Very simply put, Square Foot Gardening (SFG) is a whole new way of gardening, growing vegetables & fruits and contributing handsomely to the kitchen table even with the smallest of gardens at your disposal.
The system adapts easily to all levels of experience, physical ability, and geographical location. You can now grow all you want and [...]
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Our Garden Blog
Quick… Lettuce Escape!
My initial reaction when I first heard of a lettuce bolting was… “Where to?” I suppose I had visions of all my lettuces scuttling out of my garden in the dead of night in a valiant attempt to avoid the dreaded salad bowl. That all now seems like a long time ago and, in my [...]
Apologies and SFGSA Updates
Forgive me dear readers, it has been three months since my last blog post. My apologies to one and all for being so scarce lately. Spring has sprung, The grass is riz, I wonder where the garden bloggers iz… Yes, ummm… Spring has indeed sprung but that was quite a while back wasn’t it? So where have we been? [...]
Growing Vegetables in Winter
Frost will kill your exposed vegetable plants! We learnt this the hard way even though we planted what we thought were supposed to be “frost resistant” varieties. Our lettuce seed packet simply said that they were suitable for planting “All Year Round” and the image on the packet showed tick marks next to all four [...]
Eating your sprouts?
No, not brussel sprouts… Blech! Normal sprouts. I came across this “micro indoor hydroponic home food production system” called ‘Kitchen Gardening‘ a few weeks ago, where you simply put your seeds in bottles, add water until they sprout… and eat them. After all, isn’t that what sprouts bought in the shops are? Seeds that have [...]
Building a seedling rack
Having a seedling rack with heated pads and special grow lights to be able to sprout and grow your seedlings indoors is, while not a requirement of Square Foot Gardening, most definately a bonus. In this way, you can grow your seedlings throughout the year. What you do with those seedlings during winter is then up [...]
Planting our first seedlings
We decided to first ’sprout’ our seeds in small containers of vermiculite and then transplant them into normal seedling trays filled with Mel’s Mix once sprouted. When they are a decent size and a bit stronger, we’ll transplant them one final time into bigger pots and 25lt plastic drums. The indoor sprouting in vermiculite was [...]
Installing our Square Foot Garden Boxes
Our plans are coming along nicely now. The boxes are built, the garden is cleared and most importantly… our Sphagnum Peat Moss has finally arrived - We can mix our perfect soil (Mel’s Mix) at last. After yesterdays little escapades in the garden (digging, cutting and clearing the garden), I’m not too enthusiastic about the [...]
Clearing the garden - Making space for our SFG boxes
Time to get down and dirty. Yep, our garden needs a bit of clearing if we want to make space for those new Square Foot Garden boxes of ours. Most of the cutting and clearing is small stuff, a few flowers and those pesky ferns that grow like weeds but there are a few bigger [...]
I think we went a bit overboard on the seed
Really, I can be a bit impulsive at times. Kathy calls it something else entirely but I prefer “impulsive” thank you very much. We went shopping for seeds last weekend with a list that I had spent ages researching and drawing up. First, I drew up a list of all the vegetables that I could [...]
Building our first Square Foot Garden Boxes
Well, we built our first Square Foot Garden boxes today and I must say that it was a little bit more involved than I thought it would be. Not to worry though, now that I’ve done it and ironed out most of the ‘kinks’ for you (and for myself for the next batch of boxes) [...]
Can you start a Square Foot Garden in winter?
Once I get an idea in my head I have to do something about it - Right Now! Yes, I know I am impatient and yes I know it’s not always a good thing, but hey that’s who I am and I’m not apologising for any of it There is simply no way that [...]
Before Photo’s of our Garden
I thought I might post a few photo’s of our garden before we started this little gardening adventure of ours. We have a very small garden with most of it being lawn (which we can’t really dig up since we rent and not own the property). We can however, replace a few of the flower [...]
Why are we doing this SFG thing?
First of all, and since this is my first post… Welcome to our blog. Please read more about who we are here. For a while now, I’ve been pondering the effects of this global recession that we are in and how they may affect Kathy (my wife) and I. Living in South Africa, and being far [...]
SFGSA Articles
What a difference the right soil can make
We normally use the same “Mel’s Mix” soil, that we use in our Square Foot Garden boxes, for our seedlings too but, a while back (and for some unknown reason) I purchased a bag of sta[...]
Choosing what to plant and where to plant it
OK, so you’ve built your boxes and grids, mixed your perfect soil and now you’re ready to plant some vegetables. Choosing what to plant in my Square Foot Garden, and where to plant it, gav[...]
Mixing Your Square Foot Garden Soil
A successful, flourishing and productive Square Foot Garden is quite easy to achieve, even if you ignore everything else except this advice: Don’t Skimp on the Soil! Quality soil is the number o[...]
Square Foot Garden Plant Spacing Guides
Now that you have your boxes built and the grids put on, it’s quite easy to visualise the plants growing in it. Maybe you’ve decided to have a trellis along the back or on the end of the b[...]
Planning Your Garden - Size
The three basic components of planning any SFG are: Size, Location and Design. In this first article I’ll talk about the number and the sizes of boxes that are recommended. Box Sizes and Quant[...]
Building Your SFG Boxes
Square Foot Garden Boxes can be made from almost any untreated wood, stone, cinder blocks, bricks or even ‘man made’ wood and recycled plastic. We recommend using wood for your first SFG b[...]
