Category Archives: square foot gardening

Square foot gardening: potatoes

Leave a reply

The normal spacing of 1,4, 9, 16 is a little different for potatoes. I’ve been asked how much to expect from a single square of potatoes. This is what I got when I harvested last week. Eight pounds! For the past 3 years I’ve tried without much success to plant these in grow bags. Much has been written about how to do this, and some have reported much success. I’ve never been able to do it. I have, however, always been able to grow potatoes in my SFG soil. Because they take 3-1/2 months from seed to harvest, I thought switching to grow bags would give me the same yield and save room in the SFG beds. It didn’t. I don’t even hill the potato seed. I simply put them in the soil about 6 inches deep, cover with soil, and start watering. Red pontiac’s. They are so good. I’m going to attempt growing some right now in the hope that I can have baby new potatoes for the winter. 

Summer lettuces in the square foot garden

Leave a reply

I wrote an ebook on this and how to do it. We’ve had over 2 solid weeks of mid to hight 90 degree weather. How do you grow lettuce in that kind of heat? With just a few tricks anyone can do it. This is a fun and tasty salad green. When you learn how to do this you’ll never really want to buy the lettuce greens at the store. Like a customer said to me many years ago: “I learned that lettuce actually has a taste.”

I have one of two winter garden classes coming up this weekend. Most in our area have never done it. But once you have you always will. There’s nothing like the winter garden. It’s practically no work. For me, its a matter of better tasting food that you grew yourself. And with this virus thing going on, who knows what will happen? Being prepared for any kind of potential food shortages won’t affect me this winter.

Growing zucchini vertically in 1 square foot

Leave a reply

We all know how much space one zucchini plant can take up. Ive been growing mine vertically with a t-post and a jumprope for years. If you’ve been to even my beginners square foot gardening classes you know how it’s done. It also helps you to harvest zucchini at the proper stage by not letting it get too big. This is sandwiched next to 2 tomato plants, a cantaloupe plant, basil, parsley, potatoes and beans. Everything grows in the square foot garden while being really efficient.

Vertical growing in the square foot garden

Leave a reply

All vining crops in the square foot gardening system are grown vertically. This includes squashes, melons, tomatoes, pole beans, pumpkins, gourds, etc. The thinking is crops get better air circulation and better sunlight. Another benefit is that it keeps things off the ground making it more difficult for pests to ruin your crop. You also don’t have to worry about turning an ankle because you didn’t see one as you moved through the large leaves they have. 

I’ve posted before on growing zucchini vertically in one square foot. It works and I’ve been doing it for years. This is a picture of angel hair spaghetti squash. Right now there are 6 growing, with one ready to harvest in about a week in the lower left hand corner. There’s probably only 10 pounds of squash growing at this time but in several weeks, this will be a wall of green filled with a lot of squash. And all it took up was 2 square feet. 

Little gem for us square foot gardeners

Leave a reply

I’ve been growing zucchini vertically for years in my square foot garden. All vining crops are grown on trellises to save room, and to also provide better air circulation and sunlight. You know that zucchini leaves can get very large. As long as you have things that can get some sunlight you can use those larger leaves as a shade cover to cool down the soil for crops that don’t normally like the extreme temperatures we get. I’m able to get good morning sun on this lettuce, and then the larger leaves shade it for the hottest part of the afternoon, Combined with 3 or 4 other tricks, you can grow lettuce all summer long no matter where you live. We have temperatures in the high 90’s and even low 100’s every year. My ebook is right over there on the blog if you want to learn more about growing lettuce in the hot summer months.