
In fact, it will be easier to add beds and plan what to plant after your first season because then you will have a better idea of what you can handle and how much each block will produce. It will be easy enough to expand your garden in subsequent years as you get some experience under your (green) thumb. If your garden doesn’t produce quite as much of a harvest as you would like, at least you have the satisfaction of knowing that it stayed neat, clean and attractive and did yield a good harvest. We really can’t stress enough the importance of starting small. Keep track of your garden and your harvest by using a garden journal or spreadsheet to make sure you really need or want to add extra gardens to care for. Keep the garden at a size you’ll be able to take care of conveniently all summer. Remember! someone has to take care of all those additional raised beds. If you want to have enough to can or freeze, plant additional raised beds. If you want to include larger plants, like zucchini or corn, add another raised bed. If you find the square foot method to be a simple and productive as we’ve promised, and if you really are going to have the time to take care of a bigger garden, you can easily add another raised bed at this time. This refreshes the nutrients in that square and you’ll be ready for the next crop. After you harvest a square, all you need to do is add a trowel of blended compost and stir it into the Mel’s Mix already in the square. When the spring crop is harvested, replant in the same space for a new summer crop. Below is a list of fall crops from All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd edition. NOTE: If you use plastic sheeting, on warm or sunny winter days, you’ll need to remember to vent the plastic so that you don’t end up frying your plants.Įach season has its own crop and harvest.
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Even if you don’t have three full seasons, you can start earlier and end later in the season with the use of a PVC dome, or other protective structure plus the addition of row cover and/or plastic sheeting. Remember, in most climates, there are really three growing seasons in each year-spring, summer and fall. Voila! Succession planting! Know Your Growing Seasons Since it’s not a big crop that goes in each square, the next planting is quick and easy.

You will find when you switch to Square Foot Gardening that you can’t stand to see a square empty, so you automatically replant as soon as the harvest is finished.

Like crop rotation, it happens almost without effort in a Square Foot Garden. Use this chart as a square foot spacing guide.Succession planting is the practice of replanting an area with a new crop as soon as you harvest the original crop so that you can get the most out of your space. Need Help? Plan your garden in minutes with our custom garden planning service here Square Foot Gardening Layout Chartīelow is a square foot garden layout chart of popular plants and their optimal planting spacing. Square Foot Gardening Layout Custom Garden Planning Tool See the planting placement example below. Next, plants are then sown or transplanted into each 1×1 square in multiples of 1, 2, 4, 9 or 16 depending on the crop. The example below we divided up the 4′ X 8′ raised bed, into 32 garden squares with string. This can be done by drawing lines with a rake, or using stings are guides. Let’s get startedįirst, Divide your garden into 1 foot squares. I have been using the square foot method for years to achieve a hight yields.

You can use the square foot gardening layout guide below to achieve a beautiful garden. Using the square foot gardening layout takes all the guess work out of plant placement.

Using a square foot gardening layout is critical if you want to grow a large amount of food in a small amount of space.
