These can be easily purchased from your local garden, grocery, or hardware store. These plants have already been grown to four weeks old, saving you the hassle of starting seeds, protecting them in a greenhouse, then hardening them off, and getting them ready for the big bad world. But for beginners, or if you only have a few garden beds, it makes sense to buy plant starts at the store. Plant Starts – Sure, you can start your own seeds (we love using these DIY soil blocks for seed starting).4 squares of cucumber, 2 cucumber plants.3 Squares of broccoli, 3 broccoli plants.4 squares of swiss chard, 16 chard plants.4 squares of lettuce, 16 lettuce plants.My recommended spacing for the more popular plants:.Here are some quick charts for plant spacings to follow. Research which plants you would like to grow and how many plants can be planted in each square foot. You will also need nails if you plan to use twine. A Square Foot Grid – Use tomato twine, bamboo or wooden doweling, lattice, or other materials to create a square foot grid on the top of each raised bed.Healthy Soil – To get started, you will need one cubic yard of wood chips, two cubic yards of garden soil, and another cubic yard of compost.I make my raised beds to be 4 feet by 8 feet. Square Foot Garden Beds – Build raised garden beds (that link will take you to my raised bed plans).You can add PVC pipe arches and attach clear plastic to cover your raised beds to protect your plants against frost. This allows you to plant in early spring, sometimes as early as February. Plant and Harvest Earlier – The soil in raised beds warms faster than the soil in the ground. ![]() Then plan a rotation of plants in the squares for next year. Easy to Rotate Crops – Add more compost to your raised beds yearly to replenish the nutrients.Even if you only have a small space, you can garden using this method. You get a greater yield of harvestable food for the space you use. Good Use of Space – Deep, nutrient-rich soil allows you to grow vegetables closer together, meaning that you need less garden space.Since you don’t have to walk on the soil in the raised bed, the soil stays loose and doesn’t get compacted down. Great Soil – Add compost or the Mel Bartholomew soil mix into the raised beds and start with nutrient-rich soil.For example, companion planting strawberries and asparagus creates an ideal growing situation for both plants. Square foot gardening focuses on variety and companion planting. Mel Bartholomew has a square foot gardening book that helps you plan your garden. This makes it easy to plan what you could plant into each square. Easy to Plan – The square foot gardening plan is organized in squares.Also, adding drip irrigation in raised garden beds is easy. The loose soil in the raised beds retains water well. You can water just the raised beds without watering the space between garden rows like in traditional gardens. Saves Water – Square foot gardening reduces water waste. ![]() Additionally, filling the raised beds with compost or the recommended soil mix helps you start your garden beds without needing to till up weeds or loosen compacted soil. Since your vegetable plants can be planted closer together, the plants choke out the weeds.
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