New SFG Gardener Build

12 years ago

Hello SFG'ers,

I am brand new to Square foot gardening and have used this forum a great deal in my research to find out what to do. I thought I might contribute what I have done to this point to help others who might be in the same position I am.

Living in Orange County, Ca and being totally new to all this my main source for materials were home improvement stores and local nurseries.

To build the box I wanted to use redwood or cedar because its supposed to last longer than regular pine but I was concerned about the cost. I also considered treated lumber and after doing lots of reading on the newer treatment methods I felt it would have been a fine option. Once I finally went shopping I found 6' long rough cut redwood fence boards for $2.35 each at Home Depot. Needless to say, I was very pleased to find this relatively inexpensive way to build my boxes out or redwood. The boards are thinner than your traditional 2x6 but regular 2x6 redwood lumber is expensive. I just used some 4x4 redwood fence posts in the corners and on the sides to make up for the thinner boards. The dimensions on my box are 6' x 4' x 16". I know 16" deep is more than what is needed but I liked the idea of it being a little higher off the ground. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

To fill the boxes I also relied on large home improvement stores and a local nursery to make my Mel's mix.

To fill the bottom half of the box I used Kellogg Garden Soil. Its a blended compost of Forest humus, Chicken manure, Worm castings, Bat guano, Kelp meal, Oyster shell, Lime & dolomite as pH adjusters. It cost $7.87 for a 3 cuft bag at Home Depot.

To fill the top 6-8 inches of the box I used Mel's Mix of compost, peat moss and vermiculite. For the compost component of my Mel's mix I used Gardner & Bloome Soil Building Compost. It came highly recommended from experienced SFG'ers on this forum and from others as well. It's a blended compost and meets Mel's recommendation to have 5 different types of compost. Its very similar to the Kellogg product above but also includes Gypsum and Mycorrhizae. This Gardener and Bloome Compost was $8.99 for a 3 cuft bag at my local nursery. Below is a picture the 2 different composts I used.

I picked up some peat moss at Lowes. It was $14 for a 2.2 cuft compressed bag.

I got my Vermiculite from a local nursery. I got a 3.5 cuft bag for $35. I probably could have gotten this cheaper from a different source. After I bought my stuff I found a vermiculite supplier database spreadsheet that showed better options.

To mix the Mel's mix I spread out a large tarp and combined the peat moss and the vermiculite together then after it was well mixed I added my Gardner and Bloome compost to that. It took a little effort to get it all mixed up well but it wasn't that difficult.

I've got my seeds started in a plastic starter tray. A few of them have popped up already. I'm looking forward to getting them transplanted into the garden and watching the square foot garden grow. I've never grown a vegetable in my life so if I can do it anybody can.

Thanks to all the contributors to this forum. I am looking forward to being a part of this SFG community.

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Comments (7)

basiladdict
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Your box is beautiful! :) I'm in the process of planning to build mine, but I'm using much cheaper materials. I love the ledge around the top, that will be nice for working.

Good luck, post what it looks like later with your crops growing!
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sctn
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks so much for posting how you did it! This is what I was needing to get me started. Can I ask how you determined how many of each bag you needed, or did you just get a bag of each?
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First of all, I'm not a landscaping pro or any type of expert, just a homeowner who likes maps and plans. So I'm wondering about the actual usable amount of space in your front yard. I see a distance of 24'6" (maybe 24'8"?) from the front of the lot to the corner of the window on the right. Is the front property line the location of the curb? Will there be a sidewalk along the street in front of the house? Will it be right along the street, or will there be a parking strip (grass area) between the street and sidewalk? One of the lines in the front yard is labelled "ACHD easement." That's your county's Highway Division. It's 8' from the front property line, so it's 16'6" from the front of the house. My county doesn't allow trees -- or even tallish shrubs -- in the easement, so ask before you plant. The other line -- 12' from the property line, so only 12' 6" from the corner of the window on the right -- is the utility easement. That's another area where planting large shrubs or trees might be restricted, if power lines/pipes are underground. And hopefully they won't put any unsightly boxes in front of the house. But in any case, there may be significantly less space in front of the house where you're free to landscape as you wish, than you expect. Boise's snowfall averages only 19" per year, but you might want to ask the neighbors how much of the street snow will be dumped in your yard.
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Yes corn should be planted in blocks, the NW corner would work well. The remaining tall plants should be on the north side too, including those you will trellis (cukes or other vines). The 3 sisters scheme referred to a vining (usu. winter) squash to climb the corn. My summer (yellow) squash, has huge leaves and takes up a 4x4ft box when its happy. I have squeezed 2 plants (6in. apart) in a 4x4. I wouldn't put squash on the N side, tho I have had it get 3ft high. Certainly it would provide shade for a smaller plant, but usu. stifles anything under it. You might try radishes, lettuce, or spinach will would be done before the squash shades everything. Read up on the Squash Vine Borer (SVB) so you know what is happening when the squash suddenly dies.
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Hi Lakescrapper, I am envious of your home on a lake, that sounds really nice. You can absolutely use the lake weeds in your compost. Basically fresh water seaweed. Good stuff. Water plants aren't going to grow in the compost pile so no worries there. Row covers can keep bugs off plants and many veggies don't require any pollination so it's nothing to worry about. Most of the crops that do require pollination are trellised in the sq ft method so using covers isn't particularly practical for them. Lettuce and and plant grown for it's foliage doesn't require pollination because we don't want the flowers or seeds, just the foliage. Peppers, tomatos, beans, peas and others usually self pollinate and don't require insects. Cucumbers (most), squash, melons and pumpkins do require pollination, but these are not plants often grown under cover. The lake water is fine to use to water plants. The water will have some fertilizer value in it as well. If you are interested you might find a place to test the water to see what is actually in it, but if you aren't interested it's not big deal. It will work very well. I don't see how the water would cause weeds unless unless you somehow gets seeds of lake weeds in the water, but I doubt they would grow out of water very well. I am not up on all the lake weeds though so don't take my opinion on it. Good gardening to you.
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snibb
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Great looking
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BrianV
Original Author
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Being limited to store bought soil, I filled the bottom 10 inches with an economical bagged product. That was the Kellogg Garden Soil. I just calculated 4' x6' x 10 inches to figure out how many bags I needed to fill the bottom.

For the top 6 inches I calculated 4' x 6' x 6 inches to get 12 cubic feet. Mels mix is 1/3 compost, peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite. So i bought 4 cubic feet of each, mixed it together. Simple as that.

When I was all done I had a 5 gallon bucket left over of Mel's Mix
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andersons21
12 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wow, nice job! I like your grid on top -- where did you get the strips that must be 6' long?

I'm not going to tell my husband about your idea to use the redwood fencing, since he just constructed 2 beds with 2x8x12' douglas fir. It was a quite a chore to haul the heavy lumber and then get the long beds flat in the very uneven community plot we just got.

We too are in OC, CA -- would you mind sharing your exact sources for the mix materials? Feel free to email me if you prefer. I have to round up all the mix materials by Saturday. So far I found:

- Home Depot (Harbor Blvd, SA) - Medium grade vermiculite $20/2cf. NO peat moss. No large bags of good compost (?)
- Lowes (Tustin District) - Web site lists peat moss, $9.47/3 cf but I don't remember seeing any there. NO vermiculite.
- Rogers Gardens (NB) - has the Gardener & Bloome soil building compost, 11.99/3cf. I noticed that Rogers Premium Planting Mix has exactly the same ingredients, and looks similar but with slightly smaller particles of the wood chips/shavings, 9.99/2cf.
- Armstrong (NB on PCH) - I got some of the EB Stone compost which sounded similar to the Gardner & Bloome, $21/4.5 cf (3 bags) to try in one of my boxes. no big bags of vermiculite. peat moss very expensive, $20/2cf!
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jplee3
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Wow, this is awesome. I'm inspired as I'm in the same boat - never planted a vegetable (or anything else for that matter) in my entire life! I'm also in OC (Irvine) and will need to start looking around for material soon. I've been working on clearing out my backyard to make space for at least one or two 4x4 (or maybe larger) SFGs. There were birds of paradise plants and lots of rose bushes that I've mostly cleared out - I did this so I'd have a better idea of the layout and am also considering laying pavers, brick or flagstone. I was at the HD in Irvine last night to scout out supplies and it was a bit overwhelming trying to find everything. I couldn't find any pricing on the lumber I was looking for; in fact, I couldn't find any 1x6" lumber! Unless I was blind. As far as the soil, I didn't see much along the lines of compost (unless "garden soil" is the same thing...?) but I did see the peat moss and vermiculite. And yes, peat moss is very expensive!

In any case, I'll probably be back (or maybe to the Tustin HD) to look for all the materials. I have GCs for HD so I'd like to use them for this :)
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jplee3
11 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Actually, looking around more it seems as though vermiculite is also a big ticket item. At least in SoCal... it's about $20 per 2 cu. ft. bag @ Home Depots in my area. I may just have to call around to different nurseries to see if there's anything cheaper. Looks like there's a source up in Gardena selling at around $15 via the vermiculite supplier list.
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New SFG Gardener Build

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