# Any Squarefoot Gardeners out there?



## orange (Oct 23, 2011)

Or gardeners in general?

I took up gardening, specifically squarefoot gardening, after I bought my house - last year was my first season, and this year I expanded a bit. Despite the crappy weather conditions and losing a number of plants to pests (including every single pear on my tree - darn squirrels), I've noticed that I pretty much have no need to buy produce during the summer. Other than some fruit and root vegetables, all of my produce comes from my little garden. Not only is it frugal (even after the cost of garden supplies are factored in), it tastes soooooo much better! And it's fun!

I think my ultimate goal will be to turn the entire back yard into a food producing space...but for now I am continually evaluating our food needs and adding crops slowly each season.


Anyone else finding fun and frugality with a garden? Do you go a few steps further and preserve some of your harvest for year long savings?


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## Russ (Mar 15, 2010)

We are in our second season of square foot gardening. We started with 3 4x4 gardens. We added another 1x16 along a fence this year. This fall I am adding some more. It's addictive! Unfortunately we have a very small yard so I'll have to stop soon. But the square foot concept is extremely productive - there's no room for weeds.

I'm not sure how much we are saving - this was not a very good season weatherwise - but the flavour of fresh, pesticide-free vegetables is worth every penny. And of course we actually do save a lot of money.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I've always been intrigued by the square-foot gardening concept but have never tried it. The other thing I'd like to try is the Four Season Harvest techniques espoused by Elliot Coleman, who grows vegetables all winter in Maine, where the climate is almost as cold as it is in much of southern Canada.


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

I grow tomatoes ever year, and we've recently planted some perennials: Raspberries, asparagus, rhubarb and we planted peach, apple and cherry trees.


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## liquidfinance (Jan 28, 2011)

We don't have a large area of land but I do intend on following the square foot concept next year with probably a 6 * 6 area. I've grown a few bits this year. Lettuce, tomatoes, Basil, Mint, Rosemary, Celery. I really left it too late in the year to do much this time round.


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

I've been doing square foot gardening for a few years, with variable levels of commitment. This past year was my worst, I knew we were going on vacation for 2 weeks in late July and I just said screw it, and only planted a few lettuces and carrots. Hopefully next year will be better. 

In the past when I've grown zucchini there's been SO MUCH that I froze and canned some of it. For the other veggies I've never had so much we couldn't eat it all, though.


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## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

Spudd said:


> In the past when I've grown zucchini there's been SO MUCH that I froze and canned some of it. For the other veggies I've never had so much we couldn't eat it all, though.


LOL...when my late wife & I lived on Salt Spring Island in BC we, and our neighbors, had large veggie gardens.....I remarked that it was a pity you couldn't just grow 1/10th of a zucchini plant.

One neighbor used to say that "You can always tell people who have no friends.....they're in the store _buying_ zucchini".


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## Islenska (May 4, 2011)

Not wanting to appear too dumb but what is square foot gardening??????????


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## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

Islenska said:


> Not wanting to appear too dumb but what is square foot gardening??????????


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_foot_gardening


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## Islenska (May 4, 2011)

Nemo, thanks for that,I honestly had never heard the term before.


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

I've never really liked the term, but it's better than "urban farming" <- fancy pants hipster term for gardener.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

It's more than urban farming, though: plenty of country dwellers use it for kitchen gardens. It's really a form of intensive gardening (see French intensive gardening, which is similar) where plants are grown in very fertile soil, compost, or manure, and grown much closer together than normally recommended.


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## liquidfinance (Jan 28, 2011)

It really is a great concept for those who are just starting out or with limited space.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

This is a much better than wackier ideas like vertical farming (using high value urban land, thousands of tonnes of glass, concrete and steel, copious amounts of heat and artificial lighting all to avoid the next less crazy idea of building traditional greenhouses and trucking vegetables 50 km, with far lower energy, material and land costs.


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## crazyjackcsa (Aug 8, 2010)

It's a great concept, it's the wording that bugs me. Fancy language to beef up what it really is: A small, tightly planted garden. "Urban farming" is just the yuppie way of saying "gardener".

Ever heard of "Forest Bathing?" Normal people call it a walk in the woods. But that's far to pedestrian for some people.


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## Nemo2 (Mar 1, 2012)

:rolleyes2:


crazyjackcsa said:


> It's a great concept, it's the wording that bugs me. Fancy language to beef up what it really is: A small, tightly planted garden. "Urban farming" is just the yuppie way of saying "gardener".
> 
> Ever heard of "Forest Bathing?" Normal people call it a walk in the woods. But that's far to pedestrian for some people.


You weren't aware that berserk euphemisms can propagate exponentially and indiscriminately? :wink:


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## hboy43 (May 10, 2009)

Hi:

My 2000 or 3000 SF (I forget now how big) SUCKED this year because I don't irrigate - that would drive down my hourly wage from about $3 to 50 cents. For some reason the carrots and onions did better than usual, and the tomatoes made a late rally, but everything else was horrid. I got no zuchinni, it was that bad!

The orchard did nil also. Most of it took the same hit as everything else with the early warm spell in March. The yellow transparent apple tree had 2 dozen apples that mostly weren't insect infested, but the deer got them when I was away 2 weeks. The tree not in the orchard, but at the house had 2 apples, one for me and one for the squirrels. I had a few very tiny pears for the first time on a 9 year old tree that I perhaps picked too early, they might not ripen.

Of coarse with the crops not growing, the ground was mostly bare. Now with the recent flush of rain, the weeds are taking off and have full sun.

If I had to eat off the land this year, I'd be starving.

hboy43


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

I also love gardening and also never heard of this term ;-)

This year we are in the new location and I was late with everything and had clay soil to work with (and some bugs that took out some of the tomatoes), however not knowing that I am squareroot gardener ;-) I have implemented the idea and my herb section where everything was well fertilized with compost/coffee grounds, quite tight and marigilds boot, apart from couple of smaller herbs that got overpowered by the bigger plants the area really did fantastic, it seemed to have develop it's own tiny, lively microclimate. My little herbal amazon ;-)


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## Islenska (May 4, 2011)

I'm sort of doing the extreme opposite by combining for a real grain farmer. This is season #2 for me and we have had some 12hour days which were harvesting wheat, we just got into canola when the misty rain has hit so shutting down for now. Not great crop yields this year but prices are up (starting to sound like a true farmer),
Sure enjoy the outdoors and whether you are farming 6sq feet or 1000acres it is an honest pursuit!


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## humble_pie (Jun 7, 2009)

Homerhomer said:


> I also love gardening and also never heard of this term ;-)
> 
> This year we are in the new location and I was late with everything and had clay soil to work with (and some bugs that took out some of the tomatoes), however not knowing that I am squareroot gardener ;-) I have implemented the idea and my herb section where everything was well fertilized with compost/coffee grounds, quite tight and marigilds boot, apart from couple of smaller herbs that got overpowered by the bigger plants the area really did fantastic, it seemed to have develop it's own tiny, lively microclimate. My little herbal amazon ;-)


i each: this post.

"my little herbal amazon" sounds like the title of a great gardening article ...


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

humble_pie said:


> i each: this post.
> 
> "my little herbal amazon" sounds like the title of a great gardening article ...


My poetic skills end on the title,.... hence you are welcome to take it on from there ;-)


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## JDWood (Apr 3, 2009)

Living in Calgary with the clay soil made gardening fun(?)....We made a little plot about 14 x 14 and every year add
top soil to our rows, but the clay would consume it all, pulling carrots out of dry clay takes a lot of slow digging. One
day at a hardware store we seen these rubber-made boxes on sale, we got 4, weeding is so easy now We have 10 going now.
They are about 3ft long, 2-1/2ft wide & 3ft high.Top soil in the bottom half, top half is pro-mix, no more losing our soil to clay.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

To dig carrots out, take a big shovel and dig down on either side of the row. If the clay is very hard, just pick it up (the clump) and throw it at the ground to make it crumble.

Although, carrots don't grow well in clay, so I wouldn't bother growing them. Vegetables that are worth growing yourself: tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, broccoli/cauliflower. Peppers aren't a bad idea, but you'll probably be disappointed with your results growing outdoors. The best quality peppers are grown hydroponically in greenhouses (the varieties they use these days are very impressive in terms of taste and fleshiness of the fruit). Field peppers are cheap but mediocre quality.

Tomatoes are the big winners. Nothing beats a fresh tomato ripened on the plant.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I'd agree with everything on that list except possibly broccoli. Broccoli is a heavy feeder, so you need good soil or lots of compost or fertilizer, and each plant just puts out one head. Once you cut that off you get a lot of smaller ones, but in the end I found that store-bought broccoli was cheap enough and good enough that I stopped growing it. Although it's true that some of the varieties you can buy from seed companies taste better than the standard broccoli you get in supermarkets.


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Most vegetables are cheap enough that buying makes more sense. I look at vegetable gardening as a hobby, not a frugal activity. There's a reason why most families don't do it any more.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

True, but as you pointed out with tomatoes, there are some veggies that you just can't duplicate with store-bought. I just found that things like carrots, broccoli, etc. were just as good at my local supermarket or farm market as what I could grow myself. But tomatoes, fresh peas, herbs, and lettuce fresh from the garden really can't be beat. It used to be true for sweet corn as well, but the varieties you can get now seem to keep much longer...I can eat day-old corn and still enjoy it.


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

andrewf said:


> Most vegetables are cheap enough that buying makes more sense. I look at vegetable gardening as a hobby, not a frugal activity.


Same here, although if you were to compare to prices of organic vegetables at the supermarket the hobby would start making more sense financially.

The few months in the year I can go to my backyard pick fresh, basil, parsley, green onions and others, and enjoy the fantastic aroma and flavour is actually priceless for me ;-)


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## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Herbs are another story. Basil, rosemary, thyme, parsley are nice to have around. Especially since the amount you buy in the grocery store is usually way too much for what you need, so you have to cook several dishes with the same herbs. Store-bought basil is usually pretty depressing compared to fresh from the garden.


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## hboy43 (May 10, 2009)

Hi:

For me the next best after tomatoes for vastly better taste growing your own are my Touchon variety of carrots. Simply delicious. I get the seed from Vesey's in PEI. In fact, I'm going to go pull one right now.

hboy43


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## Homerhomer (Oct 18, 2010)

hboy43 said:


> Hi:
> 
> For me the next best after tomatoes for vastly better taste growing your own are my Touchon variety of carrots. Simply delicious.


Cool, will try them next year.

Perhaps others share their favourites and success stories?

Mine are:

Herbs:

Lovage, an annual very popular in Eastern Europe and gaining popularity in Canada (CT had them last year), very intense flavour, use them for garnish or for cooking soups, meats, sauces.... sort of parsley and celery in one. My favourite.

French tarragon, very intense flavour, even tiny bit will make your food sing, however it's not everyone's cup of tea.

Tried many kinds of tomates and two that stand out for me are:

green zebra - ripens into green/yellow stripes, more tangy than regular red tomatoe, everyone who had them at my house loved them and asked for more.
black krimm - old russian variety of black tomates, very good flavour.
Both produce good crops.

All of the above do well in our climate.


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## liquidfinance (Jan 28, 2011)

I got my little patch prepared yesterday.
It's around 7*8 in total. Going to set a few garlic out shortly ready for next year.

Still not decided fully on what I will use the space for.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Hey Liquid - here are a couple posts about my garden from my blog:

http://www.myownadvisor.ca/2012/05/square-foot-gardening-101-investing-in-your-health/

I provided an update on this in July:

http://www.myownadvisor.ca/2012/07/investing-in-our-health-july-update-on-square-foot-garden/

Cheers.


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## groceryalerts (May 5, 2009)

It is great to see people gardening - when we get a bigger place I will really start to garden (cuts down on spending).


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## rookie (Mar 19, 2010)

so where in the gta can we buy the mels mix?


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## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

You can just make it yourself by buying vermiculite, peat moss, and compost. These are readily available at any garden centre.


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## underemployedactor (Oct 22, 2011)

MyOwn give the soil recipe in his blog that he quotes. 1/3 peat moss; 1/3 Vermiculite; 1/3 blended compost. Even a grocery store carries most of that stuff in the spring.


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## underemployedactor (Oct 22, 2011)

Hy Spudd, did you and I just mind meld there?


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