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Re: Brown Thumb in Utah with Questions

Square Foot Gardening List - http://myweb.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

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On 01:52 PM 4/11/01, Sandy M. Hammond wrote:

>
>         My name is Sandy and I live in Utah.  I have tried growing 
> different plants (flowers, bulbs, vegetables) at various periods in my 
> life.  All without success.  I definitely have a brown thumb, not a green 
> one.

Hi Sandy,

Hopefully this will all change with Square Foot Gardening!  :-)

>  I've always wanted to grow something successfully.
>
>         I have read most of Mel Bartholomew's book Square Foot 
> Gardening.  It seems like it might be the answer.  It appears to take 
> little space and a lot less work.  I think I'll be brave and give 
> gardening another try!  There are some questions I have and I would like 
> to hear from both newer square foot gardeners and experienced ones.
>
>         Question 1:  Did you start with only one 4 foot by 4 foot 
> square?  Or do you need two squares?  My husband says I should do at 
> least two since there are two of us (since my teenage daughter isn't 
> going to help, I'm not including her), but I don't know if that's too 
> much for my first time.

It depends.  It is better to do only one bed, and do it right, than to do 
two or more beds and then take shortcuts because it looks like too much 
work to do it right.  So I wouldn't do more than one bed at a time, and 
would be sure to stop before you feel burdened.  But that doesn't mean you 
can't do more than one bed this year.  For instance, you can do one bed 
this weekend.  See how much work it is (or isn't, compared to what you 
might have expected).  Plant it such that if that's all you do this year, 
you will be satisfied.  Then sit back and ask yourself if this is enough 
for your first year, or if you want to try to do more.  Don't bite off more 
than you can chew.  It would be much better to end the season going "That 
was so easy, next year I'll do more!" than to say "I tried to do too much, 
and it wasn't any fun and I gave up because it was more than I wanted to do."

>         Question 2:  I am uncertain about what to plant.  Mel says 
> tomatoes, beans, corn, lettuce, zucchini, cucumbers, and Swiss chard are 
> the easiest.  Should I just stick with these?  Should I only try one type 
> of plant for my first time, such as tomatoes?

If you start with just one or two 4x4 beds, I'd also (outside the beds, 
elsewhere in your yard, if you have the space) plant at least one squash 
plant.  If you have the space, squash are one of the easiest plants to 
grow.  So you get a good return on your investment, and get an "I did it!" 
feeling when you have a huge squash plant and can harvest squash from it 
several times a week.  Don't plant more than one each of any one squash 
variety (either buy seedlings, or plant a hill of 3 seeds and then later 
thin to the strongest one, properly stored the seeds will keep for several 
years), and no more than 2 or 3 different squash variety plants total.  You 
can also plant a pumpkin if you want (if you have the space to let it vine 
about), since that's usually more of a decorative crop than a "got to pick 
and eat this before it gets too big" crop as is the case with squash.  With 
squash and pumpkins you only need a ~2x2 tilled space to plant the seeds 
and keep weed free, as long as you have plenty of area around that planting 
space to let the vines wander and fend for themselves when the plants 
outgrow their initial 2x2 space.

>          Question 3:  To grow tomatoes vertically, I know I need to 
> create a frame of 1.5 inch black plastic pipe or metal pipe and attach 
> string to it for the tomatoes to grow on.  Have any of you built the 
> trench Mel suggests in his book and did it work well?

I haven't yet done tomatoes the formal sqft method.  In the past I've grown 
them inside those water tube things to get an early start, then removed 
those and used tomato cage made of mesh wire.  That has worked well for me, 
but others have had problems with the cages tipping over.  Many suggest you 
stake the cages, and if you are driving stakes to stake the cages it isn't 
much more work to just make a trellis that will support 4 feet of plants.

Since Mel suggests that tomatoes and cucumbers are both "easy to grow", you 
would get a good return on your trellis making investment by making one 
trellis for each 4x4 bed, and putting in 2 tomato plants and 4 cucumbers on 
that trellis, as he often shows in the sample bed diagrams in his book.

>          Question 4 (don't worry - this is the last question):  I looked 
> at a colored zone map and (if I picked my zone correctly) I believe our 
> last frost won't be over until June 1st.  In the meantime should I just 
> set up my 4 by 4 and double dig adding whatever I can find in one of the 
> local nurseries to my clay soil?

You can't put too much time and effort into your soil  Follow the formula 
for Mel's soil.  Add some extra sand if you have soil that is extra "clay-y".

What I would do is dig out the top shovel's full  and pile it off to the 
side.  Then turn over the next layer in place, loosing it so the roots can 
go deep (this is the double dig).  Then add amendments (sand, compost, 
etc.) to the pile of top soil.  Put in your edging around the bed, then 
fill with the amended top soil.  The resulting bed will be a lot taller 
than what you started with, both because of the amendments you added, 
and  because you loosened the soil so it isn't compacted tightly together 
as it was.

If you can afford it, and if your soil is really not very good for plants, 
it can be a time saver to bring in new soil.  Depending, sometimes you can 
just loosen the top foot of soil, then build your box extra tall, then fill 
with the new soil (and amendments, follow Mel's formula even when you bring 
in "top soil" or "potting soil").  Or you can mound the soil up above the 
raised bed edges.  I have 2 beds that are made with 2x6 lumber, and I've 
mounded the soil another 3 inches on top, so I have 9 inches of "good soil" 
above the loosened soil under the bed.

>Should I also start the seeds indoors now and then transplant them when 
>June arrives?  Or is it better for beginners to start the seeds directly 
>in the ground where they will grow rather than transplant them?

IMHO, the hardest part of being a success with plants is getting them 
going.  (The reason so many people kill house plants is that they buy the 
teeniest pots, which dry out almost overnight, and then they either over or 
under water.  If you get the big plants, they are MUCH easier to care for, 
far more able to withstand a few extra days between watering etc.   So if 
you have a hard time keeping house plants alive, don't ever buy *small* 
house plants!  That sets you up for failure!)   Give yourself all the help 
and head-start you can in your first year - don't start all your plants 
from seed, if you can buy some of them as seedlings at your local garden 
center when practical and possible.  Once you get good at growing veggies 
from pre-started seedlings to fruiting plants, *then* you can add in the 
complexity of growing them from seed yourself the second time around.

However, there are some good exceptions.  Many plants should be planted as 
seeds directly into the ground.  If you are really fond of beans, beets, or 
carrots, (I've had good luck with both beans and beets, not so good luck 
with carrots) you should plant those from seed, directly into your soil, at 
the appropriate time.  But for plants like tomatoes and peppers, start with 
seedlings this year.

If you want to try corn, I'd suggest you do a whole square of nothing but 
corn.  Mel wrote an article for Organic Gardening where he planted corn 4 
to the square (64 seeds in a 4 x 4 block), and he was very happy with the 
outcome, see: <http://vo.cnchost.com/garden/organic.html>.  I've got a 4x6 
block planted this way, with 4x3 of a smaller and early maturing variety on 
the south end, and 4x3 of a taller and later maturing variety on the north end.

Finally, you mention having poor luck with bulbs and flowers.  I don't know 
if Gladiolas are good for your area or not, but here's what I did, maybe it 
will work for you.  I just planted gladiolas in a 4x4 bed.  I divided the 
bedin 1/2, then in 1/3s, giving me 6 planting sections, then planted 35 
bulbs in each section (my bulbs were bought at Costco, 70 bulbs in a 
package, 3 packages of different varieties).  Since I have gophers here, I 
lined the bottom of my planting bed boxes with 1/2 inch hardware cloth.  I 
turned the bottom soil, lay the box on top, then added my amended 
soil.  For the bulbs, I put in just enough amended soil to cover the wire 
mesh (about 1-2 inches) then laid out my bulbs, then 1/2 filled the box (~6 
inches deep) with soil, enough to cover the bulbs but not all the way to 
the top.  Then I watered, this way I *know* the water got to the bulbs.  I 
waited until the next day, watered again, then filled the box the rest of 
the way with soil.  The bulbs started peeking through the top less than a 
week later!  This is very exciting for me, I've never had this many glads 
in the ground before and can't wait until I can blooms for the house!  I 
will be making a wire box to go over the bed, with 1 foot high sides (cut 
from a 6x6 piece of 4 or 6 inch wire mesh fencing, cut out a 1x1 chunck off 
of each corner, then fold the sides and wire the corners together)  This 
will make a wire grid that stands 1 foot above the bed, for the leaves and 
stems to stick up through, and then to support the stems when they get 
heavy with flower buds and blooms, so that they don't tip over sideways 
onto the ground.

I hope this gives you some helpful ideas.

jc


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