This season I have spent *at most* 10 hours total on weeding 3 boxes. The SFG book encourages mulching, and that is what kept the weeds down for me.

Now is a great time to get started collecting leaves for mulch, getting your compost bin ready, etc.

Good luck,
Alex

and I'm most curious.

I had just gotten into a little gardening, and doing yard work even, in recent years. Now I up and moved to Alabama (Huntsville area), and am appalled at the awful soil.

Was told to check this out, and don't know where to start... thought maybe a google search, or a library might help. Since it is Sept, I figure I can't do anything until spring, but wanted to read up on it.

any recommendations (websites, books, methods, whatever) is appreciated.

I have a large backyard now, so have room to play.

tom

Cista, yes it really is as easy as the book makes it sound. Keep in mind though that some people are happy to follow a method and others simply must tinker with it. Tinkering makes it a bit more complicated (usually), but for those inclined to tinker with the method it's fun ;-)

Weeding is definitely reduced to almost no significance with this method, even without a mulch. There will be weeds, but I used to have a ground level garden (still do for ornamentals) and most of my time in the garden was spent weeding. I hated it. Now very little time is spent weeding.

Scout, the best place to start with this method is the book All New Square Foot Gardening

Yup, it really is that easy. One of the biggest advantages is that you're starting from a soilless growing mix with NO WEED SEEDS! That means you only have to contend with the few that manage to blow in, or any you introduce yourself from compost with weed seeds. It is soooo much easier to get into the gardening!

Thanks for the replies! I can't wait to get started with it next Spring.

Cista- my husband was skeptical this year but I built three 4X4 boxes, filled them, planted seeds and plants I grew from seeds, waterered only 4 times this summer, and weeded very little. I estimate I spent around 10 hours of actual hands in the garden time. I spent more time harvesting than I did taking care of my square foot garden. As my DS8 says- We winning at gardening!

vs my poor mother who had a huge garden that she spent time everyday weeding and watering. she got more veggies but with a lot more headaches.

You can actually start now for spring by starting a compost pile, and/ or composting the area you are going to plant with lawn clippings.
There are composting and all sorts of growing sites here at GW. I can't find them all right now. NT

Actually, now would be a great time to get your feet wet in SFG - do a single 4 x 4 bed, and plant cool weather plants such as spinach, lettuce, radishes, garlic (for harvesting next year), mesclun mix, cabbage, carrots..... you can either start from seed or just buy starter plants from your local nursery... just because it's fall doesn't mean you can't still grow stuff. Add a cover when it starts getting cooler, and you'll be set!

ooohhh...I wonder if my dear husband would like to build some raised beds for me today. I think that is a *wonderful* afternoon project for him and our two boys. I know SO little about it all but surely I could grow some radishes!

Thank you so much for your encouragement.

I would be building my beds now and plant cool season veges like collards, turnips, mustard, leaf lettuces, etc. If not that, then sow some annual rye grass on top of the beds to have a pretty green grass all throughout the winter. You can dig it into the beds come spring and have even more tilth! I live in southern Alabama and find that fall through spring is the best time to be doing gardening projects due to our mild weather. It takes some getting used to when you move to the deep south...everything is sort of backwards when it comes to gardening.

Is there any way to incorporate SFG on a slope? There are no flat or near level areas in my yard that do not fill with moving water when it rains hard. I would really like to try this type of gardening next spring but am worried about the slope/ The grade is about 2ft in 40ft going down hill in the area where I would want to put it.

This will be my 2nd year with this method. I followed Mel's advice and kept it simple. This year I am going expand from 1 to 4 4x4s. I am also going to add some new crops. Peanuts and brussel sprouts are my top two so far.

I didn't do my own compost the first year, but will doing some my second. I hope to supply all my own the third year. BTW...the trellised tomatoes worked. I will have a trellis in each bed this year!

Here is a link that might be useful: My Square Foot Gardening Blog

If I just did the math right then you are talking about two and a half inches of slope in 4 feet. I can see three fairly easy ways to handle this, depending on what tools and skills you have.
Given access to a band-saw or similar I would start with a combination of 2x6 and 2x8 lumber (or 2x8 and 2x10 for a preference. The uphill side would be a simple 4 foot length of the narrow lumber, while the downhill side would be made with the wide lumber. The two sides would be cut with diagonal edges to make a square box that will sit on the slope with a deeper portion at the down-hill edge (which would be great for planting root crops, etc.)
Option 2 would be accomplished with a shovel and rake, digging down two inches at the uphill edge of the space, creating a flat spot, fitting the frame into it, and replacing the earth/grass around the edges, leaving the uphill edge buried, very slightly.
Option 3, build a box 2 inches deeper than you plan to have your soil be, put it on your slope, fill it, keeping the surface level. This will leave a small part of the uphill side of the box unfilled, but on this fairly gentle slope, shouldn't really be an issue. (If you cut the ends of the side boards at an angle you can have those sides be vertical.)

I'm doing this in a spot where I have nearly a foot of drop in *5* feet. It took more than usual manual labor during site prep to get the downhill edge built up by digging out the uphill edge, (which also resulted in a bed with an actual depth of compost much deeper than the apparent depth), but once I had the cinderb locks settled in and the bed filled, there were no problems.

With a two-foot drop per ten feet, then ideas such as time suggested. However, if your slope is southern facing, then I'm not sure you couldn't just put your box on an angle and let them grow straight up anyway. It would be similar to a sun box then.

I know it's been suggested in the container gardening section that garbage can potatoes should be tilted toward the sun early on to insure more sunlight when there's only a few inches of dirt at the bottom of a 30 inch can. Same idea.

Good luck with your slope!

Here is a link that might be useful: Sinfonian's garden in progress...