Square foot garden

Bicky

I have wanted to grow vegetables for a few years but do not have a garden. So this year i decided to do it at my parents house, since they have plenty of space.
I built the beds in two days. The first day i built the box and varnished it. The second day i stapled weed blocker on the bottom and filled it with soil.
The soil is a mixture of compost, peat moss and vermiculite in equal parts. This mix is suggested by Mel Bartholomew, the creator of the square foot style of gardening. The vermiculite was difficult to get and expensive. Lots of garden centres had it in 10 litre bags for 8 euro a pop, which was way too expensive as i needed 300 litres. Eventually i found 100 litre bags for 25 euro in the johnstown garden centre. National Agrochemical Distributors also have it but have none in stock(nad.ie)
Btw the coarse vermiculite is the stuff you really need but i could only get medium type. The fine vermiculite is definitely no good.

I did not varnish the inside because the varnish could seep into the soil and contaminate the plants.


Mypex(Weed blocker) stops weeds from growing up from the ground into the bed and stealing space and nutrients.


Irish weather, Got to love it. At one point the sun was so hot i had to take my jumper off, but at other times during the day it rained, snowed and pelted hailstones.


I put screws at one foot intervals. That way i can tie string across to divide the bed into one foot squares.




The Compost provides the nutrients and the vermiculite helps with water retention. The peat moss also helps with water retention whilst keeping the soil mix light and airy.


The almost finished product. I just need to get more compost.


I went a little mad when buying the seeds but i can always use them next year. I ordered them from seedaholic.com. Its a good website and the company is based in county Mayo.


Thanks for tuning in. I will hopefully be back in a few weeks with a few pictures of beautiful sprouting veg.

JP

wildlandscape

Incredible work, the raised beds look really brilliant. Will these be placed on a hard surface like a patio area? If so, the base is a good idea to prevent any seepage. However it would work without the weed blocker if located in the garden itself, (encourage worms into the growing space).

Looking forward to seeing more images!

Qwerty?

Well done Bicky.

I'm just starting into Square Foot Gardening myself. I also built one raised bed in my tunnel with Mels Mix, but got the Course Vermiculite in a Hardware store at €15 /100l. (They have it for insulating around chimney Liners)

I've also made up 5 raised beds (3.6m x 1.2m) from recycled plastic boarding. Needed way to much fill for these to use Mels Mix, so bought premixed Vegetable soil, 45% Topsoil, 45% Manure/compost and 10% sand. Will be interested to see if Mels Mix performs as well as it is supposed to.

I lined the bottom of the beds in Cardboard to suppress the weeds until they die, and to allow worms to mix the soil.

magicbastarder

i was curious about the method of blocking weeds - would you not think that the benefit of blocking any weeds which could make it through to the surface is less than the benefit of the crops you do grow being able to root more deeply?

Qwerty?

magicbastarder wrote: »

i was curious about the method of blocking weeds - would you not think that the benefit of blocking any weeds which could make it through to the surface is less than the benefit of the crops you do grow being able to root more deeply?

Well in the soil I have, the crops won't want to root into the soil below the raised beds it is so bad

Cabaal

raised beds look great, be very interested to see how it progresses for you

Bicky

Thanks for the kind words. I will keep the thread updated with info and pictures.

wildlandscape wrote: »

Will these be placed on a hard surface like a patio area?
Looking forward to seeing more images!

They are staying where they are in the last picture. I don't know for sure but i guess they would not drain properly if placed on a concrete surface?

Qwerty? wrote: »

Well done Bicky.
I'm just starting into Square Foot Gardening myself. I also built one raised bed in my tunnel with Mels Mix, but got the Course Vermiculite in a Hardware store at €15 /100l. (They have it for insulating around chimney Liners)

If i had only known about i could get coarse vermiculite i would definitely have gone for it. Anyone reading this now will know. Maybe you could post up where you sourced it.
Good luck with your beds and keep us updated on the progress. Maybe some pictures?

magicbastarder wrote: »

i was curious about the method of blocking weeds - would you not think that the benefit of blocking any weeds which could make it through to the surface is less than the benefit of the crops you do grow being able to root more deeply?

I am certainly no expert(in fact the complete opposite) but the creator of this method suggests a depth of just 6 inches would be enough. Apparently root crops will just grow vertically once they hit the bottom. Ending up with L shaped veg. :)I went for 9 inches anyway to be safe.

Bicky

I planted a number of seeds about two weeks ago.
Most of the seeds have broken through at this stage. These are the radishes, turnips and lettuce. On the other side of the bed are leaks, onions and three types of carrot.


This bed includes lettuce, spring onion and cauliflower which my mother purchased from a local garden centre.



I had this sheet of glass in the shed and it is perfect to heat the soil and protect the seedlings from the elements.


Inside a conservatory i have a few seed trays with cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts and garlic among others. In the large pot are three sweetcorn seedlings. They are coming along nicely, and I really hope they work out. In the three large black pots are two tomato plants and a cucumber.


My mother bought bags of multi-purpose compost from homebase. I would not recommend it because it contains a lot of solids, and it is clearly of a lower quality to the shamrock compost. I will post again in a fortnight. Hopefully I will have lots more growth by then.

Bicky

It has been a month since i put up pictures and things are coming along nicely.

Little courgette.




Lettuce, sping onion, dill, oregano, cabbage and strawberries.



Carrots, beetroot, turnip, radishes, French beans all from seed so a long way to go yet.


This is the old veg garden. It has loads of chives, rhubarb and onions.




These are tomato plants. I do not think they look great. Could be the pot is not big enough or i am not feeding them right.

littleredspot

It's an old thread but just wondering how all the attempts at square foot gardening turned out?