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 standard “Seedling Mix” from our local garden shop. It had been lying in our storeroom for quite some time so just for the hell of it I decided to test the difference between the two soils. I planted a few “Aviram” lettuce seeds in a tray with the seedling mix and the following weekend sowed some more “Aviram” seeds in a tray filled with Mel’s Mix.

Even though they were sown a full week later, the lettuce in the Mel’s Mix tray is obviously doing a lot better than the lettuce in the standard seedling mix, all of which are looking rather weak and straggly. That’s enough to convince me of the benefit of using our Mel’s Mix above all else.

What a difference the Mel’s Mix made. After almost two months, this is what the two trays looked like:

The tray on the left is the one with standard seedling mix while the one on the right is the Mel’s Mix tray. As you can see, I also used a 6-pack seedling tray with larger compartments for the standard mix than the 8-pack Mel’s Mix tray. This may have made some small difference but I seriously doubt it. Other than the tray size and soil, both trays received the same seed variety, water, heat and light for the entire time – they were never separated – (Note: only the first six compartments on the left of the Mel’s Mix tray are Aviram lettuce, the second six compartments are a different lettuce variety).

What do you use for your seedlings? Do you have your own secret recipe or are you using a standard mix? As usual, we would love to hear of your experiences so please leave us a comment below or drop us an email.

Happy gardening
Mark

These days of course, I know that “bolting” simply means “going to seed” and, thanks to a shiny new database of gardening terms lodged in my already overstuffed memory banks, I am able to hold my own in most casual gardening conversations. I still have those strange visions though

So, what exactly happens to your lettuces if it does start getting a little too hot under the collar for them? Well, they escape to that great salad bowl in the sky of course and in the process they produce a whole bunch of seed, a lot less edible leaves (which are also rather bitter in taste), they turn various shades of brown and then simply give up the ghost. Just like our “Lollo Rossa” red lettuce is busy doing…

Of course, if you also happen to leave a head of lettuce or two in the ground for too long, again like we did, it might just turn a sickly grey colour on the outside and into a putrid mush on the inside instead. Liquid lettuce… ugh, not a nice concept.

On the other hand, one of them might also decide that it has not yet lived life to it’s fullest and, just before being relegated to the compost heap, surprise you with a brand new lease on life. Like this little survivor did…

Lesson learned: Plant your lettuces in the coolest spot in your garden (especially if you’re trying to grow them during a hot spring/summer season), make sure that they are watered regularly, use a decent mulch, harvest the leaves often and don’t leave a head of lettuce in the ground for too long. The young’uns taste better anyway.

As usual, we would love to hear of your experiences and any suggestions you may have for growing lettuce so please leave us a comment below or drop us an email.

Happy gardening
Mark

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? Well, right here working in the garden of course. In between those irritatingly long periods of trying to run a business and earn a living that is. Kathy has joined the 8-5 rat race again, working for a boss (other than me of course) and my business has picked up considerably in the last few months. Not that I’m complaining of course, it’s just that the flow of coffee has slowed to a trickle now that I have to make it myself again (it also doesn’t seem to taste as good either)

The garden has taken shape nicely now, we’ve obviously taken the winter growing tunnels off the beds and planted out quite a bit more. We’ve also started our worm farm, finally finished our trellises, installed our drip irrigation system, acquired a few fruit trees and greatly expanded our herd of container plants. More on all this in upcoming blog posts though.

I don’t want to spoil the surprise just yet but we are also working hard on another exciting business… very closely related to this gardening venture of ours so keep your eyes peeled (or simply subscribe to our blogs RSS feed) and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s launched – Coming soon.

For now though, I just wanted to apologise to our loyal readers once again and give out a big thank you to everyone who emailed us wondering where we had disappeared to. We’re back! Now let me just get my photo’s in order so that I can bang out a few long overdue posts.

Happy Gardening
Mark

Frost will kill your exposed vegetable plants!

We tested the “leaf” lettuce by growing eight plants, transplanted from seedlings, under very simple cloches (plastic bottles with the bottoms cut off) for the first three weeks and they did very well in the 0-8 degree (celcius) early morning temperatures. Then, when the lettuces were big enough to harvest a leaf or two, we removed two of the cloches to see if they would indeed survive the cold.

They didn’t even last a full 24 hours and overnight they turned completely limp, the edges of the leaves looked as if they had been held too close to an open flame and the whole plant just seemed to shrivel up and die. They are still in the ground as I write this but I don’t think there’s much hope for them, do you?

On the other hand, the veggies planted in our new home made “Mini-Greenhouse” Growing Tunnel are doing very well indeed, almost as if it were the middle of spring already.

Building our Winter Growing Tunnel
We decided a few weeks ago that the seedlings that we were growing so prolifically on our new seedling rack were a bit of a waste if we were not going to transplant them into the garden, especially since we don’t have enough pots and 25lt barrels to accomodate all of them indoors either. I looked around on the internet at the various options for growing vegetables though the winter season and decided to try building a growing tunnel for one of our bigger (6×3 ft) Square Foot Garden raised boxes.

I managed to get hold of a few meters of UV resistant grow tunnel plastic sheeting from Obaro in Wonderboom for R46 per meter – these are 4m wide rolls, so that would be R46 for 1×4 meters. Three 2m lengths of 20x38mm planks for the base frame (one of which we cut in half for the two shorter ends), two 4m lengths of 20mm PVC piping (@ R10 each from Builders Warehouse) cut in half for the three struts and the top piece, a few cheap brass hinges and some duct tape was all that it took to make our growing tunnel. The whole tunnel cost us less than R250 and a couple of hours of work and we can now grow a full bed of veggies (18 squares) throughout the winter.

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We attached the base frame of the tunnel to the raised box with hinges to allow us to flip open the tunnel and have easy access to the front and sides of the bed. In the spring and summer months we can then just unscrew the hinges and the whole tunnel can be removed and stored until next winter. Now I just have to figure out how to make a collapsible one for easier storage

If you do decide to follow in our footsteps with this project, make sure that you make provision for air vents to allow a bit fresh air to circulate through the tunnel during the day. We just cut flaps into the plastic sheeting on either end of the tunnel and attached a piece of shade cloth on the inside of the flaps to prevent bugs getting in. Open the flaps during the day to let the air circulate and close them again late in the afternoon to help trap the days warmth inside.

Using Cloches on your plants
Ok, so I bet that many of you were wondering what a “cloche” is. It is simply a container, usually glass or plastic, that is placed over the growing seedling or plant to create an “individual greenhouse” for each plant. We used these on our smaller bed and we found that 2lt plastic coke bottles with the bottoms cut off are ideal for seedlings and smaller plants. Simply take the lids off to allow air to get in and plop the whole thing over the plant.

I can understand how these plastic bottles would protect the plants against wind and a few bugs but I wondered just how much protection this type of solution would provide against the freezing early morning temperatures in Pretoria. After our little experiment with the lettuces as described above, I am now suitably impressed.

The only problem now is finding enough suitable (bigger) containers as the plants outgrow the relatively slim coke bottles. The 5lt fruit juice bottles that we are currently using on our strawberries might do the trick but, since I am a Coke addict (the cola variety of course), these bottles are a little more difficult to come by in large quantities.

The Importance of Mulching
Also, don’t forget to add a layer of mulch on top of the soil. We put down a 2-3cm layer of bark chips and this seems to work very well in preventing evaporation (keeping the soil moist) as well as keeping the soil a few degrees warmer than it would normally be at this time of year. Hay/straw/dried grass would also work and you could even scatter a layer on top of the plants at night to keep them warm, just remember to clear them so that they can get some sunlight during the day. Mulching will also help keep any stray weeds at bay and a “natural” mulch like this can then be dug into the soil after the growing season to happily compost itself back into the soil.

I have also seen people who have used small squares of old carpet or a thick black plastic “pond” sheeting with a slit and a small hole in the middle to place around the plant like a collar. This might not look very “natural” but I am assured that it works like a charm and it’s an ideal way to recycle any old bits of carpet or plastic sheeting that you have lying around.

Of course, we would love to hear of your experiences and any suggestions you may have for winter growing so please leave us a comment below or drop us an email.

Happy gardening
Mark

This is certainly one way of growing your own food but it reminded me a bit of an article I read a while back. The article was about a non governmental organisation (NGO) whose project to provide a poor rural community with the tools and the knowledge to produce their own food, had failed dismally – Because the people, too poor and hungry to wait for their crops to grow, had immediately gone out and sold their tools to buy food. The classic “Quick Fix” syndrome.

Isn’t this ‘Sprout Garden‘ concept the same sort of thing? Isn’t it a bit like selling the tools of the trade before you’ve made your products? I mean a handful of sprouts can by no means be called a full meal. It would also take dozens, if not hundreds of seeds to produce a small handful of sprouts whereas that same handful of sprouts, if they were planted out, grown and then harvested would provide a much, much bigger harvest of food.

It’s that whole “quick fix” thing that gets to me, not to mention it being a great waste of seed.How many seeds would you have to go through just to provide enough sprouts for one sandwich filling per day for a month? Now compare that to the harvest of a tomato plant grown from just a single seed.

Growing the sprouts is of course a lot easier than growing vegetables and, without the need for a garden (of any size), this would make it appealing to quite a few people. The health benefits also seem to be a big plus for those who are unable to grow their own vegetables during winter. In fact, the health benefits from eating sprouts seem to be a big plus at any time. I wouldn’t go quite as far as some have in calling sprouts the equivalent of a “Fountain of Youth” though

What do you think? Would you try this at home? Are you already doing it and if so, how is it working out?

Happy gardening
Mark

What you do with those seedlings during winter is then up to you. We will be growing as many of them as we can in a variety of pots, barrels and even in an old metal bathtub. Those seedlings that we do not have enough containers for, we’ll put out into the SFG boxes, test various methods of keeping them warm and protecting them from frost and just generally see what happens to them.

Building the seedling rack in itself was pretty easy but trying to find suitable heating pads and grow lights was a little more difficult. I found a picture and basic plan online, popped in to my local builders warehouse for some wood and screws and put it all together in a couple of hours one night.

I did a fair bit of research to find out about special growing lights for seedlings and came away even more confused than before. There is a lot of conflicting information out there on this topic. I eventually went with the information provided by the guy who designed the growing rack and decided to go with two 2ft (double) fluorescent light fittings (for two of the shelves) with a ‘Cool White’ and a ‘Wide Spectrum’ tube in each fitting.

Only after I had purchased the fittings did I find out how difficult it was to find the ‘Wide Spectrum’ tubes. Most people didn’t have a clue about what I was talking about until I specifically mentioned that they were used for growing plants… “Oh, Grow Lights” they said, “well why didn’t you say so? Yes we do sell them but they are out of stock“. Everywhere I tried was “Sorry, out of stock“. I have a few 2ft ‘Grow Light’ tubes on order now but who knows when they will come through. And, I still don’t know if these ‘Grow Lights’ are the same things as a ‘Wide Spectrum’ tube

So for the moment I am just using plain ‘Cool White’ tubes and I must admit that the seedlings are still doing very well under these globes. It will be interesting to see the difference that a ‘Grow Light’ tube would make, if any at all.

The heating pads were another story altogether. Most of South Africa does not have the same harsh winters as found in the USA, Canada and across Europe so we therefore also do not have the same range (and cheap pricing) of heating products in our country that is commonly available overseas. I came across one or two small, really expensive heating pads specifically designed for seedlings but, due to the prices, I decided to expand my search into various other markets too.

I thought of underfloor heating and spoke to a few people in the industry but it gets rather complicated when you start working with thermostats (they get pretty hot), waterproofing and coverings, sizing etc. I did however, find a 60cmx40cm heated ‘Foot Mat’ at builders Warehouse for R350 – no thermostat, just a low and high setting. I bought it to test.

Then I looked at the pet industry (fishtanks and reptiles) and found a few Reptile Mats in various sizes that could possibly work. Again no temperature settings but a little more waterproof than the Foot Mat so I bought a 35cmx35cm one for R90.

To make the Foot Mat waterproof I simply covered the top with a black plastic dustbin bag – overlapping it a bit on the bottom edges but leaving most of the bottom open so as not to ‘overheat’ the mat and burn it out. The Reptile Mat has a thin ‘foil’ covering so I am using it ‘as is’ (just being very careful not to tear the foil).

The ideal soil temperature for growing seedlings is between 24 and 28 degrees Celsius (depending on the plant) and I was a bit concerned that these heating pads would either be too hot or too cold. I needn’t have worried, at the pet store I also bought a ‘floating’ thermometer and have used it, pushed into the soil of a ‘blank’ seedling tray compartment, to test the soil temperature. A perfect 26-27 degrees when on the Foot Mat and a good 22-24 degrees on the Reptile Mat.

Here is our seedling rack (click on the images to enlarge):

Happy gardening
Mark

Once the vermiculite has soaked up it’s fill of water (it will turn a darker colour all the way through), poke about five or six holes in the vermiculite with the tip of your little finger about 5mm deep and, depending on the size of the seeds, drop 1-3 seeds into each hole. Lightly cover the seeds with a thin layer of vermiculite and leave in a nice warm place for a few days. Top up the trays with water once or twice a day.

Our First Seeds Planted (click on an image to enlarge)

Before we built our seedling rack we had simply kept a small fan heater blowing warm air around the containers during the cold nights. By the way, if you do something similar, don’t place the heater too close or aim it directly at the containers – you don’t want to wake up in the morning to find the seeds completely dried out or even worse, cooked

Seeds sprouted in this manner should be transplanted into seedling trays as soon as they have sprouted their first two leaves – called the seed leaves. The seed leaves are usually fairly large and flat and look nothing like the plant’s regular leaves (the onions and spring onions were the exception to this rule) and the first set of ‘true’ leaves will come out soon after as the stem grows a little higher.

Because we waited until we could transplant most of the sprouts at the same time, the radishes and peas were a little bigger than mentioned above, but it didn’t seem to harm them since they are still growing ‘like weeds’ as we speak. They came up really fast – 3 days for the radishes to sprout and the peas a day later.

We planted the seeds on the 3rd May and transplanted most of them 7 days later on the 10th May. We had excellent results with most of the seeds with a good percentage of them sprouting. Here are the results:
The carrots and radish we sowed in 2lt ice-cream containers and the rest in the coke and milk bottle  bottoms. The tomato seeds were really small, light and difficult to handle accurately and I think I may also have accidentally dropped a few more of the ‘Great Lakes’ lettuce seeds in a hole than I counted because we got 15 sprouts out of (a measured) 8-12 seeds? We also didn’t transplant all of the sprouts since we don’t have enough pots to transplant them all into later.

At the time we transplanted, the carrots, onions, spring onions and the ‘Moneymaker’ tomatoes (a vine variety) still hadn’t sprouted so we left them in for a few more days.

I really was surprised by the speed at which the bulk of the seeds sprouted as well as the high percentage of them that did so successfully. My sowing and planting experiences with previous gardens have been nowhere nearly as successful as this. Even when I have started seeds in seedling trays, only about half of the compartments in the tray would yield anything (and that was with a sizable pinch of seeds in each compartment). Admittedly, my previous attempts were all left outdoors, I’ve always used normal potting soil in them and sometimes they would dry out completely when I forgot about them for a day or two.

The next test I want to do is to compare the sprouting times and success rates between the same plant seeds sprouted in vermiculite to those sown directly into seedling trays with the Mel’s Mix but that’s next weeks task. I will also only be able to run further tests, with the seeds sown outdoors directly into the SFG boxes, in August when the weather is warmer.

Happy gardening
Mark

Laying out the boxes

First step was to lay the boxes out and mark the edges in the ground. Then out with the spade to cut away some of the lawn where the boxes stuck out further than the previous flower beds did. I saved the squares of grass sod that I cut out with the spade for the first layer of our soon-to-be compost heap. I also had to level the ground under two of the box positions so that we don’t have slanted boxes, we want any heavy rains to soak through the soil, not run off and wash away our Mel’s Mix.

After making sure that everything was level we positioned the boxes and placed a layer of flattened cardboard boxes in the bottom to act as a weed barrier and to prevent anything else from growing or crawling up into our boxes from the ground below. A layer of newspaper on top of that just for good measure and a good watering to get the paper and cardboard all soggy and well tucked into the corners for a good seal.

Time to mix the soil and fill the boxes

A quick bit of advice here – Don’t mix your Mel’s Mix outdoors on a windy day! The Peat Moss is really light and fluffy and will get up your nose in even the slightest breeze. Preferably wear a mask of some sort in any case.

I found an easy method of measuring the equal quantities of Sphagnum Peat Moss, Vermiculite and compost required for the Mel’s Mix. The compost generally comes in 30dm3 (cubic decimeters) bags which is the equivalent of 30 liters, the vermiculite was in 2 kg bags and the peat moss in 6 cubic foot bales. All I did was to find a 25 liter bucket and measured out everything in that to get equal volumes. The peat moss bales are compressed 2:1 so, as we were shoveling it into the bucket, we were sifting it through our fingers to ‘fluff it up’ again first. What a lovely texture it is, almost like handling shredded silk

We mixed our Mel’s Mix on an old tent groundsheet that we discovered lurking in the garage, rolling the mixture back and forth inside the groundsheet a few times and then making sure it was well mixed by spreading it out as thinly as possible by hand before rolling it once or twice more. I have to say that I’m not overly impressed with some of the compost that we bought. The quality varied immensely and some of it was just plain bad! We sifted out all the bad clumps (compost that is not well matured tends to be soggy, clumps together and stinks) and added a bit more of the better stuff until we were happy with the result.

As a side note: I spent three of my school going years at an agricultural college and have since spent quite a bit of time during the past 20 odd years pottering around in various gardens around South Africa but I have never seen soil that looks quite like this. Not even the best quality ‘potting soil’ I have seen comes anywhere close to it.

We mixed the soil in small batches so as not to strain our backs too much in the process and then dragged the groundsheet over to the boxes and simply tipped it in. Once the boxes were full we gave them a good watering to help the soil ‘settle’ before topping up the boxes to the brim. Remember that we are using boxes that are 8 inches deep (20cm) instead of the 6 inches that is usually recommended, so two 2×1 meter boxes and one 1×1 meter box works out to exactly 1 cubic meter of soil.

Attaching the Grids

The last step was to attach the square foot grids to the top of the boxes. I know that many people simply use string or thin nylon rope for this but we wanted more permanent (and better looking) grids on our boxes that, even when the boxes are filled with bushy plants, will still clearly demarcate the squares. So, wooden slat grids they are, screwed to the top of the boxes.

So what do you think of the results? (click on the images to enlarge):

Yep, we’re pretty impressed too

Happy gardening

Mark

My way: Go out and buy a packet of seed for every different vegetable and variety of vegetable that you can possibly find. Get home and wonder why there are so many different varieties of tomato seeds in your knee high pile of seed packets. Sit down and pick a vegetable (like the tomatoes) and then start researching everything you can about planting seasons, companion planting, seed types & plant variety’s, crop rotation and seedling propagation.

This should lead you to even more research on the differences between Indeterminate (vine) and Determinate (bush) plant types, pruning practices, watering practices, plant pests & diseases and much, much more. You wonder why the back of the seed packets don’t tell you what the differences between the varieties are. You pick up the phone and spend a good half hour talking to the seed company sales and distribution manager and diligently writing everything down before requesting further information to be sent to you. Suddenly you realise that you are right back at the beginning again – Which seeds to plant and where?

The right way: Make a list of the vegetables that you would normally eat. Check our Planting & Harvesting Calendar to see which vegetables you should be planting at this time of year and go out and buy a packet of seeds for those vegetables. Quickly check the Plant Spacing Guide. Pick a suitable square in your SFG box and plant those seeds. It’s as easy as that.

Of course you still need to know whether those bean seeds that you are planting are for a bush or a vine variety so that you know whether to plant it in a trellised square or not (I like to have certain squares in my boxes permanently set up with a trellis and use only these squares for my vine plants). Again, check out the spacing guides for more info.

Don’t worry about all the different varieties of the same vegetable just yet, I’m sure that you will be trying many of them over the next few years to find your favorite but for now we just want to get you started.

Next:
Check our Planting & Harvesting Calendar
Check the Plant Spacing Guide

Mel's Mix - The Perfect SFG 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 one reason that a garden succeeds. For years people have been trying to improve their existing garden soils by adding fertilizers, mulches and compost, digging and tilling to loosen the soil and to improve drainage, adding chemicals to balance the pH level and then having to start all over again the following growing season. No more.

With Square Foot Gardening we create our own perfect soil mix right from the start and we never have to worry about using or trying to improve our existing garden soil ever again. So, what is the perfect soil?

The perfect soil
Think of a sponge, it just keeps soaking up water until it is fully saturated and then anything extra simply drains out the bottom. The perfect soil is just like a sponge, enabling your plant roots get all the water they need without ever being drowned in a waterlogged soil. The soil needs to be ‘light and fluffy’ to enable the plant roots to form properly and to “grow without effort” and it also needs to be well aerated. Finally, the soil needs to provide nutrients, minerals and trace elements that the plants need to grow and flourish.

OK, so how do you figure out what all the ingredients are, that you will need to achieve everything mentioned above? Well, you don’t have to. The creator of the Square Foot Gardening method, Mel Bartholomew, has already done it all for you. We create our perfect SFG soil by mixing Peat Moss, Vermiculite and Compost in equal quantities. It’s called ‘Mel’s Mix’ and it’s really that simple!

6 ft3 bales of Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss

Peat Moss
Sphagnum is a genus of between 151-350 species of mosses commonly called peat moss. Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss comes from the more than 270 million acres of natural peatlands in Canada.

Peat moss is a natural, organic soil conditioner created from decomposing plant material. It’s large cell structure enables it to absorb air and water like a sponge. Although peat moss does not contain nutrients, it adsorbs the nutrients added to or already present in the soil, releasing them over time as the plants require. This saves valuable nutrients which are otherwise lost through leaching.

It helps to:

• Save Water – Peat retains up to 20 times its weight in moisture, and releases water slowly as your plants need it.
• Aerate Heavy, Clay Soil – Peat moss allows for proper root growth by loosening and aerating soils.
• Bind Sandy Soil – By adding body to sandy soil, peat helps it retain moisture and nutrients.
• Reduce Leaching – Peat moss reduces leaching of nutrients already in or added to the soil, releasing them over time.
• Protect Soil – Peat moss protects soil from hardening and adds organic material.

Peat moss decomposes slowly over several years compared to compost which typically decomposes within one year. It has a reliable pH (3.4 to 4.8), is environmentally friendly and free of insects, weeds, seeds, salts and chemicals.

Vermiculite
This is also a natural material and is obtainable all over the world. It is a mica rock mined out of the ground. Large commercial vermiculite mines currently exist in South Africa, China, Brazil and several other countries. Once the rock is collected and ground into small particles, it is heated until it explodes just like popcorn. Like popcorn, vermiculite is light and full of nooks and crannies enabling it to hold a tremendous amount of water while still keeping the soil loose and friable.

Vermiculite is graded into several sizes – fine, medium and coarse – and is also used in a variety of other applications from fireproofing and insulation to absorbing hazardous liquids for solid disposal. The coarse grade is used for agricultural purposes as it holds the most moisture.

Compost
Good compost is sometimes called ‘Black Gold’ due to both its value and its scarcity. Compost is absolutely the best material in which to grow your plants. It has all the nutrients needed for plant growth. It’s loose and friable and easily worked. It holds a lot of moisture yet drains well. It’s easy to make and yet hard to find. The best compost is homemade and for that reason, one of the first things we should all be doing in our Square Foot Gardens is starting our own compost heap.

But, since we’re all starting out here (and assuming of course that you don’t already have a compost heap), the compost that we have easiest access to, is store bought compost. Unfortunately, most of these composts are single ingredient byproducts (like horse or kraal manure) that some local company has simply collected and bagged.

We took the advice of many who have before us and went out and bought as many different types/brands of compost that we could get our hands on. A few bags of kraal manure, a few bags of rose mix compost, a few bags of mushroom compost, a bag or two of germination compost and three  different ‘no-name’ brands just to get as much variety in our compost as we could. We found that the quality of these different types varied greatly, from light, dry and dusty to soggy, dark, stinking clods of half decomposed manure. We removed all the obvious half decomposed chunks and mixed the rest of it all together and actually came out with a very decent resulting compost.

Kathy enjoying the 'Light & Fluffy' feel of our own perfect Square Foot Garden soil

Mixing your soil.
We took a groundsheet from one of our old tents, laid it out flat on the lawn and used it to mix our ‘Mel’s Mix’ on. We simply poured out the required quantities of each ingredient (compost, peat moss and vermiculite) into the middle and then picked up the one end of the groundsheet and pulled it over to the other end so that the soil inside rolled over to the edge of the groundsheet. We repeated the process in the opposite direction and then back again, rolling the soil mixture back and forth and folding it in on top of itself. Once mixed it was easy enough to drag the whole groundsheet the short distance to our SFG box and upend the contents into the box.

A word of warning from the wise (and from personal experience) – Take care when mixing the ingredients though, both the vermiculite and the peat moss are very dry, light and dusty and easily gets up your nose – Do Not try doing this on a Windy Day!

How much to mix.
Working out the various quantities to mix can be a little confusing and frustrating (especially for those of you who, like me, are mathematically challenged). The compost usually comes in bags measured in cubic decimeters, the vermiculite in kilograms and the peat moss we managed to get bales of 6 cubic feet/170 liters which is compressed @ 2:1. Now divide that lot into equal amounts volume wise ;-(

I found a nice little online measurement conversion website (www.convert-me.com) that helped me tremendously when trying to work out the equivalent volumes of each ingredient. Cubic decimeters is the same as liters, so 30 dm3 of compost is the same as 30 liters. The 6 cubic foot peat moss bale is 170 liters that expands to double it’s compressed volume when opened and lightly sifted by running your hands through it. Ok, so that’s 340 liters total per bale (170×2).

The vermiculite was a little more difficult to gauge due to its extreme lightness. A 2kg bag ‘looked’ to be around 15 liters (compared to the size of a bag of compost) but then I had the brilliant idea of getting my hands on a 25lt plastic bucket and simply using that to add my vermiculite to the mix. I was not far off by the way – a 2kg bag of vermiculite fills roughly three quarters of a 25lt bucket.

Figuring out the volume needed for each box, and in total, was the easy part. A 1×1 meter box (3×3 squares) that is 20cm deep (0.2m) equals 0.2 cubic meters in volume (1 x 1 x 0.2). A 2×1 meter box (6×3 squares) that is 20cm deep equals 0.4 cubic meters in volume (2 x 1 x 0.2). Add up the volume of all your boxes and then divide by three (ingredients). Then use the conversion website to convert cubic meters to liters.

A final word of soil advice.
The perfect soil that we are creating here will probably be the most expensive part of your Square Foot Garden but it is without a doubt the most important aspect of the whole process. If you skimp on this part you will be sorry a few months down the line. It is definitely worth spending the money to get the correct ingredients in the correct quantities and getting this part right. If you follow the process correctly and as explained here, all the other advantages of SFG will all fall into place naturally and you will have a most enjoyable and profitable Square Foot Gardening experience.