Square Foot Gardening: Continuing the Harvest

Now that we have figured out how to make square foot raised beds, and how to plant within the grid of that bed we need to turn our attention to how to keep these beds producing.

Most people have begun to start their seeds by now. Perhaps you haven't but that is OK as you still have plenty of time left.

As you are planting you seeds for the spring you need to look ahead to your fall garden. I know we haven't even gotten to start our gardens outside yet and here I am talking about a Fall Garden and harvesting the yields from our gardens.

Continuous planting and harvesting is very important especially if you, like me, want to make the most out of your garden.  I am going to try and simplify this whole process for you.

First you need to determine your First Fall Frost date.   You can check this page out for the answers. Now that you have determined what that date is you can start to determine what plants you are going to have in the fall garden based on their weeks to maturity.  In case you don't know what I am talking about, the weeks to maturity mean from the point a plant sprouts to the point that you can harvest the plant.

So now that I have found that my Zone is a 4 and my first Fall Frost Date is approximately Sept 20. I have to start figuring out when I should start seeds for some of my fall plants.

 

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I have decided that I am going to plant more Broccoli, Cauliflower, Spinach, Lettuce, Carrots.  So now I have made my decision I found out what each plants weeks to maturity was.

PLANT                               WEEKS TO MATURITY                         Weeks to Plant before Frost

Broccoli                                                 16                                                         16-from seed
Cauliflower                                              16                                                        16-from seed
Carrots                                                    11                                                        11-from seed
Lettuce                                                     07                                                       07-from seed
Spinach                                                    07                                                       07-from seed


CROPS FOR A FALL HARVEST

These plants are summer crops that will continue to harvest til the first frost.

• Beans
• Swiss Chard
• Corn
• Cucumber
• Eggplant
• Peppers
• Muskmelon
• Winter Squash
• Tomatoes

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Square Foot Gardening: How to Plant in the Grid

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So now that you are beginning to understand how wonderful Square Foot Gardening can be for your garden. You are probably like me thinking....Ok so now I have to figure out how many plants go into each grid.

So I searched and searched but I found it out.  So rather than making you have to do all the work, that I have already done. I am going to share it with you.  Now mind you these are only the plants that I am going to have in my garden.  I do have the complete list and if you are interested in another plant that I don't have listed please leave me a comment and I will get right back to you.

• BEANS-BUSH: 9 PLANTS ( 3 ROWS OF 3)

• BROCCOLI: 1 PLANT PER 1 SQUARE

• CARROT: 16 PLANTS (4 ROWS OF 4 )

• CAULIFLOWER: 1 PLANT PER 1 SQUARE

• CORN: 4 PLANTS PER SQUARE

• CUCUMBERS: 2 PLANTS PER SQUARE

• LETTUCE: 4 PLANTS PER SQUARE

• ONION: 16 PLANTS (4 ROWS OF )

• PEPPER: 1 PLANT PER SQUARE

• SPINACH: 9 PLANTS (3 ROWS OF 3)

• SUMMER SQUASH: 1 PLANT PER SQUARE

•  TOMATO: 1 PLANT PER SQUARE 

Something that I have also found out is that is very recommended to use the most of the vertical space in your garden.  I am intending to try and train the cucumbers to grow vertically by providing them with trellised support.  I have chosen to use bush beans but if you are using a vine bean or peas you can take advantage of the vertical space too. Here is a nice example of what I am talking about.

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Square Foot Gardening Explained

As you know I have decided to do raised beds this year in order to make the care and maintenance of the garden easier for me.  I have also decided to embrace Square Foot Gardening to help increase my garden yields.

So I have sat down and drawn out my garden as it is right now.  It is currently 12 feet wide by 20 feet long.  I am planing on making the beds 2 feet wide by 12 feet long. So doing the math you will end up with 24 squares that are 1 foot by 1 foot in each bed.

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Here is a great example of simple raised beds.


Now these beds are wider than mine are going to be. Also based on your location, you can determine which direction would be best to plant your plants. Meaning are you going Left to Right or Top to Bottom.  For my beds Left to right provides the most sunlight.

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Now this is another amazing set up. Very clean lines and lots of space for all your Veggies!

 Now your bed does not need to be very fancy. You can use cement blocks. split logs, or just mound it up.  It all depends on how much money you want to spend on it and your desire for a specific look. 

The most important fact here is to increase the amount of veggies that come out of your garden with the minimal amount of work.

 This post is also being shared at The Better Mom Link ups and The Homestead Revival Barn Hop.