Square Foot Gardening

March 23, 2010

This spring we've started a new gardening project using the Square Foot Gardening method. The premise is pretty simple. Building a designated container and filling it with specific soil eliminates poor soil quality. The container is divided and planting is planned ahead of time to yield more manageable amounts of food.

This is our first attempt at this method. It's all part of an effort to pay more attention to where our food comes from. Fruits and vegetables in most locations have been on an average journey of 1,500 miles before reaching your plate. So, not only is locally grown food fresher, the amount of fuel burned to get that food to our plate is almost zero when growing local. You can read more from the folks at Slow Food.

Anyway, back to our garden, here are some photos of the construction process. The materials included 4 4-foot 2x6's, a sheet of plywood, small strips of wood to act as dividers, and an excellent soil mixture made up of several blends of compost, among other sources.

Seeds for 3 types of lettuce, broccoli, kale, peas and spinach were planted about 2 weeks ago and we're just now starting to see the lettuce sprout. We'll plant carrots and radishes this weekend. Later in the season we'll move on to tomatoes and squash. Assuming all goes well, I'll post updates throughout the growing season. Here's to healthy eating at a local level.