As I was posting about Square Foot Gardening the other day, I started thinking about one of our rock star readers, April. April is a long time reader of MoneySavingQueen.com and has posted threads in our forums all about Square Foot Gardening. I asked her to write up a guest post for us and give us some tips as to how this can be done and done right the first time!

{4 Tips for Successful Square Foot Gardening}

I’m posting this to encourage any of you that are on ‘the fence’ about gardening. Do you want to have a garden, but don’t want to spend a ton of time on it? Then Square Foot Gardening is for you!  Less space + less watering + less weeding = more fun!!!

1)  Read the book ‘All New Square Foot Gardening‘.  Really, Mel has it down to a masterpiece 🙂 You’ll want the latest release, but the older one is a neat read also.  Borrow the latest from your local library, find it at a Dollar General, on Amazon, or a used book store.  Think about using some SwagBucks and you could end up getting it for FREE on Amazon.

2)  SFG is basically dirt (Mel’s Mix) in a box with grids on top.  You’ll need to know the size of your SFG boxes.  Mel uses a 4×4 in the book. I used to use graph paper, but Excel has been my friend for a few years when planning out my SFG 🙂

Mel’s Mix requires 1/3 Vermiculite, 1/3 Peat Moss, and 1/3 Compost (at least 5 different kinds).  For a 4×4 box, you’ll need 8 cubic feet of Mel’s Mix.  He has a lot of calculations already done for you in the book. (See picture on flickr) An economical way to save on Mel’s Mix is to make your own compost.  Search the web, tons of tips out there.

3) What type of veggies/herbs/flowers do you want to grow?  How many of those veggies/herbs/flowers go in 1 square foot? Generally you’ll have a 4×4 square box with grids on top separating into 16 individual square feet.  In each square you can plant 16 carrots, or 16 onions, or 9 green beans, 4 lettuce plants, or 1 tomato plant, or whatever you want to grow!  If you planted a whole box of carrots, that would be 256 carrots…seriously!!!

4)  Involve your family.  The hard part of SFG is getting Mel’s Mix and your boxes ready, the rest is soooo easy.  Invite the kids, grandkids, neighbors over for a planting party and then later for a harvesting party.  Gardening is also a great way to teach your children…my 5 yo daughter just loves to help.Dirt and kids just go together.

Compared to a traditional row gardening, SFG has very few weeds to pull.  The weeds that do blow in come up easily.  I’m able to weed my SFG in about 5 minutes per week!!!  Just sit back and watch your SFG grow and you might even see the kiddos grow right along 🙂

HUGE thanks to April for sending in this great guest post. I’m so excited about gardening this year! I tried it last year and ended up with one whopping tomato. Let’s hope this year, I have a bit more luck. If you decide to garden, be sure to send us your pics too!

A few weeks ago, April posted about Square Foot Gardening. This got me thinking about other ways to have a vegetable garden such as using containers. For those of you in the city with a small yard or perhaps no yard at all, container gardening might be just the thing for you. For me personally, this method works best for us because our dogs do not dig in our containers like they do in our actual yard.

Now, all good things begin with a Google search and that is exactly what I did. Check out this insanely informative article about Container Vegetable Gardening. It is pretty much the same method as the Square Foot Garden only it’s not a square foot.

For us, I have huge containers already which worked perfectly for our veggies. Then, I found my husband’s old wheel burrow and decided to turn that into a planter too. As it turns out, he kinda used it so now I have to buy him a new one…not cool. But, it sure looks cute!

All this to say, grab some containers and think outside the box! You’ll save money and stay healthy at the same time!

Now I am trying to resist the urge to buy the old bathtub I saw on Craigslist…wouldn’t that be the cutest planter in the world?!!?

It is planting time! One of the things my kids enjoy is watching little seeds sprout into something beautiful. This year, we made terrariums out of empty pop bottles and my kids get to watch them grow each day. How fun it will be to plant the seeds in the ground soon!

These terrariums are so easy to make and inexpensive. Even if you’re not a pop drinker, you might have family members who throw out 2 liters, just ask if they can give them to you instead.

{Supplies}

2-liter Pop Bottles

Potting Soil

Seeds

Spray Bottle

Directions: This could not be more easier to create. Simply cut the 2-liter bottle towards the bottom. Add dirt into the bottom half of the bottle and plant your seeds.

Place the bottle back together (you might have to tape it to secure it). Then, spray water inside the top with your spray bottle and close it with the lid. If it dries out, just open the lid and spray with water. Be sure to put them in a sunny spot to get your seeds sprouting.

Even my youngest thought it was fun…

{Related Posts}

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