Square-Foot Gardening

Can anyone tell me more about square foot gardening? I have seen a couple of articles on it, and I believe a book or two has been written on the subject, but I cannot seem to find much on the subject. Can anyone tell me if they have used this method of growing vegetables and is is just a fancy name for the old method of growing vegetables in raised beds. I really don't see much difference. Perhaps others out there can enlighten me.

Hi John

We have just started planning our new vegetable garden for the spring, and we are very interested in the method of square-foot gardening. So at this stage we are still novices and learning. What I can tell you is that the method is not revolutionary, but rather a whole lot of good ideas that have been combined into one system. For example, Mel ... can't think if his surname right now, but he came up with this idea. Basically he suggests companion planting, growing plants in a way that is organic and also using raised beds with his suggested special soil mixture which then allows you to grow vegetables or flowers on any type of ground, even cement! So, it is really more than raised beds. The soil mixture he sells is really only equal parts of peat moss, vermiculite and compost. This mixture holds water well, aerates the soil and feeds the plants.

He suggests growing plants in a square, around 4 ft x 4 ft, and then within that square different plants are grown. This way they grow together, shade each other, cut down on weeds, you don't over plant either and with such a set up you don't end up compacting the soil when you weed as you can easily remove the weeds due to the set up.

The only thing we will have to do is decide how we are going to raise the beds. At this stage we haven't decided on brick or wood. Brick is more permanent, but more expensive. Mmm...

Thanks RiniB for replying. I would be very interested to find out how your square-foot gardening goes. I don't know where you are, but here in the UK it is freezing cold, and spring seems to be a long way off!

I remember now that his name is Mel Bartholemew. He has a website which gives more info on the subject.
It's here:

http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

We have a couple of books that I can recommend if you like.

Rini