How to Plan a Square Foot Garden

The SFG is suited to anyone with a little time and a square foot of soil. Each square foot is treated like an individual garden. The limited garden space makes plants easy to tend and harvest. As one crop matures, another is planted in its place. Informal square-foot plots are planted in existing landscaping. Here are tips on planning your square foot garden.

Things You'll Need

• Framing materials such as wood, bricks and rocks
• Flower seeds or bedding plants
• Vegetable seeds or bedding plants
• Optional herbs and mints

Instructions

1. Mark one or more garden spots with about a square foot of unused soil. The easiest SFG is in a raised bed. This focuses the garden with little wasted space. Block off the square foot with a wood frame, bricks or rocks. Loosen the soil and fill the frame with compost or potting soil.

2. Create a theme for each SFG. If this is a first garden, annual flowers are the easiest to grow. Fill the framed garden with short rows of colorful dwarf marigolds, zinnias, cosmos or other low maintenance flowers. Hardy annuals take some neglect and still thrive. Inexperienced gardeners or busy people enjoy the success without spending much time and effort on a square foot of space.

3. 

   Reserve a private SFG for a young gardener. A child can stir the small plot compost and plant tidy rows or scatter seeds of small radishes, baby lettuce and other fast-growing munchable veggies. Garden centers have special seed areas just for children. The plants are easy to grow with fast sprouting and fun illustrations.

4. 

   Plan a saucy SFG. One square foot will hold a staked tomato plant and several basil plants. The tomatoes provide salad ingredients or can be chopped into canned tomato sauce for added flavor and texture. Basil chops well into most meat and pasta dishes.

5. 

   Try the square-foot garden to solve problems. Use a mint SFG for a shady and damp garden spot. The mints can be invasive so the frame contains the spreading plants. Plant an herbal square-foot garden in a sandy, sunny area. It gives a miniature herb garden that can be replanted or maintained for the next year.

6. Browse the garden centers for seeds or plants that look seasonally interesting. The SFG can be planted season after season with a new or unusual plant. Because the SFG can be ripped out and the soil scattered in minutes, it requires no long commitment. The square-foot garden is a concept perfect for people with a gardening urge, small areas and a little time.

Tips & Warnings

• Plant vegetable gardens where the gardener sees it regularly and remembers to spend a few minutes in the garden. Stake tomatoes, zucchini and other sprawling plants to keep them in a small space. More ambitious gardeners plant formal raised bed gardens filled with compost and divided into square-foot sections. Look for books and magazine articles on these organized square-foot gardens.

• Plant non-toxic plants if young gardeners are helping tend these little gardens. Be sure no volunteer mushrooms or other plants tempt children.

Resources

• Square Foot Gardening