeds at all. I can easily say I spent less than 1% of my time pulling weeds. Following Mel’s method and using his “Mel’s Mix” instead of soil removed the most time-consuming and annoying aspect of gardening–weeds.

Have you done square foot, container, or intensive gardening? What benefits have you experienced?

Plant Spacing

Emily — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:09:41 +0000

Plant	# Per Square
Asparagus	1
Basil	1 or 4
Beans	8
Beets	9
Broccoli	1
Cauliflower	1
Carrots	16
Cauliflower	1
Celery	1
Chives	9
Cilantro	4 or 9
Collards	1
Corn	4
Cucumbers	2
Dill	1
Eggplant	1
Garlic	4-9
Kale	1
Lettuce	4
Okra	1
Onions	9 or 16
Oregano	1
Parsley	1
Peas	8
Peppers	1
Potatoes	4
Radishes	16
Rosemary	1
Spinach	9
Swiss Chard	4
Turnips	9
Vine Tomatoes	1

Plant	# of Squares
Cantaloupe	2
Pumpkins	2
Summer squash	9
Bush Tomatoes	9
Watermelon	2
Zucchini	9

To calculate how many plants per square, look on the back of the seed packet–totally ignore the row spacing, just look at the plant spacing:

3″ apart (or less), plant 16 per square
4″ apart, plant 9 per square
6″ apart, plant 4 per square
12″ apart, plant 1 per square