@ war garden ,why do you garden from a book doing whatever it tells you to do ,and then when other people do it their way you tell them it’s wrong ? Just let everyone do it their way ,without commenting,and when anyone asks a specific question ,and if you can help with an answer ,then that’s fine . Please stop telling everyone that your books know better . It’s coming across as very rude you know .
given the book gets you great results and the books in question is on best selling vegetable growing garden book. the book teaches how avoid glut and store those that you get. seem they author knew what he was talking about.
I'm a fan of sq ft gardening, it was originally designed by Mel Bartholomew to help people in overcrowded 3rd world cities to grow a few vegetables on their balconies using their own home made compost and their own fertiliser (urine). It's like intensive gardening using sacks and plastic containers.
In 'the book' they are very specific to what the compost is made up of (called Mel's mix), 'normal' garden soil is frowned on because it's been depleted in nutrients (depends what country you live in, but I can imagine a densely populated city having a problem with levels of soil nutrients). A third of the mix is vermiculite.
Here are the 10 principles of SFG;
1. Plant densely 2. Grow up - not out 3. Use the specified compost recipe (you shouldn't use garden soil) 4. Garden close to your home - so you can pay close attention in tending to plants 5. Grow shallow - a mere 6 inches of growing medium is all it takes for most crops 6. Fertilizer is not needed in a mixture of different composts in the first year (it'll be my 2nd year and I'll be using most of last years compost with homemade garden compost, compost from my wormery, and (possibly) some BFB added, plus more vermiculite will be added - my experiment) 7. Keep aisles between boxes narrow 8. Be stingy with seeds - less thinning out 9. Plant in squares 10. Rotate crops
I came across square foot gardening a few years ago and thought it was most odd but in principal, if space is scarce, I don't see why it wouldn't work if the soil carried the nutrients required and to a loose degree that's how I plant my veg out. I don't need huge cabbages or huge veg of any sort so in my case it works.
I agree totally Dove and said something similar in the potato chitting thread and it never ceases to amaze me how we answer queries differently to each other. If it works for us then that's ok but it might not work for others, different climate, conditions etc.
Posts
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
the books in question is on best selling vegetable
growing garden book. the book teaches how avoid glut
and store those that you get. seem they author
knew what he was talking about.
In 'the book' they are very specific to what the compost is made up of (called Mel's mix), 'normal' garden soil is frowned on because it's been depleted in nutrients (depends what country you live in, but I can imagine a densely populated city having a problem with levels of soil nutrients). A third of the mix is vermiculite.
Here are the 10 principles of SFG;
1. Plant densely
2. Grow up - not out
3. Use the specified compost recipe (you shouldn't use garden soil)
4. Garden close to your home - so you can pay close attention in tending to plants
5. Grow shallow - a mere 6 inches of growing medium is all it takes for most crops
6. Fertilizer is not needed in a mixture of different composts in the first year (it'll be my 2nd year and I'll be using most of last years compost with homemade garden compost, compost from my wormery, and (possibly) some BFB added, plus more vermiculite will be added - my experiment)
7. Keep aisles between boxes narrow
8. Be stingy with seeds - less thinning out
9. Plant in squares
10. Rotate crops
There's plenty of info on the internet.
Cambridgeshire/Norfolk border.
I don't need huge cabbages or huge veg of any sort so in my case it works.
When you don't even know who's in the team
S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...