Square Foot Gardening Layout

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The ten basic tenets of square-foot gardening are: 
  • 1. Arrange your garden in squares, not rows. Lay it out in 4′x4′ planting areas. 
  • 2. Build boxes to hold a new soil mix above ground. 
  • 3. Space boxes 3′ apart to form walking aisles. 
  • 4. Fill boxes with Mel’s special soil mix: 1/3 blended compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 coarse vermiculite. 
  • 5. Make a permanent square foot grid for the top of each box. A MUST. 
  • 6. NEVER WALK ON YOUR GROWING SOIL. Tend your garden from the aisles. 
  • 7. Plant a different flower, vegetable, or herb crop in each square foot, using 1, 4, 9, or 16 plants per square foot. 
  • 8. Conserve seeds. Plant only a pinch (2 or 3 seeds) per hole. Place transplants in a slight saucer-shaped depression. 
  • 9. Water by hand from a bucket of sun-warmed water. 
  • 10. When you finish harvesting a square foot, add compost and replant it with a new and different crop.