Don't worry. If you run out of room, just pull out the under-performing plants and forge ahead. One zuke is more than enough for a family of four for fresh eating and it'll start producing long before it gets huge. You can always succession plant -- so when the one zuke gets bigger and production starts to taper off, the replacement is getting big enough to flower. There's also a climbing zuke that likes growing in containers, but I haven't tried it. When I lived in California and had a small patio, I gardened square foot style. Most everything grew with precision and exactly as the books and web sites say. In Alabama? I think there's steroids in the dirt. I get monsters here. I experimented with small melon plants last year, and Minnesota Midget really does live up to the description but all the melons ripened at once and then the plant died. I got 5 4-5" melons off a tiny little plant with a couple of 4' vines, though. This year I am trying a reportedly smaller zuke plant (cocozelle) and smaller winter squash varieties. I have lots of room but the BF doesn't eat many veggies and I need smaller portions!

Well, I guess I will add my two cents worth, though ha' penny's worth might be more accurate. I don't really like the terms that are used most often because of misconceptions people have. Many people think square foot gardening is little square plots with diverse things in it and the plots have to be arranged all in neat rows. It doesn't have to be that mundane. Several responses here have said that, and I have to add my "that's right!" to it. I prefer small space gardening as a term. I also like layer gardening rather than lasagna gardening because there is a misconception that lasagna gardening is a set method of preparation that requires a sort of recipe approach. That all being said, small space gardening is what it is. There are basic principles that make it work well. Combining it with layer gardening, however, is a little tricky. One of the problems you run into is your layers. Some of us who have started gardening from scratch have no green stuff to put into a garden layer. In a new house inside a new subdivision? Yeah, I am. No trees! Where am I going to get brown stuff to put into a garden layer? And, if you do find the ingredients, the layers are not bioavailable and do nothing but act as mulch for a year or two. The added difficulty is planting things in those layers, or through the layers to the untreated soil beneath (which is what you are really doing that first year). The truth is that this method takes way too much time anyway. If you want to start fast and then add greens and browns to keep going, here is a good way I have used again and again. And this method actually speeds things up and adds a wonderful treat to your garden. Step one: become a grass murderer! Sorry, but you have to. Kill the grass in the bed you want to make. Removal is best, but back breaking, and if you have that hated weed, Bermuda grass, you will just get invaded from anything you missed. For that reason, you want to put down something that will choke the grass out well enough not to leave any behind. I like using a combination of newspaper and cardboard in the winter. Next put up your bed walls to contain your bed, being sure that you have the walls a little smaller than your newspaper and cardboard prep. This is because one of the most annoying things is to build your bed walls first and have grass survive at the very inside edge of your bed, sending runners all through your bed in early spring. Next layer the bed. I use the following, but the trick is to come up with your own that works for you. You will notice that I use a little more wood much than you would expect, but wait for it! There is a good reason. Starting with the deepest layers: Composted humus and manure sand wood mulch composted humus and manure top soil wood mulch Now, this can be planted as soon as spring hits (or immediately if you are growing some cool season crops). Now you need to do something that will break down all that wood mulch (remember I used two layers). I like to use King Stropharia mushroom spawn and put it in the garden. Okay, I know that sounds crazy, but it will make sense in a minute. King Stropharia is an edible mushroom and decomposer that works wonders. As it breaks down the wood, it releases nutrients to the soil and attracts earthworms. It also preys on nematodes. After your first season of gardening, you can cut all the dead stuff and put it in the garden. Throw in some more wood chips or wood mulch (hardwood works best in my experience) and the mushrooms will keep digesting and composting the soil. You then plant again the next year, leaving the layer of debris and mulch from the previous year on top and harvesting your mushrooms. The result is that you now have an active, living compost pile right in your garden that you can layer things on to your heart is content. If where you live is warm enough to grow the mushroom, I definitely say you should try it. I have heard that phoenix oyster mushrooms work equally well for setting up a space saving garden with layering.

Peas, radishes, lettuce, eggplant, green beans, carrots, potatoes, zucchini, and squash are all great for a square foot garden. Don't try to grow the peas, radishes, and lettuce (cool weather crops) during the hottest part of summer though. They won't make it. I live in zone 7 and planted mine (seeds) outside a couple of weeks ago in a cold frame... though, I've been leaving the lid open at night lately. As long as it doesn't go below freezing, your plants will be okay. If you're looking for something that will give you high yields, definitely grow zucchini and yellow squash. Green beans produce like crazy, too. I like to plant them a couple of times about three weeks apart to have a steady supply. Here is a link that might be useful: Modern Stead

Woohoo, thanks you all! I'm glad if I can add any useful ideas -- the global level of gardening innateness... well, poking in here feels like I get to eavesdrop on a bunch of people who have been gardening for over 50 years each (somebody is going to point out that at least 2 people here *have* been gardening at least that long )! That's a lot of green thumb! Granny, here's hoping I pass SFG 101 -- temps apparently hit 32F somewhere in the area tonight, and I'm still bunked up with my computer at work, no chance to go home mid-afternoon at all and cover stuff. So... yeah, I didn't get that garden covered today. I guess I'll take a good look at my green pepper and see if I can harvest everything if it's tanked, but I'm really hoping that the **winter** garden takes a couple hours of hovering at 32F. The swiss chard will be happy... if all else fails, I have the swiss chard. ;) Plus my indoor babies --- OOH, I haven't taken any recent pictures of them! How careless. Well, it's about time to go home and get some sleep here, just want to run one more analysis (this is how it goes: 'just one more analysis... just one more... '). My old/non-square foot garden blog is linked... I don't update a lot anymore, but when I do post garden stuff in my catch-all blog, I usually try to drop a copy in the linked blog. Here is a link that might be useful: Pepys garden blog (docarwen's)