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Re: New to SQFT Gardening

Re:

> 1.  Because my gardening space in long, rather than square...so I
> have one 3 foot by 6 foot plot and one 5 foot by 6 foot plot. This
> should not pose a problem, should it?

Nope - there's no _requirement_ that you do the 4X4 block thing. As
far as I know, it's just a convenient dimension. The only issue might
be whether you have the 2 1/2 foot reach to comfortably reach the
center of the 5-foot-wide bed without toppling over or having to lean
on the soil. When a too-wide bed was the only convenient shape for
me, once, I put a concrete tile in the center, to give myself
something to lean on rather than leaning on and compressing different
bits of soil every time I worked on the bed.

> 2.  Behind my plots I've created is actually 1 1/2 feet of space
> that I was planning on putting pole beans in...does this sound like
> it might enough room?

1 1/2 feet wide by some number of feet long? This sounds perfectly
sensible to me. If I were doing this, I'd probably grow giant tall
sunflowers, with beans growing up 'em, in that space. Then again, I
look for any excuse to grow sunflowers. :)

> 3.  I want SO badly to grow squash, not only for me but for my pet
> iguana who eats winter, orange fleshed squash. However,  I just
> don't feel I have the space. Any ideas? One I had was to put them
> in the front yard and train them along the front walk. But there is
> a concern there, living on a busy street, that they might get
> stolen.

Your squash vines _will_ meander around your garden, anywhere they can
go. Maybe they could crawl around the corn stalks? In the paths? In
my garden, by the end of summer I'm always shuffling carefully
through squash leaves and stepping over vines as I try to get to my
plants. I'm not sure about putting 'em by the street.

> 4.  Same question for corn. Did I read on the SQFT page that Mel is
> saying you can put four corn plants per plot? Is that per 4x4 plot,
> or 1x1 plot?

I think that the recent spacing mentioned in the Square Foot article
in Organic Gardening was  four per square foot, but I'm not going to
try that. I'm prepared to  believe that Mel's garden has sufficiently
wonderful soil to support such tight spacing, but since corn for me
tends to be an "all or nothing" crop (I get an ear or I don't), I
don't take the spacing risks that I would with greens or tomatoes.
The closest spacing I've ever used was eight inches, and that was a
quite small corn variety. You could try using a broader spacing and
a nice tall, sturdy corn variety, and letting pole beans climb the corn.
You get some corn that way, but you don't devote so much space to
_just_ corn.

> 5.  Has anyone used floating row covers on their plots? I'm hoping
> they will speed up germination, and more importantly keep the cats
> from messing my plot of carrots.

Yep, yep. I started using them this year. They speed up germination,
keep the cats out, and most important, kept the slugs and snails out.
In my limited experience this spring, lettuce, turnips, spinach,
carrots, and mustard greens seem to love the warmth and shelter; peas
and bush beans seem to resent the fabric on their leaves.


M. Wilson
mart@best.com

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