(In the Garden #5)

Planting Seeds and Seedlings

The garden site is chosen. The soil is prepared. You have decided what you want to grow. Now the time has come to do the actual planting of your square foot garden. If you have bought some nursery seedlings, such as tomatoes or pepper plants, you can put them in the ground when all danger of frost has passed. Plant them on a cloudy day or in the early morning or evening to avoid having the roots of the seedlings exposed to the sun. Water each seedling thoroughly. The best way to water a new seedling is by hand, scooping out a cupful of water from a bucket and pouring it over the root area. You should be watering your new plantings at least once a day for the first week, more frequently if you notice an wilting on hot days.

For the crops that are being seeded directly into the ground, plant them square by square. If you want to plant one square foot of carrots, mark off your square, make shallow indentations with your finger, 16 to a square, put 2-4 seeds in each indentation, cover lightly with soil, gently tamp down the soil and water carefully. When the seeds sprout, and you can see two sets of leaves for each new plant, pinch away the smaller plants and leave a strong single plant to grow. In the case of the carrots square, you should have 16 carrots plants per square. Do the same for all your seed planting – plant 2-3 seeds per indentation, thinning to one strong plant once they have grown to have two sets of leaves.

Seed packets will give you information on how deep to plant a seed, and when to plant that particular vegetable. Ignore the information that tells you how far apart to plant the seeds. This is square foot gardening, and most seed packets only have information on planting space for traditional rowed gardens.

I've included in this article diagrams on the spacing of most vegetables you are likely to try in your square foot garden. Crops like zucchini, bush tomatoes and vertically grown squash have different spacing needs, so their spacing doesn't look as “square foot” as some of the other crops.

Tomorrow - Everyday Maintenance of Your Planted Square Foot Garden

To see things in the seed, that is genius. - Lao Tzu