Growing vegetables in a square-foot garden gives control over the soil composition, uses less water than in-ground planting, and provides for effective weed control. A garden can consist of a four-foot by four-foot frame and yet yield plenty of vegetables during a growing season.
Benefits of Square Foot Gardening in Southern California
In Pasadena, California, the soil is relatively poor and is difficult to control the nutrients. Since rain falls primarily in January and February, having a garden planted directly in the soil can lead to over-watering or under-watering and leave plant roots malnourished. Sprinkler systems typically can’t run long enough to provide the needed moisture and drip irrigation systems need regular maintenance and are mostly effective for native plants.
How I Built My Square Foot Garden
I built two square-foot garden frames in our backyard. Each one is four feet by four feet. I bought four planks measuring 1×6 inches at the local hardware store and attached them with screws. On one corner that’s on a slight downhill slant, I used brackets to provide additional strength.
Planks that are 2×6 inches or 2×8 inches are ideal to withstand the pressure from the soil and water inside. The size I have used has held up well after two years of consistent growing and doesn’t show any signs of loosening.
The soil mixture is readily available from local hardware stores or the big box retailers like Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH), Home Depot, and Lowes. I mixed together steer manure and peat moss for 1/3 of the mixture, used vermiculite for the next 1/3 and used our home compost for the remaining 1/3 of soil needed.
The cost of building the frame and adding the soil was about $170 from OSH. That may seem expensive, but that was the upfront cost and I have only used one additional bag of steer manure.
Maintaining My Square Foot Garden
The soil settles from watering and harvesting the plants, so we find it easy to add additional layers of compost in between growing cycles.
Although the summers are hot and dry, weeds and unwanted grass can grow well and present a challenge for maintaining a traditional style garden that is grown in the ground. Weeding inside a square foot garden is easy. I used a screen for a base and this prevents weeds from growing up in. The height of the frames reduces the grass and air borne seeds that land inside and take hold.
There are few errant weeds so it’s easy to pluck some when watering normally. Usually a few grass stems pull out easily.
I simply use a weed whacker or carefully maneuver the lawn mower to cut the grass growing along the edge of the frames.
For plants that grow tall like snap peas and tomatoes, it’s easy to place a trellis in the soft soil of the frame.
Assign each plant one square foot area. We also successfully grew spring mix flowers quite well by sprinkling the seeds from a can along the front of the garden. They lasted for several weeks and took no additional special care to bloom. The flowers mixed well with the vegetables.
In Pasadena, we have a year-round growing season for a variety of vegetables. The square foot garden makes it a convenient hobby and one that yields enough produce for regular salads.
