Square foot gardening: potatoes

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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

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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.

Crop rotation in the square foot garden

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There’s very few pest problems in the square foot garden. I do have issues with snails and slugs because of the many greens I grow year round. I have methods to take care of those and they work, but it does take a little bit of time. Truth be told, I spend more time controlling slugs than I do weeding. The basic rotation of root/fruit/leaf is not only a good way to get lots of variety, but its a great way to cut down or eliminate garden pests. I had radishes (root) in the front squares during the early spring, followed immediately by transplanted lettuce(leaf), and now beans(fruit). No bug issues here! Growing in the back of the box is my favorite variety of spaghetti squash. And there’s lots of them!

Growing zucchini vertically in 1 square foot

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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.

Thinking about the winter square foot garden

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Here it is-almost the second week into July and we’r already talking winter. Though lots of fun summer harvesting is still ahead, it’s time to think about what needs to go into the winter garden. In a few weeks it’ll be too late to think about crops such as leeks, and green onions. You certainly won’t be able to find them in the nurseries around here. And what ever happened to parsnips? Nobody grows them anymore! If you’ve not tried them you should. They are so good in the winter garden as the colder temperatures make them very sweet. I’ve always started these three crops this way. The reason? I’m not telling yet. But you’ll see when they are harvested. You can grow them better than anything you’ll find at the market.

I’ll have a few gardening classes coming up for those interested. The first couple will be the fall square foot gardening class. Immediately after that will be the square foot garden winter classes, complete with how to build protection, what crops do well here, and when to plant. These are both done at my home in a very comfortable setting where you learn how to do it. 

Come Labor day when most people start thinking it’s time to close the garden, yours will be up and producing a huge harvest. Stay tuned.