Do you have soil so full of shale that a pick ax, seven dwarfs, & a backhoe are required to plant a tomato seed? Is your soil comprised of enough clay you’ve built an exact, life sized replica of the leaning tower of Pisa in your backyard? We have the antidote to your backyard homesteading nightmares, Raised Bed Gardening.
Our First Square Foot Gardening Experience
In years past we had several very large gardens (three 10ft x 40′ ft).
That’s A LOT of work!
Between the tilling, planting, constant weeding and harvesting, by the end of the season I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame with muddy feet. I naturally have about as much hair as he does, so…not too far stretch, but I’m aspiring to more.
Even with the two of us, it was nigh on impossible keep up. Our harvest suffered and so did we.
So, last year, having moved to a very shaley area, we decided to try Raised Bed Gardening. We started with one 8ft x 12ft box made of old barn wood, added nine zillion tons of garden soil from Lowe’s, and planted our little hearts out.
We had a moderate harvest of vegetables, and a bumper crop of weeds.
Like the first time you ride a roller coaster after spending your afternoon eating fair food, it wasn’t the worst experience of our lives, but we’ve had better.
This year, my Mom’s friend, a Master Gardener told us about Square Foot Gardening and a soil mix called Mel’s Mix.
I can’t begin to say how pleased we are. It takes a bit of extra cash at the beginning, but it’s well worth it as your soil mix will last until you’re old enough to be planted in it yourself.
The idea is to make a 4ft x 8ft box. We reused ours from last year, so it was a considerably larger.
Here’s what you need for your raised bed gardening box:
- Four 2×8 boards. (Don’t buy pressure treated as they leach bad things into your soil!)
- Nails & Hammer (unless you got Kung Fu style)
- Screws and a Cordless Drill
- Twine (hemp, jute, bailer twine, whatever ya have laying around)
Combining Soil Mix For Your Raised Bed Garden
Make an area level and, if you’d like to do any mulching/stepping stones, etc, larger than your box will be.
Roll out landscape fabric and place your box on top.
Here’s what you need for the soil mix:
(Equal parts of each)
- Vermiculite/Perlite mix (look for the certification on the bag showing it’s asbestos free).
- Peat Moss
- Organic Compost (you can buy it your local garden center if you don’t make your own).
Frugal Hippie Tip: We chose to add some Organic Garden-tone Fertilizer as well. It smells like dead guy, but works like a dream. Note that there’s a specific one for tomatoes, Tomato-tone as their soil requirements are a bit different.
Grab a mask or better yet, full scuba gear. You’re about to get the kind of dusty where you’re still sweating dirt out your pores five showers later.
Now grab a rake, a pitchfork, or an extraordinarily large spoon and start stirring.
Stir some more.
Keep going. You’re almost there!
Just kidding. Keep stirring.
Take a nap.
Aaaaand, stir some more.
Frugal Hippie Tip: We’ve since discovered it’s remarkably easier to do this on a tarp. Further instructions will be located at the end of this post.
Next, rake the soil so it’s even(ish) across the top.
Hammer nails in the top of the rails at one foot intervals all around the box. Add string to make a grid of 1ft x 1ft squares. (I’m adding a picture from much later in the season in another box as I forgot to take one at the time).
Add your plants in and tada! A lovely garden.
Benefits of Raised Bed Gardening
According to the Square Foot Gardening page,
“The Square Foot Gardening method saves gardeners time, effort, tools, space and water. Schools across the nation and international humanitarian groups around the world are using the Square Foot Gardening method making inroads against poverty and hunger. The Square Foot Gardening method is estimated to cost 50% less, uses 20% less space, 10% of the water, and only 2% of the work compared to single row gardening”.
Pretty good stuff, huh?
Our Square Foot Gardening Experience
Overall, we’ll give it four green thumbs up!
- The weeds were extremely minimal this year (only a few per week) and were ridiculously easy to pull out.
- The soil stayed moist, though not overly so.
- There was no space wasted by rows to walk in.
- Our harvest was better than any other year we’ve gardened.
Tips for Using the Square Foot Method in Raised Bed Gardening
Since, our garden is now the envy of all two of our neighbors, and we’re like, totally experts, I’m going to grace you with some tips.
- Make sure to put up wire for your peas/beans/crawly things right away or they’ll end up like your hair after a good night out at the club: limp, hopelessly tangled, and infested with some strange insect you’ve never encountered before.
- Check the back of your seed packets to know how many plants you can put in each 1ft x 1ft square. Onions can be very close together. Potatoes get one plant per square.
- Find something else to entertain yourself as you won’t be spending 80 billion hours a week weeding.
Happy Gardening!
Peace, Love & Frugal Living,
-Shannie