Allotments 4 All

Ceres put me on to this in another thread.  I have volunteered to help with a small ornamental veg patch and am very taken with the concept so decided to start a dedicated thread

Has anyone done square foot gardening?  It can be done in a very raised bed on legs so might suit gardeners with mobility problems.

The idea is to have a grid of 1 ft squares.  Sorry to you younger folks I have no idea what this is in new money.  It about the size of a large square shoe ;D ;D 

(Its about 30.5cm. or just a bit longer than my size 41 boots.)

I have come across a list of spacings would like comments on these

Beans: dwarf 9; climbing 8 - (seems a bit close to me)
Beetroot: 16
Broccoli: 1
Cabbage: 1
Carrots: 16 - might squeeze is some more
Cauliflower: 1
Celery: 4
Chard(Swiss): 4
Sweet Corn: 1
Cucumbers: 2
Aubergine: 1
Garlic: 4 or 9
Leeks: 9
Lettuce: 4 think I will do lots cut and come again
Onions: 16
Parsley: 4
Peas: 8
Peppers/chillis: 1
Radishes: 16
Spring onion: 36
Spinach: 9/sqft
Squash, Summer: climbing 3/4 ; bush-type 1/3   can you see 4 squash plants in a 1ft square?
Squash, Winter: 1/2
Courgette: 1 - or it might just take over the whole grid.

link to another list of square foot spacing.
http://faq.gardenweb.com/faq/lists/sqfoot/2003112433023631.html

Digeroo it all looks good to me! I'm sure that it'll be great fun to do, and interesting to see how you get on. No doubt you'll have hits and misses but can learn from that for the next time round.
My size ten wellies are a foot long which is handy when setting out!

Many thanks for the link.  Bit confused about the daffodils.  Thought they were poisonous.  When you buy basil there are about 15 or so in a small pot.  Only ever grown it on the windowsill.  Tend to eat it and then have another pot.

Still think that one or two runner beans is enough, and even in our rather tepid climate I think that tomatoes, chillis and aubergines and courgettes/squashes will find it hard to stay in a one foot square.  

The problem will also be that I am not going to do the day to day care only the planning and set up.  The residents and staff will actually do the work, so no idea what will happen.  Though I will go round about one every two weeks and  sort things out and replant anything that is not going well.

I just really like the concept of the squares.  I think it is a great idea for children, schools and those with very little time or space.  I hope to get a planting plan going so that something can be planted every week. 

It is a really interesting idea and I love the look of them. I grew a courgette on my yard this summer and no way would it have stayed in a square foot.

Only 1 sweet corn ? I thought it was best to plant in blocks to ensure pollination  :-\  Or have I read your list wrong!

Interesting idea tho  :)

Not sure whether I will bother with sweetcorn, though I have a variety from Franchi in which the leaves and cobs are red which is quite attractive.  Can climb beans up it.  Cheaper than canes!!!

how about baby sweet corn, doesn't need pollinating , could get 4 in then, maybe 5 if planted in a cross ?

My two cents: If your corn grows "as high as an elephant's eye" the way it does here, it would be way out of scale and gawky for the size of garden you're talking about as well as needing pollinators nearby. The miniature corn might do better though I've no experience with it. Is it worth eating?


I once tried growing beans up corn and found them difficult to pick, in fact a pain in the neck to pick.

You might like Massai bush beans which are small bushy plants and produce large  handfuls of medium sized beans and are so easy to pick.

Slim Jim Eggplant (aubergine) is a smallish plant, attractive greyish green leaves which would give you some variation in texture. I grew two closer together than a foot and they still produced.

It sounds like a fun project. Please post pictures as you go along.

Actually my favourite dwarf beans are Aigilon, Purple King and the cheapo Wax beans from lidl - Kinghorn Wax, I find Safari the Kenya bean a little temperamental if the weather is cool.  The beans rot off very easily.

Quote from: Digeroo on October 11, 2009, 20:18:43
I find Safari the Kenya bean a little temperamental if the weather is cool.  The beans rot off very easily.

Ahh, the climate difference. We don't get cool til October. (It was 65 F in the house today and hubby is threatening to put on his long underwear.)

To understand the method and spacing you need read whole book.

I might have got the wrong end of the stick, but the spacings in your list seem to refer to the number of plants per sq/ft. So if you read the 1/2 for the winter squash plant as a fraction i.e  half a plant per sq/ft, then you'd need 2sq/ft per plant, which sounds a little more realistic.
Just a thought!

ARV that is what the notation means.
the older book suggest that courgette needs a 3ft x3 ft area .
but that is if you don't train the plant vertically.

last year my older daughter had a bed to herself measuring 3ft x 6ft and we grew the crops loosely following to the square foot way. i think it was more 18" x 18"

the 1st row was:

courgette - corn x 5 - wigwam of peas - sunflower.

then the 2nd row was:

Tomato x 1 - beetroots 3 mini rows - carrots x 3 rows interplanted with 2 rows of spring onions - lettuce x 5.

once the corn was finshed we put in one seed potato for a Christmas cropping and a second lot of lettuce little gem i think was planted around the stem of the sunflower plant. and the when the first lot of lettuce was finished we planted a late crop of parsley, basil and coriander.

the courgette was on the edge at a corner so we actively trained it away from the middle of the bed it was a yellow variety which wasn't too rampant.

hope this helps :).

Many thanks to all for your comments.  The advantage of the grid will be that the residents and the staff of the residential home will be able to plant each cell in turn.  I think they have weekly gardening sessions.  It will also make labelling easier. 

I hope to have some climbing courgettes and squashes and some can cascade over the front of the plot.

It is getting cooler here.  Quite warm in the sunshine this afternoon, but cold at night. 

Back at the allotment the geese were flying over in large numbers just before the sun set.  A sure sign that winter is on the way.