Tips on growing a mixture of veg in one small raised bed/square foot gardens

[Crystalmoon]

Hi everyone, having moved quite a long way from my allotment & not being able to drive I am having to change the way I organise growing my fruit & veg. I plan to keep the fruit, spuds, many varieties of squash, artichokes, things that take up lots of room or take ages to grow at the allotment.
I am moving all the plastic raised beds to the small garden at the back of my new home. The beds are a square foot in size & can be stacked on top of one another for things that need deeper soil. I was wondering about trying the square foot garden approach - has anyone tried this?  If so what veg grew well with what?
I am finding it hard to get my head to accept that in square foot gardening you sow closer together & can mix many crops in the same bed.
I'm hoping to work out a mixed crop growing plan that can be sown in succession in each new bed for at least 3 beds (hope that makes sense) rather than part sowing each of these beds leaving empty soil for the next sowing etc. Hoping to confuse pests this way as I doubt my new neighbours would appreciate some of the mad looking wire/net/fleece type tents I erect at the allotment to cover whole beds of vulnerable crops & noisy plastic bottles on sticks, cds flapping on strings in the wind wont go down well either ;D
It needs to be a neat as possible....any suggestions welcome, thanks Jane

[Crystalmoon]

[Crystalmoon]

Opps sorry my raised beds arent a square foot they are a metre by a metre but I could use the square foot approach with them...now Ive confused myself  :D    Missing neat long rows of well spaced veg at the allotment already,lol xJane

[Jeannine]

Hi Jane.

If you want to rotate your beds, stick to brassicas in one, roots in a nother and what I call others in another one.

Brassicas are of course all the cabbages, broccs, Brussels, kales but also includeradish and turnips.
Roots beet,carrot,parsnip,potato.Although I give my potatoes a different spot.
Others include just about everything else, except I seperate mine further to do a salad bed and I do pit radishes in it. I also do tomatoes seperate although you could do those very well in large pots and save your beds.

You may want to think about snaller veggies unless you have a lot of mouths to feed, eg Tom Thumb and Little Gem lettuces, also the mini versions of some caulis etc.

If you have space make a bed , a tub or very wide pot to salad greens that you scissor off at about 4 incxhes high, I grow mine in  rectangle tubs about 20 inches x12 inches  and about 10 inches deep, they are the crisper trays out of old fridges.

I did exactly what you are doing the year before we left the UK as I was not able to go to thelottie as much. It worked very well for me and I grew everything I needed.

XX Jeannine

[Flighty]

That's better as I was sitting here with a foot ruler wondering what else apart from radishes you could grow.  :)

This Garden Organic Square foot gardening webpage may be of interest -

http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/organicgardening/gh_sqft.php

[Crystalmoon]

Hi Jeannine thanks for all your fab advice. I will be growing most brassicas at the allotment as they require the tents of madness,lol, to keep pigeons/pests away & take a long time to come ready for harvesting...will try radish at home though & maybe kale so they could have their own bed. Potatoes will be at the allotment this year but I may do salad spuds at home next year (they would get their own bed).
I'm feeding less mouths now as my two eldest sons have left home hence the move from large 3 bed house to small 2 bed ground floor flat - also my arthritis is too bad to cope with stairs all the time too so being on the ground floor is a great relief. If my knees get worse I will have to give up the allotment but for now I want to grow as many varieties of ' triffids' (winter squash plants) as possible on my plot so I can work out the ones I cant live without that I can maybe grow at home when the time comes to say goodbye to my lotty. I've not seen mini caulis but love the sound of them so will look into getting seeds.

I've actually got 12 of the plastic beds but can't fit that many into my small garden unless I stack some 2 or 3 high. I've been buying them a few at a time when ever I've seen a good offer (thinking ahead to making my allotment more manageable when my arthritis is very bad). They securely & easily stack 2 or 3 or even 4 high. The few I've already used at the allotment had one crop sown in them at a time & plants were still well spaced.

Flighty thank you so much for the link just what I need to get an idea of how to approach this new way of growing, really do appreciate it very much.
:D yes the image of a foot long ruler makes me think exactly the same thing, with so little soil space what can I grow....surely only 2 lettuces, one small cabbage or a few radish will fit!? Think I need to get some graph paper ;) 
xjane

[Jeannine]

I think the idea of square foot gardening is OK, I did it once years ago but..... they do make a soil blend that is very rich and I didn't want to do that. Great for Little Gem lettuce of course.XX Jeannine

[sunloving]

I had to garden in these beds for two years they are really very versatile.
Dont forget that you can still train things upwards and so peas and beans and squash are not out of the question you just have to stake them well. I still use mine to grow the carrots and parsnips as they do so well in them.

My other tip is to spread cardboard in the bottom before you put the soil in , it really reduces the runout of water.

Good luck
x sunloving

[strawberry1]

I have three 30" tall raised beds at home, each is only 6 sq feet. I do rotate and right now have catch crops in them ie oskar dwarf peas and lettuce in one, lettuce beetroot radish dill in the other two. Come july, the three beds will be stable in their rotations and containing their autumn/winter crops ie carrots in one, leeks in one and starbor kales in the other. I will be rigging up a net on canes over the kale, which will come down late autumn.

I like having some accessible veg during winter and tbh the crops are amazing

[Jeannine]

I also have three thigh high raised beds which will have winter veggies in, they are great especially since most of our plots flood in the winter.

XX Jeannine

[Crystalmoon]

Thanks for the cardboard tip Sunloving. & I hadn't considered growing squash in them at all so will give that some serious thought.

Hi Strawberry1 great to know the crops are good from small beds. I also really like the idea of easy to manage winter crops I can get to without a long walk in the cold.

I'm hoping it will be much easier to control slug damage too. Feeling excited about setting up my new at home growing space...may not get a big variety of crops this year as it's late to sow some but next year I will be trying everything I like to eat to see how they do  ;) xJane