(In the Garden #6)

Everyday Maintenance of Your Square Foot Garden

If you have actually (or even, theoretically) planted your square foot garden, it is now time to look at the day to day maintenance of it. This is where you can really see the advantages of the square foot method of gardening. An added bonus of square foot gardening is that it is really easy to grow organic. Weeds, bugs and nutrients can easily be managed in non-toxic ways.

Weeding: If you've located the garden near an access to your house where you pass the garden frequently, weeding just happens. If you limit yourself to five minutes of weeding every time you pass your garden, you will find that you have a neat and weed-free garden most of the time. If you have planted several 4' x 4' garden blocks, you may have to spend a little more time pulling weeds, but still, weeding by hand is very manageable and shouldn't take much time at all.

Watering: Watering is easy with a square foot garden. You can water your plants individually with a bucket of water and a cup, pouring water directly on the root system of each plant. (If you collect rainwater in a barrel, you can use it for watering your garden.) If you have multiple garden blocks, you can easily water your crops with a garden hose, again directing the water to the roots. It is best to water deeply, in the morning or in the early evening. Frequent watering (daily) is necessary when your plants first go into the ground, when seeds are coming up, and in hot, dry weather. After that, you can condition your plants to make do with deep, thorough watering every two or three days.

Bugs: You will find that you can control most bug problems without toxic chemicals since your square foot garden is small enough to observe and deal with insect problems before they can do much damage. Tomato horn worms can be looked for, removed by hand, and disposed of without insecticides. You can make up a batch of garlic and red pepper solution, strained, put it in a spray bottle and spray it to deter broccoli worms or almost any other garden pest. (Just remember to reapply after watering or heavy rain!)

Fertilizer and Mulch: You can easily apply any liquid organic fertilizer to your crops, or dig in small amounts of manure and compost around your plants to feed them organically. Once the larger plants, such as tomatoes and peppers, are established, you can use compost or other organic mulch to put around the base of the plants to feed them and conserve moisture.

Optional Garden Structures: There are optional structures you may want or need for your 4' X 4' garden block. You might want to build a fence or trellis on one end of your garden block to grow vining tomatoes, pole bean, peas, or cucumbers. You might be plagued by rabbits and deer and want to enclose the square with some temporary fencing. You might want to try your hand at growing cool weather crops in the late fall. A mini-greenhouse constructed out of heavy clear plastic and light wire fencing can be popped over a garden block and you may be able to serve home-grown turnips, carrots, spinach and possibly even lettuce at your Thanksgiving dinner!

Rotating Your Crops: Successive planting in the square foot garden is how you get more produce in less space. Lettuce, a cool weather crop, will turn bitter when the hot days of summer start. Pull out what is left of your lettuce, add some compost to the square and replant with a warm weather crop such as Swiss chard or green beans. If you've grown peas, another cool weather crop, on a trellis, when the end of the peas comes in hot weather, put up the vines and plant cucumbers or pole beans on the same trellis. You should be able to have multiple crops in your 4' x 4' block if you remove spent crops and replace them with new, season-appropriate ones.

Tomorrow – Conclusion - Now that you know the rules to square foot gardening, let's break 'em! (Also, photos of my garden!)

A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.

- Doug Larson