SFG

I think because of the surprisingly mild winter we've had this year in my area, I haven't gotten spring fever as bad as I did last year. But spring is in the air and gardening is soon to follow--which means we need to finish the rest of our garden boxes. Now that we're no longer trying to garden on a balcony in a city (which is one of many options for SFG), we have room for several boxes, in addition to our traditional garden, which we use for growing potatoes and the bigger plants, like squash.

I've written briefly about Square Foot Gardening in the past, which has been our preferred method of gardening for a few years now. It was developed by Mel Bartholomew and has revolutionized home gardening around the world. Its empowering principles are the reason I'm an SFG convert. Here are the most important points to know about Square Foot Gardening, from Mel's blog:

Compared to traditional row gardening, SFG takes only…

• 50% of the cost
• 20% of the space
• 10% of the water
• 5% of the seeds
• 2% of the work

SFGing means:

• No more hoeing weeds
• No more heavy digging
• No more chemical fertilizers
• No more buying seeds every year
• No more rototiller
• No more all-at-once harvest
• No more excessive watering

I recommend getting your own copy of Mel's book, as there aren't generally many in library systems. You will want to refer to it repeatedly for details on how to set up your box, plant, water, etc. Our SFGs last year were a great disappointment because we left in the plastic weed barrier that was already there underneath. This year we will be using the recommended weed barrier fabric instead, which will hopefully eliminate those problems. (So learn from our mistakes and don't use plastic...!)