The first think I’m doing is planting seeds with my new Pot Maker.  This is a nifty little gadget.  Here’s a way for you to use your own newspaper to make pots for your seeds.  No more of buying that plastic stuff that’s expensive and only last a year-unless you do a lot of work to take care of them during the off-season.  In which case they might last you two years.  You end up cutting newspaper in lengths of 10 inches by 3.5 inches.  Then, you fold them under the barrel and use the bottom to, in effect, crease the paper.  After you’re done you have a nice little pot to fill with soil and start your seeds.  This is the time to think about what kind of flowers you’d like to have in your garden.  Here in northern Utah we will be able to plant outside in about 6 weeks.  Six weeks out will put your plants at a good size to then be placed in your garden.  Also, start to think about what other things you’d like to grow that will take squares for the whole summer and fall.  Things like tomato plants need to be started right now.  If you’re buying transplants it doesn’t matter-you can buy them whenever your ready.  But b ready to cover them if the weather gets nasty.  Pepper plants, herbs, cucumbers, and squash are all things you can start within the next week or two-inside that is.  If you’re growing tomato plants from seed you’ll need to re-pot them once, maybe even twice.  It turns out that the more you re-pot with tomatoes, the better they do outside.  I think tomato plants are a little unique in that way.  I don’t know of another plant that can be handled that much and still be good when you’re done with them.  This picture?  It’s one square of what has come up in the Food Bank lettuce SFG that I’m growing.  This is Black Seeded Simpson.  Imaging that….64 heads of lettuce in a single 4X4′ garden box…..

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A whole bunch! I’ve done a little experiment. So far this year, this is what I have planted: 48 heads of lettuce, 45 spinach plants, 16 radishes, 9 onions, 16 carrots, 4 Swiss chard plants, 1 rosemary plant, and 32 sugar snap pea plants. This has been grown in 29-1 foot squares. If you did the math with this and planted these items as you would for a regular single row garden this would take up 57 feet. This is not including the 3 feet that most single row gardeners will use between rows when they plant, but let’s keep it simple. This is just in feet. I watered everything in my garden today using 15 litres-call it 15 quarts-it’s close enough. Let’s round up-this means my SFG used about 2 quarts of water per square. If the single row gardener used the same amount of water on their garden(a huge assumption given the fact that their soil wont be even close to yours as far as water retention)to water the same plants, that would amount to 114 quarts! 114 vs. 16 quarts? That’s a reduction of about 86%! Well, what if your single row gardener didn’t have the same soil as you do and had to use more water-a very strong possibility? I hope you can now see why us SFGers say we reduce the water we use in our gardens verses water used in a traditional single row garden by 90%. Reduce, recycle and reuse…..

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There are some questions as to what the square foot gardener needs for success by way of soil.  As the book says, you’re not going to need or worry about your existing soil because you’re going to make your own.  By the time you’re done mixing it all in, you will have a perfect soil to plant just about anything you want.  No more worry about pH, soil structure, clay soil, loam soil, fertilizer, etc.  This picture shows what you’ll need to effectively grow your first SFG immediately.  First-peat moss.  This helps with keeping a nice, loose, and friable mix.  It also has some water retention properties.  Cost-about $7.  Second, coarse vermiculite.  This is mica rock that has been heated to a certain temperature until it explodes.  This is what helps hold water more than any other ingredient in your SFG.  You should always try to get the “course” variety instead of medium or fine vermiculite.  The finer you end up buying, the less effective it will be at holding water.  This is the most expensive component-about $25.  Third-a blended compost.  If you visit my gallery you will see the individual items that make up this great compost.  I think it’s the best commercially available compost available.  So, if you can’t find Garden and Bloome soil building compost, try to get something that approximates this.  Cost-$8.  This will be all you will need to fill one 4X4′ SFG at a depth of 6 inches.  If you want to go a foot deep then you will have to double this amount.  For the most part though, 6 inches will be all you’ll need for most things.  Do not cheat on making the soil.  This is a one time expense and you’ll end up regretting it later on if you’re getting the growing medium from the landfill or just buying horse/cow/chicken manure, etc.  It is not worth the few dollars you think you will be saving.  If you cheat on the soil and when you have limited success you can’t come back and tell all your friends “that square foot garden stuff doesn’t work.”  One of the worst things you can do is to fill your boxes with potting soil.  Why?  Potting soil is specially made to get new starts off quickly with a very small amount of fertilizer, peat moss, and some perlite.  It’s only made to be short term.  If you were to fill your beds with this your garden would be out of the necessary fertilizer for what you want to grow in about 4 weeks.  Be smart.  Stick with this triple combination and you can’t go wrong…

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