The typical SFG bed is just 4’x4′, and one or two beds is plenty for most folks. First it takes up lesser space. Keep producing that, and your gardens will keep growing for you. You then plant the appropriate number of plants in each square. A retired engineer, Bartholomew brought his orderly mind to bear on the oft chaotic world of kitchen gardens. Just place your bed on the soil, cover the ground with cardboard to kill the weeds and grass, and add your soil on top. 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. Some seeds … You’ll place a wooden divider over the top of your garden which will visually show each square foot section in the bed. With proper planning you’ll be able to use each square 2-3 times in a growing season: 4 leaf lettuces early in spring followed by a pepper plant in the summer and 9 small beets for your fall garden. Seeds or seedlings of each kind of vegetable are planted in one or more squares, at … It’s a simple way to create easy-to-manage gardens with raised beds that need a minimum of time spent maintaining them. It optimizes and organizes your garden space. Seeding square is a seed spacer for planting a vegetable garden. Keep seed bed shaded, if possible, and well watered. Square Foot Gardening (commonly referred to as  SFG) is a planting method that was developed by American author and  TV  presenter Mel Bartholomew in the 1970’s. ! Each bed should be a foot deep. Mel Bartholomew is a man who has been attributed to creating a different method of growing vegetables and flowers, and that is not in rows, but in squares. Last year we decided to start using some of the methods of square foot gardening in order to get the most out of our small raised bed gardens. However the area required in this method is 80% lesser than the space that is … Square foot gardening seems to work everywhere, even on your backyard or patio. Planning a Square Foot Vegetable Garden 30 July 2010 , written by Jeremy Dore Square Foot Gardening (commonly referred to as SFG) is a planting method that was developed by American author and TV presenter Mel Bartholomew in the 1970s. Onion, carrot and radish seeds need only 3 inches around them to mature, allowing you to plant 16 plants in such an area. Square Foot Gardening yields 100% of the harvest of a traditional garden in 80% less space, and with a mere 2% of the work. If you don’t have extra squares, don’t buy extra seeds. The nice thing about starting a raised bed from scratch is that you don’t have to till the ground underneath. Great for all ages and experience levels. Use square-foot gardening techniques to create a raised bed garden. In Square Foot Gardening, the common quantities used in planting are 16, 9, 4, and 1 per square foot. Get more veggie and less weeds with this color-coded seed planting tool. - Plant carrot seeds directly out into the garden. We hope you enjoyed our first article Plant Spacing Chart for Veggies. The whole idea is … Keep your gardening costs down by collecting seeds from your plants at the end of the season. By planting just a pinch of seeds instead of a whole packet, you can save a lot of money by saving the excess seeds for next year’s crop, and the next year’s, and so on.