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Square Foot Gardening

First Attempt & Question

16 years ago

Hello yÃ¢ÂÂall,

I just decided to convert a bit of the back of my garden to veggies and happened to stumble into this forum. SFG seemed to fit the bill for me as my space is limited. (Or at least the space I am willing to devote to it.) I ran out, got some materials and ended up with two 3Ã¢ÂÂx4Ã¢ÂÂx12Ã¢ÂÂ boxes. I will fill them with displaced soil from the area, a sheet of weed barrier and then about 8Ã¢ÂÂ of Ã¢ÂÂMelÃ¢ÂÂs MixÃ¢ÂÂ. They will be oriented North-South. Full summer sun in this area is from about 10am till about 7pm. Tree shaded before and after. As of March 2nd this area gets only about 2 hours of direct sun a day. Here are a few photos of the site in still in development...

Whew, ok. The million dollar question: What should I put in for the first crop? I should be able to sow seed directly by the end of the 1st week in March. There are 24\SqFT and I have never grown veggies before so this is my first pass at it. Potatoes will most likely go into a separate container on one side or the other of the boxes. Tomatoes and Corn at the back of either box?

/cheers

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Comments (7)

alison70
16 years ago
Grow what you like to eat. I started with some radish, quick rewards with them they should be ready in 25 days or so and I just ate some sprouts today. I am also aiming for a salsa theme.
sinfonian
16 years ago
Nice job on the boxes! I concur with Alison that you should grow what you like to eat. That's what I am doing with my first year gardening. I've got just over 130 SF of space so I'm growing over a dozen veggies. With your 24 SF, you can grow salad for a couple for the season, plus a veggie every night. It's an incredible amount of space.

For your first crops, I'd recommend the cool weather crops, like lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, peas, carrots, etc. Radishes are great too as Alison said.

Finally, if you want to see what not to do (and some of what TO DO), check out my blog. It's a light hearted look at my first year gardening with the SFG method.

Best of luck to you! Enjoy the process and the results!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's gardening adventure!
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markinseattle
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks for the tips! Sinfonian, (Kahlua, Grenadine, Grand Marnier?) you have been quite prolific and I will use your experiences as a guide. We both live here in Seattle so the information is pertinent.

So, it will be radish, beets, lettuce, onions, spinach and broccoli going in soon to start out I guess. Then comes the slugs, the cats, the squirrels, the freakish freeze in late April, etcÂ Let me apologize in advance, for I have started gardening in the NW and the gods will surely punish all of us.

The Work in Progress
alison70
16 years ago
I forgot to mention you can look up your county extension service and they will tell you which varieties of vegetables have been tested in your area and do well and when to plant them, you might even catch an annual tomato sale as I did. They are a great resource and make some decisions easier.
piantini
16 years ago
Me too agree with you growing what you like. If i where you i will start with things that are small, easy and fast to harvest, like radish (3 weeks), scallions, carrots, lettuce, spinach, basil, etc.

Also i will introduce one plant of tomato, a couple of peppers since the don't grow more than 24". A good advice is to take advantage of your fence in the back and use it as a trellis (Assuming your fence faces north).

Again, thats me, i am not so sure what you like to eat. Another suggestion, start with hibrid plants since they are more resistant to dissease. Good luck!
sinfonian
16 years ago
I posted initially and didn't even notice your name. Great to see another Seattleite! I could also suggest you check out Ft2Garden.com, both because it's a great place to get info that's easily stored there on SFG but also it would be great to have another person from Seattle there.

Here is a link that might be useful: Ft2Garden.com
markinseattle
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks again yÂall. I will take your advice; start easy with some fast and simple early spring plantings. My little girl is excited about planting carrots though!

The Work in Progress Â as of 03/03/08

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