Growing your own food not only provides a variety of benefits to your health but also creates a very special link with nature, even if you live in the middle of the city!
And if you’re worried because you’re in a city with limited space or you only have a small space for your garden, it’s never a problem! You can still plant multiple veggies, fruits, or plants if you follow the square-foot gardening technique.
Personally, I don’t have any kids, but planning and transplanting your seedlings in the garden feels like your kids are ready to leave the nest, and you need to make this transition as easy as possible for theirs and your future.
The Benefits of Square-Foot Gardening
1. Space Efficiency: By arranging plants in compact squares, you may grow a surprising amount of product in a small space. This strategy is ideal for urban gardeners or anyone wishing to increase their production from a small allotment.
2. Easier Maintenance: Square-foot planting greatly minimizes the burden. Smaller, more defined spaces require less weeding, watering, and maintenance. Plus, close planting helps to crowd out weeds, which reduces the amount of effort spent on garden maintenance.
3. Better Soil Management: By concentrating on small parts, you can adapt the soil composition to the demands of individual plants. Adding compost, fertilizers, and other amendments makes the process more manageable, resulting in healthier plants and increased production.
4. Increased Plant Variety: You can experiment with different crops in each square, resulting in a diverse range of produce. This not only makes your garden more fascinating, but it also aids in pest management because different plants attract different beneficial insects and repel pests.
5. Environmentally Friendly: Smaller garden plots use less water and need fewer resources overall. And because you’re making the best use of every available space, there’s less waste of both seeds and harvestable produce.
How To Do Square Foot Gardening
- Using a shovel and rake, top-up the raised bed with organic compost and level it to make it flat
- Get wooden slats and mark it every 12”
- Put 1 nail on every mark
- Secure yuta rope on the nail and overlay a square-foot grid
- Gather your plants and poke holes for your plants
- Gently prepare your seedlings and drop them in a hole
- Press them and don’t cover
- Put the same plants in the same squares and water them
Best Plants for Square-Foot Gardening
Here’s the list of the plants that you can consider planting using the square-foot gardening technique.
1. Lettuce: Quick-growing and space-efficient, lettuce is perfect for filling in gaps and providing a continuous harvest throughout the growing season
2. Carrots: These root vegetables thrive in loose, well-drained soil and can be planted close together, making them ideal for square-foot gardening.
3. Tomatoes: Compact bush varieties, also known as determinate tomatoes, are excellent choices. They produce a bounty of fruit without taking up too much space.
4. Radishes: One of the fastest-growing vegetables, radishes are perfect for filling small spaces and can be harvested in just a few weeks.
5. Herbs: Basil, cilantro, parsley, and other herbs thrive in small spaces and can be planted densely to maximize your yield.
6. Spinach: Another quick grower, spinach can be harvested multiple times throughout the season and grows well in tight quarters.
7. Peppers: Both sweet and hot varieties of peppers do well in square-foot gardens, providing a colorful and productive addition to your garden.
Square foot gardening is an incredible method to maximize the production of food in a small area! You’d need a raised bed of 4 by 4 feet to make it right. However, my raised bed was a bit smaller, but that’s the beauty of gardening, always evolving and adapting to different situations!
Happy growing!
