Square Foot Gardening

Square foot gardening is the method of planning a small planted garden. This practice follows other organic gardening ideas and this method is well suited for areas with really poor soil or novice gardeners or people with disabilities. The original method in this practice normally contains an open box with finite amount of soil, divided into grids.

Each grid is planted with different kinds of plants and the number of plants per grid varied depending on the plant size. Normally, single tomato occupy the whole grid, herbs such as basil, oregano, or mint can be planted four in number, and about 16 radish plants can be planted in one grid. Climbing plants like pole beans are normally plants along the northern row to avoid shading over other plants, and this is supported by netting or lattice.

The smaller beds are used because the gardener can easily cover the whole area without walking on the plants. The path between the beds should be wide enough for a gardener to work comfortably. Each bed is divided into approximately one square unit and the separation is marked with twine or sticks so that it will be visible even after the plants are fully grown. The soils recommended for this type of garden are peat, compost, and vermiculite.

The beds are watered and weeded from the pathways. New soil is always added to create a garden and along with this compost is added to maintain the soil fertility. This gardening method can be followed in any part of the world such as plateaus, deserts, mountains, urban areas, and even in polluted soils. The beds are normally of size 4×4 and it can also be custom made according to the preferences of an individual.

The benefits of this type of gardening are enormous. This gardening requires very much less work than the conventional gardening. The conventional type needs some tools to make soil loose, on the other hand here the soil always remains loose. Weeding is done easily and requires very less time because of the raised beds, light soil, and easily accessed beds. Harvesting also doubles because of the soil mixture, lack of weeds, and spaced plants.

Water saving is another great benefit. The preferred soil mixture has the water retention properties and therefore, one need not have to water plants frequently like the ordinary methods. Hand-watering is possible with this practice because of which young plants can be saved. This close planting also shade out the weeds and eliminates the weeds to germinate.

The natural insect repellent methods are used in square foot gardening, which means this is a pesticide and herbicide free gardening. Accessibility with this type of gardening is enormous. Plywood can be attached at the bottom of the box and the box can be placed on any raised platform. This way physically disabled person can also involve themselves in gardening.

This gardening method allows people to create their own garden and grow organic, fresh homegrown foods. This practice requires only little time of maintenance and this is the best way to calm and relax from the everyday stress.

Based on this method you can growing anything, for example tomatoes.

By Sergio Sage

Article Source: EzineArticles.com