Square Foot Gardening- It Might Just Change Your Life Forever!

For me as a Master Gardener, and my husband a professional horticulturalist, it makes perfect sense.

This system of gardening allows you to grow 100% of your produce in only 20% of the space with no weeding or fertilizing and the only tools needed are a pencil and a trowel (once the box is built).

Benefits

• Out produces every other method known.
• Requires 80% less than conventional gardening.
• Can be done in an area of 4 feet by 4 feet.
• Build-up, rather than down, with Mel's Mix so your existing soil doesn't matter.
• Uses less water; only about 20% compared to conventional gardening.
• No fertilizers or pesticides used so it's all organic and sustainable.
• No thinning and very few seeds.
• Can be started any season.
• Produces 5 times the harvest of a conventional garden.
• Great for those with physical or mental limitations.
• Can be made into raised beds for wheelchair acces
• Great for the whole family.
• No weeding, no thinning, no heavy digging.
• Largest selling garden book in America, EVER

Ten Basics

• LAYOUT - Arrange your garden in squares, not rows. Lay it out in 4'x4' planting areas.
• BOXES - Build boxes to hold a new soil mix above ground.
• AISLES - Space boxes 3' apart to form walking aisles.
• SOIL - Fill boxes with Mel's special soil mix: 1/3 blended compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 coarse vermiculite.
• GRID - Make a permanent square foot grid for the top of each box. A MUST!
• CARE - NEVER WALK ON YOUR GROWING SOIL. Tend your garden from the aisles.
• SELECT - Plant a different flower, vegetable, or herb crop in each square foot, using 1, 4, 9, or 16 plants per square foot.
• PLANT - Conserve seeds. Plant only a pinch (2 or 3 seeds) per hole. Place transplants in a slight saucer-shaped depression.
• WATER - Water by hand from a bucket of sun-warmed water.
• HARVEST - When you finish harvesting a square foot, add compost and replant it with a new and different crop.