How to Make a Square Foot Garden
I’d like to introduce you to a new way of gardening. It’s called square foot gardening. I planted my first square foot garden last year and I’m hooked. Here’s the basic gist:
Most gardens are planted in long rows separated by three foot aisles. This means 80% of your garden (that you water, weed, and fertilize) grows nothing. You just walk on it. The square foot method eliminates that 80% of your garden that you don’t use by planting in blocks.
Using the square foot gardening method, you divide a 4′ x 4′ box into sixteen 1 foot square gardens. You then can plant a different crop in each of the squares. For example, you might plant 16 carrots in one box, four beans in another, and one cabbage in another. That leaves you with 13 other boxes to fill! I think it’s a fantastic system, but I’ll let you decide for yourself. Here are some of the reasons why I love square foot gardening.
#1. Perfect Dirt
It doesn’t matter what kind of soil you have, because you won’t be using it. Acidic or alkaline – it doesn’t matter. Rocky or sandy – it makes no difference. You build your own perfect soil. And it’s all really rather simple. It requires just three ingredients.
- Peat Moss
- Compost
- Vermiculite
Just mix these three ingredients in equal proportions and you have the finest soil you could imagine. It’s light and loose (thanks to the peat moss), it retains moisture very well (thanks to the vermiculite), and is full of the nutrients your plants need (thanks to the compost). And all these ingredients can be found at you local garden center.
#2. No Weeding
Yup, that’s right. Since you’re making your own soil, there will be no weed seeds in there to start with. Plus, any weed seeds that might happen to blow in are easily removed because the soil is so light and loose. I think I might have pulled out five weeds from my garden last year.
#3. Less Space Required
Your square foot garden takes up only 20% of the space required by a traditional garden. That means you can be more productive with the space you have. It also means you only need to do 20% of the work.
#4. Inexpensive
I just built two square foot gardens this spring and here were my costs:
- Lumber: Free (I used scrap)
- Vermiculite: $20
- Peat Moss: $8
- Compost: $20
Total: $48 for two – $24 each.
Of course with your own lumber and your own compost, you could cut that cost down to $14 each. And once your initial garden is set up, you only need to add a little compost each year. You’ll never again need fertilizer or weed killers.
Convinced yet? Ready to build your own? Here’s how!
Required Materials
- (4) 4′ 2 x 6 boards
- (6) lattice strips (I ripped 1/4 inch thick strips off a 2 x 6)
- (8) 4″ nails or screws
- (12) 1″ nails or screws
- Cardboard, newspaper, or landscape fabric for weed control
- 60 litres of vermiculite (preferably coarse)
- 60 litres of peat moss (about 2 cubic feet compressed)
- 60 litres of compost (at least three different types – I used steer manure, sheep manure, and mushroom compost)
Building the Square Foot Garden
Attach your 2 x 6 boards together with nails or screws to form a four foot square box.
Lay down your newspaper, cardboard, or landscape fabric on the ground where you wish to place your gardens. This will prevent existing grass or weeds from pushing up into your garden. Lay your box on top of the newspaper, cardboard, or landscape fabric.
Mix the compost, peat moss, and vermiculite together in equal portions. An easy way to do this is to pile the ingredients on a large tarp and roll them back and forth in the tarp. Then carry the tarp to your garden and pour it in. (Note: You may want to water down the ingredients as they are rather dusty when dry.)
Once the soil has filled the box to the top, place the lattice on top, nailing each piece of lattice in place so that there are sixteen equal squares.
And there you have it. You’re ready to plant!
Pretty simple, isn’t it? If you’ve got any questions about how to make your own square foot garden, ask away!
March 27th, 2008 at 2:24 am
I’ve got one raised bed and plan to build more this spring. I really like the idea of using lattice to mark off the squares – so much more sold and permanent. I’ve seen string used a lot and that seems like a lot of fiddly work to me.
March 27th, 2008 at 2:46 am
I love SFG! My family has been doing it for years. A question about your lattice- what do you do when a crop takes up more than 1 SF? Like zucchini, eggplant, and some tomatoes?
March 27th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Personally, I don’t completely rely on square foot gardening for everything. Things like peas, pumpkins, and zucchini I grow in a traditional garden. Tomatoes I grow in my greenhouse in raised beds.
March 29th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Thank you! This looks do-able to me! I’ve never had a garden, and wondered how and where to start- this looks like the ticket. Starting with one box and trying it on for size. When do you plant it- I’m in Pincher Creek. Maybe you could recommend a site/book that would help me plan my yard- I like the idea of zeroscaping- don’t have a clue how to start- which plants, trees, etc. Thanks for your help!
-Sandy
March 30th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
You can plant your square foot garden as soon as you would a traditional garden. Being just south of Red Deer, I plant my garden in early/mid May. Most people around here plant their gardens on the third weekend of May.
As for books, I’ll tell you three books that I’ve found useful for my yard planning:
#1. New Complete Home Landscaping by Catriona Erler – This is a encyclopedia of everything to do with landscaping – lots of pictures for ideas.
#2. Designing Alberta Gardens by Jan Mather – This book lists many plants that grow well in our Alberta climate.
#3. Gardening Manual for Canada by Dorling Kindersley Ltd. – This one is more a how-to for everything gardening – from planting to pruning and everything in between. Lots of step-by-step pictures.
And if you want more information about square foot gardening, get the book All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. Enjoy!
May 1st, 2008 at 10:44 pm
This looks incredibly easy (SFG); great instructions on how to build the square garden. I’m curious about the cardboard used as a base. This means the vegetable roots do not penetrate downward into the soil beneath; but remain above the cardboard growing just in the soil mix. Is this correct??
May 1st, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Well, here’s the cool part. Kinda yes, kinda no. Since the cardboard is biodegradable, after a while, the roots will BE ABLE to penetrate the soil beneath, but they DON’T NEED TO. You can build your SFG with a wooden bottom (with hole drilled in for drainage), and things will grow just fine in six inches of dirt.
So by using cardboard, the weeds will be killed off, the cardboard will then biodegrade, and the roots can go as deep as they like.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Do you know where in the Edmonton area I can buy coarse vermiculite? I can’t seem to find it.
May 2nd, 2008 at 12:41 am
In the Peavey Mart in Red Deer there are 20 litre bags of coarse vermiculite and 110 litre bags of fine vermiculite. I might guess the Peaveys in Edmonton might have it as well. I’ve actually never used the coarse stuff as this is the first year I’ve ever even seen it available – plus the fine vermiculite in the larger size is much better value for your money and it seems to work just fine.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:05 am
I found medium vermiculite in the big 4 cu. ft. bags at parkland nurseries. Yes, it is a LOT cheaper than the little fiddly bags. Being also southeast of Red Deer, and planning our first SFG at a total of (gulp) 160 sq. ft., we need a lot! Did you happen to see how much of a selection of compost and manure Peavey Mart had this spring?
I tried many seedlings this year in anticipation of the garden, including some hot pink cauliflower for fun, but most did not survive the long dark week+ of that snowstorm. I had been putting them out for an hour or two of good sunshine a day up until then, and all my red onions and broccoli just kind of fell over from lack of light. (yes, my indoor light set-up was severely lacking. Better effort next year, live and learn). I still have 7 tough little pink cauliflower hanging on, though! Plan to build and transplant this weekend, all being well.
Sure is nice to see someone else doing the square foot garden thing, so close to where we live!
May 16th, 2008 at 9:56 am
OMG! I made a square foot garden for the first time last year and i got so many pretty flowers growing it was da bomb. I love SFG! They make my life the best. I live off the food i grow in my SFG. I have been able to quit my job move into the country.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:48 am
I planted a square foot garden several years ago to great success so I don’t know why I didn’t continue. Ironically, that’s how I’m planting my garden again this year so it was a surprise to find your post on this. My dimensions are different but the results are the same. I hope many others give it a try.
May 21st, 2008 at 3:24 pm
This year I’ve blended the squarefoot garden concept with the traditional long-rows garden. My garden is 30 feet wide, so I’ve run two 30 ft lengths of 2×6s four feet apart with dividers every three feet – essentially 10 blocks of twelve sq. feet each. So I have carrots in two blocks, onions in another, dill in one, beets, lettuce, etc…. So I’m able to plant a much greater volume in this space than if I had planted them in single rows. I’ll try to put up a picture or two when things start sprouting.
June 22nd, 2008 at 7:32 am
hello just looking over this site and glad to hear others are sfg ….this is our first year and so far it is wonderful, just had out first salad of tomatoes, greens, radish, and onions. Yummy! wonderful for a small yard with lots of flowers. i will come back to this site again. Lynda
October 29th, 2008 at 12:52 am
hi there ..so glad i found out about SFG..will have it built soon. But my house don’t have a garden cause all them are filled with floor tiles so am i still able to grow vegetables using the sfg method.
Is SFG only suitable for those who has a soil garden? My garden is all floor tiles but there a big area that i can built the SFG..so can i proceed to built my first sfg?
Which types of vegetables are suitable to plant on sfg ? I would like to plant tomatoes n capsicum. I lived in asia so wheather is hot n humid most time.
thank you
October 29th, 2008 at 8:34 am
Mary, you can build a sfg anywhere – no existing soil required. Tomatoes & capsicum should grow just fine. Actually, I think just about any vegetable should grow great.
November 28th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Is Vermiculite safe to use. Have read it is under some scrutiny and not sure if this application would pose the same risk. I can not wait to start this garden. Awesome idea and from what I am reading it is a great way to do it.
November 28th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I haven’t heard of any issues with vermiculite. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong though…
December 10th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
Have just discovered this site – live in Red Deer and am thinking this will be something I try this coming Spring. Great instructional photos – you’d mentioned putting up photos of your end result this year – any word on when that’s coming?
February 2nd, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I just put in 4 4×4 SFG beds. Two things i did wrong. One, I did not wet the peat moss as i was mixing it. I am now having a hard time getting it evenly moist. Two, I bought way too much peat moss because I did not consider it expanding nearly twice it’s size.
In regards to vermiculite/asbestos scares I doubt there are any worries other than dust. There was a US plant that produced most of the world supply. It was selling asbestos contaminated vermiculite for yeas before it was discovered. I am not saying that it can’t happen again, but you should be safe as long as you wear a mask. It is simply not good to breath any dust at all.
February 17th, 2009 at 11:38 am
Hi there, I just had some quick questions about square foot gardening.
I was wondering if even with the cardboard underneath, everything grows well in the square foot garden? It just seems so shallow that I wasn’t sure about deeper rooted plants – do all plants do well with this or do some do not as well?
I’m growing tomatoes cucumbers zucchini peas beans carrots and some romaine and spicy mix lettuce. will they live? lol.
and how many of each kind can be put into a sfg?
I really hope to hear back from you soon i have a tiny yard and anything to save space would be awesome and this is my first year giving it a try on my own so I’m already lost enough, lol.
Thanks for your time,
brittany
February 19th, 2009 at 11:21 pm
Ok, here are some quick answers… #1. Even with the cardboard, everything grows fine. Most plants only need 6 inches of good soil. If you want full size carrots or potatoes, though, I’d bump your depth up to 1 foot. (Although small carrots grow quite nice.) #2. I see no reason why any of the veggies you mentioned should have trouble growing. #3. It depends on the size of the mature plant. Radishes can be planted 16 to a foot, a cabbage head would take the whole foot. Lettuce is tight with 4 to a square. Just use the regular row spacing (should be on the seed packages) in a block.
If you need more help along the way, feel free to contact me.
April 7th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
What are your thoughts on double digging? we are trying it this year along with some of the sfg ideas. we double doug our first beds today and it fluffed up the soil so much that the beds naturally became raised beds without building anything and filling it with new soil. This biointensive idea sounds great, but it is based on the reasoning that since the the sub soil is loosened the plants roots grow down instead of out and that is why you can plant things really close together. The sfg spacing is the same however it does not address this idea. What do you think?
April 8th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Treated lumber? or untreated lumber? I’ve read different things about it. Thanks for the great tips — makes it look so easy. This will be our first year of sfg.
April 13th, 2009 at 9:05 am
SFG’s advantage is not really that you can plant your veggies closer than usual, it just eliminates all the wasted space found between rows. The unique soil composition of SFG allows the roots to spread easily through the soil – just the same as double digging would do.
April 13th, 2009 at 9:06 am
Either should work just fine – treated will simply last long.
April 16th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Hi there – first off, THANK YOU so much for posting this. I’ve heavily cross-promoted this on my facebook and twitter sites… I hope you get LOTS of traffic. I have a question regarding ants. The spot that is ideal for us to build our square garden is directly in the path of some nasty ants. We’ve tried for several years to deal with them but with little to no success. I’m wondering – how much of a threat are ants to a vegetable garden? I’m VERY new to this business of vegetable gardening so I have no idea. Please excuse me for asking such a wildly novice question! Thanks in advance for your help and I can’t wait to see what the next few years hold once our garden is more established.
April 17th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
In the places I’ve gardened I’ve never had a problem with ants, so I don’t have any first hand experience. However, if you head to this page here, http://www.thefrugallife.com/ants.html – these folks have all kinds of solutions!
April 18th, 2009 at 11:09 pm
If you use the cardboard method, make sure that you poke holes in the cardboard to allow water to get through. Last year I built a 4×4 raised garden bed at work and it retained all of it’s water. I had fungus growing on top of the soil, and barely anything grew. I later learned that the water needs to be able to drain out of the garden!
April 19th, 2009 at 10:20 am
I attended a horticulture workshop in our community. the guest speaker suggested a recipe of equal parts icing sugar and baking soda, the ants eat it up and “explode”
place it on the ant trails or near their holes. probably have to redo it after a rainfall. I am going to try it. he is a master gardener, so he must have sucess with it. good luck
April 21st, 2009 at 12:35 pm
Oh wow! Thanks, Dave and Janis for this info – I really appreciate it. We’ve got the square built up so now we just need to wait for transplant time. Janis I LOVE your advice via that master gardener guest speaker! I am normally a bug/beast/all things living lover but these ants are really messing up this one spot and it’s unfortunately the only spot I have that has the perfect sun for a veg garden.
Monique, I never would have thought about the fungus bit so that’s good to know as I have already laid out the cardboard. I’ll definitely make sure I’ve provided good spots for proper drainage.
Incidentally, Dave, I used to work for the CBC (radio) and I bet they’d love to interview you about building these….any chance you’d be interested? I could send your info along to the appropriate folk…
April 28th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
Can you use the sfg on a patio? we live in a condo community.
April 28th, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Sure! Just add a plywood bottom with holes in it for drainage. You could even raise it up then. I know a lady who has several greenhouses full of strawberries that are grown in sfg-type beds all sitting on saw-horses at waist height. Makes for easy pickin’…
May 7th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I’m confused do I need to punch holes in the cardboard or not? I don’t want fungus growing on top. I love this idea!
May 10th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
I haven’t had problems with fungus, but to be safe, a few holes certainly won’t hurt!
May 18th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
To the person who wanted to know where to find vermiculite in Edmonton, did you find any?
I called and located some in a greenhouse out here, which is a big deal cause it is a series of small towns….took alot of looking. So now I go out to fill my beds and realize it is a mixture of Vermiculite and Perlite. I know what Mel says about Perlite…..but I have all these bags and no idea where to find Vermicultie, so should I just use it anyways?
May 18th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
I’m sure a mixture of vermiculite and perlite would work just fine. Using the resources available to you is what gardening is all about!
May 24th, 2009 at 6:41 am
Medium vermiculite (large, large bags) can be purchased at Apache gardening store off Stony Plain road. About 22.00 per bag.
May 25th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
After a ton of searching & being sold out at several stores, I found the big bags of vermiculite at Hole’s Greenhouse in St. Albert and only ~$23 with tax. Next time I’ll go straight to the greenhouse for one stop shop!
June 20th, 2009 at 11:04 am
Dont use treated wood for your beds. The harmfull chemicals can leach into your dirt and produce.
I guess it would be fine if it were just for flowers.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:20 am
Apache Seeds (on 149 Street, just north of Stony Plain Road) has perlite, vermiculite, compost, etc. in large bags.
FYI, there’s really nothing new about SFG — it was first popularized in a book written by Mel Bartholomew called Square Foot Gardening published in 1981 (and republished in 2005), and much of the content in this site appears to have been lifted straight out of this book. In the Edmonton area, Greenwood’s & Audrey’s usually have copies available, as does the public library.
July 1st, 2009 at 10:51 am
Yup, that’s right. After I read the 2005 “The All New Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew I was inspired to give it a try. It’s quite a bit different from the original “Square Foot Gardening” from 1981 so I would recommend the 2005 edition.
July 14th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
I was able to buy 110L bags of Vermiculite at Apache Seeds on 149st and Stony Plain Road in Edmonton. Also, I used Trex for my garden as it is not supposed to leach anything into the soil. I think that one could also use other composite decking materials like Azek that are made of PVC. At the end of the day though untreated wood or concrete (or stack stone) would probably be best.
August 10th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Sorry, but the “Save 80% of Your Garden”-thing sounds a little off, you do realise that you still need paths around the boxes (if you don’t engineer some kind of sliding system)?
I don’t have much gardening experience so I’m also wondering why you would want to water and ferilize the soil you just walk on?
Otherwise it’s a good idea because it looks kinda nice in relation to how practical it is.
August 10th, 2009 at 9:10 am
In a traditional garden, you usually have a large square plot of ground. And even though you only grow things in narrow rows, you still water, weed, and fertilize the entire thing – including the part that you walk on. With the square foot gardening system, you only water, weed, and fertilize the soil that is actually growing your plants. The paths can be mulched, graveled, or even paved if you really want!
August 10th, 2009 at 2:51 pm
I still don’t get why you would water and ferilize soil you only walk on, if there’s no benefits. Traditional gardeners would have picked up on that even though they use “The Old System”.
In traditional gardening you use 25% of the ground, if you have a 3 feet isle and then a 1 foot row to grow on, in a repetitive manner. You will get a better landuse if you do SFG in rows, 40% if you have one row with two 3 feet isles on both sides, and up to 57% at the most. But if you do it like on the pictures above, with isles on all sides of the box, you’ll only use 16% of the land with one box, and 19% with two.
So the system will only yeild a higher precentage if you do it in rows, and not isles around every 4×4 box like on the pictures. Having said that, the other benefits, like perfect soil, garden organisation (growing 16 carrots in one minibox and something else in another) and esthetics might compensate for the 6% land loss.
August 12th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Yup, that’s true. The rows of sfg are much more efficient. That’s what I do now. In my garden now, I use one long row of sfg – about 20×4. So including my three-foot paths on both sides, I use a swath of 10 feet. To plant that same amount in four single rows with three foot paths between each would take a swath of 19 ft – almost double the space. So in there I plant my carrots, onions, beets, lettuce, radishes, and other smaller plants. I do something similar with my interplanted corn and beans. But I still use the ‘traditional’ method of rows for my peas, and potatoes.
And Perhaps I shouldn’t speak for all ‘traditional gardeners’… But in my one large garden plot, I just put out the sprinkler which waters the ENTIRE garden (including paths). I also rototill in my compost and fertilizer and whatnot at the beginning of the season ALL OVER the garden (again, including paths).
December 26th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Hiya, I have just started up a site and began creating rather varied articles for it. Do you object if I write something about this blog? Of course I will provide you and this post full credit.
December 30th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
That sounds fine by me!
March 7th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
I’m trying my first SFG this year after seeing and eating the success my friend in Stony Plain had.
To the lady asking about ants, try diatomaceious earth (you can find it at greenhouses and in Canadian Tire) – sprinkle it around, let the ants eat it and haul it back to their hill and you won’t see them again. We used it inside a travel trailer and got rid of hundreds of ants that way who had made a home in the electrical wiring pathways in the ceiling.