• Everything other than hot peppers. Questions, discussion, and grow logs. Cannabis grow pics are only allowed when posted from a legal juridstiction.

Square Foot Gardens

Things are finally starting to really shoot up here.
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The stuff you see in rows is radishes, beets and lettuce that I'll thin down the line into true square foot garden spacing, and we'll eat the thinnings. Today's chore is to transplant the eggplant and tomatoes. I thought I'd experiment with the red plastic mulch for the tomatoes to see if it makes as much difference as they say in fruit setting.
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I also uncapped half liter water bottles, buried one upside down next to each plant and cut the bottoms off of them so I could make sure each plant would get at least that much each time I watered without it running off of the plastic mulch.
 
I did 12. 3 rows of 4.  All Annuums. This year its 3 rows of 3 Chinense and 3 rows of 3 Annuums in a 4x8.  You have a nice deep bed and a really top notch soil mix. Those plants are going to love it. You can always thin a few out if they get too crowded later in the year.
 
Nice job Rob! I may just have to transplant my Red Rocoto to the raised bed in the backyard so I can rig a shadecloth there for the summer heat like you did.
 
If you every wondered if your soil mattered, here is a small bit of proof. 
 
Savoy cabbage from the same batch that is in the square foot garden. First picture I just planted in the flowerbed for landscape.
 
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Savoy cabbage in square foot garden
 
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Wiri Wiri
 
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Orange Habanero
 
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A quick couple pics of my two raised beds.  I find I can get more carrots planting in rows in a raised bed rather than using the square foot spacing.  The second bed uses square foot spacing for the most part, I have extra dill and basil plants shoved in there.
 
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Now i just need some sunshine so things can really take off.  It looks like it is going to be mostly overcast and rainy again for the next 10 days.
 
With all the good stuff you put in the soil, 1 sq.ft  is not going to be enough for most of those plants, they are getting huge. How are the peppers in the sq.ft. garden coming? If they look anything like mine, they are probably taking over. 
 
Jeff H said:
With all the good stuff you put in the soil, 1 sq.ft  is not going to be enough for most of those plants, they are getting huge. How are the peppers in the sq.ft. garden coming? If they look anything like mine, they are probably taking over. 
Head over to my GLOG, check out the growth in 1 week. There is a picture from 6/20 and today 6/27 where they have doubled in size!
 
westin said:
Weird... my dad just asked me to order a book for him from Amazon on square foot gardening this morning. First I had ever heard of it. Sounds like an interesting concept.
You will see it a lot in older gardening books. Especially ones from the library.
 
First year growing something other than herbs in containers on the deck.  I decided to try the square foot method because it seemed like an easy way to learn (have to start somewhere). I built this, loaded it with Mel's mix, and filled it with mostly different types of peppers (habs, thai, poblano, and regular green) and some basil that I got from the local nursery.
 
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Woke up one morning to see a family of groundhogs eating all of my pepper plant leaves.  So off to Home Depot I went.  The PVC allows me to swing the chicken wire directly up for easy access.
 
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