Vertical growing in the square foot garden

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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

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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. 

Advantages of the Square Foot Garden

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It’s true there’s no heavy digging or hard work in the SFG system. It’s also true that there’s no weeding or thinning. Another thing that’s true is because you’ve minimized the size of your garden, it’s easier to protect. This week we had 50+ MPH winds, heavy rains, and hail. When you know what’s coming you can easily protect your small gardens from the elements until the bad weather is no longer a threat.You’ll see the tomato plants beginning to get some height along with a basil plant. But look at that lettuce! This variety has always been a great performer and seems to do well in the warmer temperatures. Being easy to protect, the elements had no effect on these plants while my neighbors had theirs almost totally ruined.

I’ll be having some upcoming classes on composting, and I know it seems early, but how about the winter garden? With the seed shortages and the need to get things going well ahead of time inside, now is almost the time to start thinking about that. I’ve tried to do better about letting people know about these classes on my blog and also my Facebook page.

Square Foot Gardening-the only way to go

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No wasted space, no wasted seed, hardly any work, no thinning, and no weeds! Here’s an example of growing what you actually eat. There’s really no sense in planting your entire gardens at once. Why do that? All that means is it will come up at once. At some point these 12 squares will be all lettuces. You can see its a shaded area so I use this bed a lot in the summer to especially grow salad greens. By not planting it all at once, you can see how I’ll have a steady supply of salad greens for a while. Each square is at a slightly different stage, a few haven’t even been planted yet. You can also see the very last of my carrots that over-wintered in this box. I had over 200 of them in there.

Speaking of lettuces, my favorite thing to grow, warm weather is just around the corner. Once outside temperatures go beyond 75-80, it becomes next to impossible to even have lettuce germinate in the garden. We have temperatures in the high 90’s and even a few days of triple digits, yet I’m able to easily grow lettuces right through the summer. I wrote an ebook about how to successfully do this. Check it out.

Potatoes in the square foot garden

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I don’t think I’ve ever posted about potatoes. If I have, it has been a while. The basic spacing of 1, 4, 9, and 16 in the SFG system is excellent, but with potatoes, I learned to change that up. Potatoes are planted 5 per square, and I always make sure each seed has at least two eyes in them. I do not hill. I do not let them scab over before putting them in soil. I just bury them 7-8 inches deep, cover, and start watering. In about 5 weeks they break the surface. I’ve grown potatoes in grow bags before, but I’ve never been able to match the yield than I can when planted in the square foot gardens. The soil really makes a difference. How much can you expect? I always harvest 5-7 pounds of red pontiacs every year. And the taste.