For me the basics are always: soil, water, pest management. Since you've got soil covered, here's what I do for the rest: Sink a watering system. Those deep (2 - 7 feet) tomato roots need water, so if you need to water them, just soaking the top foot or so of ground won't cut it. Big ol' water bottles, the long half-gallon kind, get holes cut in them and then sunk into my garden. The tops are cut out so that the head of the watering wand fits just perfectly into them, so all the water gets put deep into the ground. No water wasted on the top of the ground to evaporate or splash up onto the leaves to cause disease. I don't plant in a square but in a diamond pattern, so the bottles get laid out in the center of the diamonds so each plant has access to at least one bottle. For square foot gardening, it might be better to sink the bottles at the intersections of squares. Put out a birdbath. Birds are all over, and if they can't find water to drink, they will eat your produce for water. Even better, if they have water, they will hang out on the birdbath and surveil your plants...finding pests like the tomato hornworm and other mater chompers, which means less bug management for you. When I have a birdbath, I find maybe one or two hornworms....when I don't, I find twenty or thirty.

Hello northhadley and thank you for reading my bolg. The top of my planting beds are 24" off of the ground. I have them off of the ground so I do not have to squat or kneel to tend to the garden. At 24" off of the ground the top of the beds are just about at the top my knees. I would have preferred that the top of the beds be 30" off of the ground, but my wife is about 10" shorter than I, and 24" is perfect for her (about the lower portion of her hips) to stand and tend to the garden. I'm not sure why you think that having the beds elevated will result in having to replace the soil. I think you may have meant that I may have to replace the floor. If that is actually what you meant, I'll address that. I used 5/8" thick X 8" wide X 24" long redwood boards to construct the floor (cut from a 6' long fence board). The redwood is strong and rot resistant. I cut the 6' boards into 2' lengths and placed them in the planter side-by-side widthwise (if that it the correct terminology) rather than lengthwise. Because they are only 2' long, there is no sagging and they are quite solid. Now if I had left the boards 6' long and ran them lengthwise, without additional cross support along the length of the planter, the boards would sag and probably over time would probably collapse. This planer only holds 6 cubic feet of soil (or Mel's Mix), and the weight, even if wet, isn't a problem, no matter how much I have to add over time, it still will only hold 6 cubic feet of soil. The additional weight of the plants themselves is inconsequential. The heavy fruits and vegetables will be trellised, so their weight will be borne by the trellis, not the floor of the planter. I imagine that some years down the road (my personal guess is about 5 years) I will probably have to remove all the soil and inspect the floor. The beauty is that I can just replace the boards that need replacing. Even if I had to replace the entire floor, that would only be three 6' long boards, cut to 2' lengths. The cost would be about $10. Tilling is also not a problem. The planters only have a surface area of 12 sq. ft. X 6" deep. The bed can be tilled by hand, top to bottom, end to end, in just a few minutes. You mention that you use a wheel chair. I imagine that this type of "elevated" raised bed would be perfect for you. The bottom of the bed might need to be a little higher then mine (the bottom of my beds are 16" off of the ground), you could then slide under the bed to tend to the garden. Mel has a picture of exactly this on his website: www.squarefootgardening.com/html/stripes/ony/3.html

Here is the description of my mix (Ladybug Brand): Square Foot Gardening Blend⢠If you have been thinking about starting a vegetable garden, this is a wonderful way to begin. We worked with author and inventor Mel Bartholmew to formulate this sustainable blend for gardening by the square foot. This product contains a blend of five compost, coir fiber and coarse vermiculite. Simply open the bag and pour directly into your gardening box. This product can be used as a container mix as well. Ingredients: A blend of five superior compost, Coarse Vermiculite, Coir Fiber Bag size: 2 cu. ft. I can only lay claim to the Ladybug mix, as that's the only one I've used and I had great results. Hopefully someone on here can chime in that has used your mix before. Happy Gardening! Bryan

Got you, took a while, if the packet says thin to 3 inches a row, space rows 12 inches appart, you take the spaceing as your base, so the plants are 3 inches apart all round. 4 inch spacing, 4 all round so a big plant, say cabbage says thin to 18 inches, then therotically, you should give 18 inches all round, I don't! I give them 9" and stagger the rows, as a lot of that space is loose leaves and cuts down on the weeds. I also don't plant a whole Sq foot of say carrot at a time except at the beginning of the season, as with the best will in the world I can't eat 16 of them every 2 weeks, so I plant 8, then 8 and if any arn't showing I replace them. if you can afford it, I would buy the book, as when you go through it, it all starts to come clear? (amazon was the best price I got and at the mo, I think they have a 2 day free shipping, don't know on what, but maybe worth looking at) take a lot of stuff in the book with a pinch of salt (such as mel's mix...sacrilege...burn the witch!), but a really easy read, and some good money saving ideas. hope I got what you meant?