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!

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?

Greetings from Tasmania. I am new to seriously gardening and want to use square foot gardening from the get go! I have a sloping back yard with a 15-16 foot long existing trellis thats about 5 ft high this trellis faces east. I want to use it as the foundation of my plan. It also is at the bottom of the slope. I would estimate the slope as abt 20deg. I was thinking 2 ft along this length, or possibly 3 if others think it will be easy to manage that width. On each side I am planning 3x8ft which will have no trellis on them. Then possibly in the middle of this elongated u shape another 3x8ft . I wanted experienced square foot gardener's opinions on the management of these sized/shaped blocks and the fact that the trellis is facing east instead of the desired north (southern hemisphere). Thank you in advance for your advice. Do I need to add twine to the trellis its timber lattice panels

I think Dave covered it fairly well. I'm one of those who uses the [modified] Sq. Ft. Gardening planting method, but using in-ground beds. Depending where you live, clay can be extremely nutritious soil. In most cases though, as Dave mentioned, fairly heavy additions of compost will really help. My soil here in E. Tn. is mostly clay (all clay in the upper sections of the garden,) and it produces an incredible amount of produce from my 4' x 18' beds. For this year, I would add the compost, and then come fall, turn about a 6" layer of fall leaves (or any other type of readily decomposable organic materials - such as grass clippings, used coffee grounds, etc... if you wish) right into the soil. If you can shred them before turning them under (many just run them over with a lawn mower,) they will incorporate faster, but even if you turn them in whole, unless you're in an area with very long winters and deeply frozen ground, by spring the worms (and other soil life) will have supplemented your beds with a fair amount of worm castings (a decent fertilizer, and great source of organic matter.) Follow that basic schedule (compost in the spring, organic materials in the fall) for 2 - 3 years, and use an organic mulch during the growing season, you'll soon have a bed that will be easy to maintain with just a little compost and a surface mulch each year. You'll hardly remember it's clay.