Design Your Square Foot Garden Beds
So, you are going to start a garden! What will you plant, and how much? The best rule of thumb is to start small, and then grow a bit more each season. Otherwise, you will get overwhelmed and burned out!
- Write down a list of all the foods you wish to grow. Keep in mind–if you don’t buy it fresh at the store, you probably won’t eat it, even if it’s home-grown and free!
- Decide how many squares of each plant you will grow. One or two squares of each is probably plenty! Click here for a table that shows how many plants will grow in each square. Some plants require more than one square. Those are listed on the right of the table.
- Add up the total number of squares you need for your garden.
- Design your garden.
As you choose a design and layout for your garden, there are several things to keep in mind:
- Sunlight–your plants will need at least 8 hours per day. So don’t put your garden on the shady side of the yard.
- Size–do you want one large garden bed, or several smaller ones?
- Location–will your garden be against a wall that reflects heat? Or in a windy spot of the yard? Will it be surrounded by grass, which is cooler, or on a concrete patio, which retains a lot of heat?
- Shape–The width of the garden is limited to 2 feet from any edge you can walk by. So if you plan to build along a fence, you will need to have a narrow bed, or break the garden up into several beds.
- Aisles–3 foot aisles are a minimum! This allows a comfortable amount of room to walk and work, even when your plants have grown to full size.
Here are four different ways to configure 32 square feet of garden. Each is set in the corner of a yard with a fence on both sides. The first plan is 4′x4′, and sets the garden away from one fence, leaving a 3 foot pathway on both sides and between the gardens.
This 16′x2′ plan puts the garden right up against both fences. But since it cannot be accessed from the side, it can only be 2 feet wide. If it was any wider, there would be no way to reach the plants.
Next is an 8′x4′ plan. Notice it is 3 feet from the fence, giving access on 3 sides.
Finally, here is a “T’ design. It takes up the most space in the yard, but is also very attractive.
I don’t know if the “square food garden” concept would work in my case, or how I should approach it. First, I am disabled so my moving around is somewhat limited. Second, my garden area consists of 13 half barrels. Can I do anything with that?? If so, how.
On his website, Mel actually shows some options for those who can’t spend a lot of time bent over. Click here for a picture: http://www.squarefootgardening.com/index.php/Patio-Boxes/2-X-3-Cedar-Patio-Box-With-Legs/flypage.tpl.html
To apply the SFG method to your barrels, you would use Mel’s Mix instead of dirt and follow the suggested plant spacing.
Thank you for putting your website together! It’s really helpful!
I’m a first time SFGer…
I live in Ft. Lauderdale and have my 4′ 8′ box build and it is sitting on a concrete deck. I was concerned about drainage and was not sure if plywood or rocks would be better. I filled the entire base of the box with decorative marble chips which are essentially rocks in bags from Home Depot.
I have not yet added the growing medium as I was concerned the rocks might have been a mistake. Are the rocks too much drainage since the mix is so light? Please let me know your thoughts as I am ready to move forward this weekend.
Thanks.
Bill Lebo
I would worry that if the boxes are flat on the concrete it would not allow the soil to drain, and it would pool and drown the roots. I’m not sure if the rocks will improve this much. If it’s made of wood, I might try drilling some holes along the bottom of the box (every couple of feet) and covering the holes on the inside with screening. That way excess water has a way out, but the soil stays in. If you’re using vinyl, they probably aren’t flush to the ground so you don’t need to worry–it will drain.
I enjoy your blog
This has all been really helpful! Thanks so much…I may be coming back with questions once I have planned my layout.
Kelly
My first SFG. We are building raised beds off the ground due to having to set out fire ant bait in the yard and being concerned about runoff. What’s the best method for raising the beds and is it okay to use premixed garden soil rather than doing the Mel’s Mix which would be more time consuming and further delay our planting?
See the section about building raised beds. In addition to wood (cheap) and vinyl (pretty), you can use railroad ties, cinder blocks, etc. It depends on your budget and preference. You can use premixed garden soil if you choose, I’m sure it will be fine. I would suggest you fertilize regularly, either with organic or chemical fertilizer.
i used compost from a local landscape company. it was 25 dollars per cubic yard. it filled my raised bed that is 4 feet by 6 feet and and a foot deep. i had some left over to use in my potato bin. i just added a large bale of peat moss. i could not find vermiculite. the soil seems fine without it and seems to have the right amount of moisture retention. another bed of the same size was filled using bags of soil and compost from home depot and it was a lot more expensive than buying it by the cubic yard.
I’ve just laid out my sfg and am ready to plant. I’m concerned about how to keep cats from toileting in it?
I have a friend with cats, and she had problems with this. She built a “cover” made of chicken-wire. Did the trick! Anybody else have comments on this?
Hi Emily
Thanks for all of this great information! You are such a blessing! We just finished building our (2) 4×4 boxes today and did the Mel’s Mix with a 1/3 vermiculite (which I found at Agway here in CT for $32 a 4 cu ft bag), 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 compost (shrimp seaweed & cow manure based). It took some research to find the right stuff but I am glad we did. We had such a hard time calculating the 40 lb bags of compost and have more than we need but I filled my other garden beds with it so it worked out great.
Now I am working on the layout and using some of your ideas for what to plant where….I want to grow cukes, peas, tomatoes & pumpkins but they are all vines and I don’t have enough room on any 4′ side for all of these. any suggestions? I was trying to keep them on the North side of the northern box with one trellis but feel like those 4 plants will crowd the whole side of that box. Should I not have those 4 all together in one box maybe?
You can see our photos so far at:
http://ctcouponchic.blogspot.com/2010/05/square-foot-garden-updatecheck-out-my.html
Hope youre having a great weekend! Lisa
The daycare my kids attend wants to start a garden to encourage the kids to eat vegetables. We live in El Paso, TX. I think we are in the red color group.
What’s the cheapest way for them to start a square foot garden and what can they plant this late in the season? Also, they can’t plant anything even remotely poisonous so that rules out tomatoes, potatoes and rhubarb.
Much Thanks,
Geeta
The absolute cheapest way would be to do something like an Earth Box. You can find all sorts of homemade versions online. If you want to do the square foot method, building them out of wood is the easiest. I like using 2×10 or 2×12 boards, but you could go as small as 2×8 and still grow a pretty good garden.
As for non-poisonous plants, I know you’d be safe growing lettuce, spinach, beets, mustard, and mint. Anything where you eat the entire plant. I’m guessing peas, beans, and carrots would be safe too, but you’d have to do more research to be sure.