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Mel Bartholomew answers the most frequently asked question about Square Foot Gardening. With Patti Moreno the Garden Girl.
February 4 2010
Mel Bartholomew answers the most frequently asked question about Square Foot Gardening. With Patti Moreno the Garden Girl.
Check out my garden videos. Search for ‘haypockets’ or ‘rebeccas square foot garden.’
1 word… Flamethrower.
Coyotes get them.
a cat or two might help
I would love to try a garden here,but we have moles from he**.My yard looks like a construction site,and we’ve been here a long time.I’ve tried baits and traps to no avail. HELP.
Yeah well the best is newspaper. It stops the light from getting down to the weeds and it is biodegradeble. You win twice especially if you get the Sunday paper. Smile.
Plant Kindness…and Gather Love
I just made my first square foot garden video!! Thanks for all the tips – i love these!
My two favs!
thanks for the great info iam buildinga bed within 2 weeks i already have my garden going i have pics on youtube and my space if you wanna see them
Great Video!!! Would it be alright to treat the wood with a few coats of Boiled Linseed Oil? Both the inside and the outside of the raised bed.
Thanks
After six years of experience I would say Pine is cheapest and good for two years. Cedar is good for seven or eight years and Cut Limestone will last for 500 years. It costs a lot, but not when you spread it out over 200 years or even ten. I’m going Limestone a little bit each year and pine until then. Just do it! Pallets are free and very adaptable. Fresh vegetables are connected to the cosmos and they are our connection as well. Partake and bask in the glory.
You can also use block if you have deeper pockets.
Check out a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, they sell surplus building materials on the cheap.
Wow, hadn’t even thought about them! Will definitely avoid the fabric, now, no matter the cost!
Sweet. Plus, your worms will thank you.
I was all poised to buy the cloth, but will go with the free solution – cardboard – another great tip from Garden Girl.
Good video but I agree w/Organic Texas I will never use garden cloth it becomes one with the weeds and grass and you end up ripping it out. I prefer plain old soil without mulch or fabric so I can dig up the weeds and grass as they show up with nothing in my way.
lol! But I bought it from a guy named Pete!
I still wouldn’t recommend the cloth- I haven’t seen any that really prevented weeds from coming up. It’s not needed unless you just really want to spend the money.
The cloth has holes in it, too small for weeds and bugs, but big enough for the plant to breath. It is not a solid plastic but some kind of woven material.
Also, it is not “Pete Moss” or even “Kate Moss” but rather “Peat Moss”!
Is it straw or hay? Hay contains the seed head (which will give you problems) while straw is just the stalk.
really awesome vid GardenGirl! I learned a lot and only in 8 minutes. Will put these tips to some good use in future.
LOVE YOUR VIDEOS MEL & GARDENGIRL
hi gardengirl ,what do you think about putting straw or clean hay on the bottom,my husband brought home 3 containers that a warehouse used for shipping but they are about 16in deep and 4′ by 5′1/2′ but I do not have the money to buy so much soil ,I do have some compost from under my bunnies hutch to use and some soil from my chicken coop.Love Your videos !Thanks gardengirl & Mel !!!
Obviously Mel doesn’t garden in the PNW. Pressure treated is the only way to get a decade from boxes in our wet climate.
There are 100 ways to grow a tomato…
I actually agree on both. Cardboard for the bottom for year one and Coir is great too, it is just super hard to find(Organic Mechanic turned me on to the Fiber(
Once people get the bug for gardening they will seek out new ways, but to get them out there, I say let Mel do his thing. Thanks Texas, I welcome your comments.
I love the SFG concept, but I disagree with 2 items:
1- I wouldn’t use a weed cloth or a bottom on the box. This does harm as the soil can’t breath & plants with deeper roots are healthier than plants with shallow roots.
2- I wouldn’t use Pete Moss. It has anti-microbial properties & good organic soil is full of beneficial microbes. Also, PM has a heavy eviro-foot print- takes a lot of energy to harvest it & ship down from Canada. Use coconut coir instead- which has beneficial fungus.