Square foot gardening

Square Foot Gardening: A New Way to Garden in Less Space with Less Work by Mel Bartholomew

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

Are you tired of my gardening book reviews yet?

This is, by far, the best vegetable gardening book I have read - particularly if you are interested in square foot gardening.

You hear a lot about square foot gardening, but Bartholomew really details every step to make your garden successful. The book is knowledgeable and detailed, but also an easy read. I also found that this book is very easily browsible and searchable, which is a plus for a gardening book.

I was easily sold on square foot gardening:
1. We don't have an excess of space. With square foot gardening, you can have plenty of food for two people with two 4x4 plots.
2. There are only two of us in our household, so we don't want an overabundance of produce that goes to waste. Rows of carrots that will be harvested at the same time would be a waste.
3. The set-up of square foot gardens make them easier to manage (weed, water, etc.) It also makes it easy to rotate crops in future years.
4. I prefer the look of the square foot gardening over rows of traditional gardening.

The chapters are set up logically, from planning to the different steps of preparing soil and planting to a dictionary of common vegetables and herbs. It is a great reference text for planting common vegetables and gardens. For a beginner, this book is a must. It made it incredibly easy to layout our garden in a spreadsheet for reference. It also goes into detail about how to plant more than one crop throughout the season. So, you really can get the most out of the land you have.

The only drawback to this book that I noticed is that the author mainly discusses common produce (common varieties of tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers, beans, etc.) If you are looking to do a special variety or something different, it may not be included. A larger plant encyclopedia is probably the way to go. For a beginner like me, this is not a problem. But, if you are looking to garden smarter, this is the book for you.

After reading this book, I put together a tentative plan for our veggie garden, so Ryan could visualize it when he preps the soil. I still have a few changes that I may make, but here it is so far:

The number in parentheses indicates how many plants go in each 1x1 square. In some of the crops, I will stagger planting so I don't have so many plants (like radishes) at one time. This will extend my growing season.

Ryan is in the process of building a small fence around the two plots so the critters (and the pugs) keep out. I will mark the squares with twine.

There will be a few feet of space around the sides for me to work in the garden. I'm considering mulching these areas. 

The vertical frame will allow the tomatoes, beans and cucumbers to grow up the frame. This allows better air flow and thus, healthier plants. Plus, it takes up less space. Ryan is fitting the vertical frame up the side of the deck, which will look pleasant.

What do you think?