Square Foot Gardening

[GaryD]

The brainchild of American Mel Bartholomew, square foot gardening is a superb growing system which makes very efficient use of water, space and time.

It is particularly useful for people who long to grow their own clean, fresh vegetables but who lack the skills or experience to garden in the conventional way.

While it is neither hydroponic nor soil-based in the strict sense of either term, it has some unique qualities that make it the ideal growing system to partner with any backyard aquaculture system.

Bartholomew claims (and my experience supports) that a square foot garden :

• Involves 50% of the cost
• Requires 20% of the space
• Uses 10% of the water
• Needs 5% of the seeds
• Requires 2% of the work

…..of a conventional soil-based garden.

That’s an attractive food production proposition in itself but a partnership between a square foot garden and a backyard aquaculture system makes for an even more compelling arrangement…..one that is even more water-wise.

We first tried square foot gardening about three years ago. At that time, we set the beds up on the ground and nut grass found their way into them and began to choke the life out of the other plants.

This time, we've built a bottom into our bed and placed it on a stand. Not only is it now out of reach of the nut grass, it is at a comfortable working height.

A square foot garden could be partnered with a small recirculating aquaculture system (RAS)......using trickling bio-filters for nitrification.

In a conventional RAS, the build up of nitrates is controlled through regular water replacement. I plan to use this nutrient rich water to feed my square foot bed.

It's 20 years since Mel Bartholomew first wrote his book "Square Foot Gardening" so the bona fides of this growing system are well established. The addition of a RAS extends the efficiency of the system.

While it's not aquaponics, it is just as waterwise and space efficient.....and not a gravel grow bed in sight.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

Here's a couple of clearer shots of my new square foot garden.

The growth of the seedlings has been less than we'd have expected. It turned out that the compost that we used in the mix was lacking nitrogen.

We added a bit of composted cow manure and things are on the move again.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

We've had our fair share of trials with our square foot garden.

Initially, we got limited growth because the compost component of the growing mix was lacking something. We sorted that with some blood and bone and a little well-rotted cow manure.

Then the leaf-eating caterpillars discovered the bed and at most of what was in it. We replanted some of the seedlings.

The growing mix drains exceptionally well......too well.....so I've rigged up a small pump and a reservoir below the square foot bed. We simply turn on the pump and apply fish tank water to the base of the plants. It then drains from the bottom of the bed and back into the reservoir. We can now, if necessary, water the garden several times per day.

I took these photos today and things are looking up nicely. We've already had our first feed of beans and a strawberry.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

Here's today's photo of our square foot garden. We're still battling the caterpillars but this little unit is faring better than most of our systems.

The garden currently holds dwarf beens, marigolds, chives, onions, carrots, silver beet, capsicum, English and Italian parsley.

Gary

[DuncanC]

Looking good there Gary.

What type of media are you using? You said compost, but is it a special mixture? Are you worried about anyhting from the compost driaining into the RAS and killing the fish?

Duncan

[fozzy]

Hi Gary,

That looks like a nice little garden. I bought Mel's books this year and planted a 4 foot square garden. I have also found that some of the seedlings didn't grow as well as I would have expected. I added some dynamic lifter and some of the plants have really taken off now. I used Coir Mulch instead of the recommended Peat Moss in my mixture and thought that that might have had something to do with it, but it was probably the compost that I used (various different bags from Bunnings).

For my winter planting I plan to dig in some blood and bone and more dynamic lifter and see how that goes.

[GaryD]

Hi Duncan and Fozzy,

What type of media are you using? You said compost, but is it a special mixture? Are you worried about anyhting from the compost driaining into the RAS and killing the fish?

The growing mix that we use for our square food bed comprises coco peat, vermiculite and compost. We mixed three different types of bagged compost together in an attempt to ensure that it was good enough. When we had problems with slow growth, we added some blood and bone and some bagged cow manure which resolved the problem. Now it's really firing......and it's also suffering much less insect damage than our other growing systems.

The drain from the bed doesn't return to the fish tank so there's no risk of harm to the fish. It drains into a tub in which we put fish tank water. We use a little pump to move the water from the tub to the bed.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

Our square foot garden has been growing with such vigour that the marigolds have been mulching the adjacent plants.

We've harvested several lots of french beans and the herbs and spring onions have been good, too. We've even picked some small capsicums....but the caterpillars sorted the silver beet.

Anyway, we removed the marigolds and tidied the bed up before replanting with several punnets.

The satellite pots are empty and the flood and drain beds are full of tomato bushes and herbs because the caterpillars will eat anything like lettuce, bok choi or silver beet.

In contrast, I've been delighted with the performance of this garden throughout the worst growing season of the year in our area.

Gary

[GaryD]

Hi,

This little garden to surprise us with its productivity. A few days ago, we harvested about a dozen nice little capsicums. The herbs.....chives and parsley....are used on a daily basis.

This garden is watered with a small submersible pump in a tub below the garden bed. Whenever the bed needs watering, we switch the pump on and apply the water to the base of each plant with a plastic hose. The water percolates through the growing mix and drains back into the tub. The tub is replenished from the adjacent 1000 litre fish tank as necessary. We've added a bit of composted cow manure and blood and bone to the growing mix.

GaryD

[GaryD]

Hi,

This year, our 1200mm by 1200mm (4' x 4') square foot garden has continued to delight us with its productivity.

We've found that the easiest way to water this little bed thoroughly is to shut off the drain line and flood the bed to just below the surface.....then we open the drain and the water runs back into the reservoir below.

The growing mix is a mixture of vermiculite, perlite, coco peat and cow manure. We water it with water that we pump across from the fish tanks ....to which we add a bit of Seasol periodically.

Gary