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Re: New to square foot gardening

Hi Francine, and welcome.
You wrote:

>1)  If the alfalfa clumps are carefully shaken out of the soil when the
>raised bed is built, will that keep them from coming back? Or will I have to
>weed for alfalfa every year?

Isn't alfalfa a nitrogen fixer? Some people use it as a cover crop? It
might be very good for your garden...

>2)  I plan on using the fine fertile soil from our corrals as filler.  Is
>there any way to keep the undigested grasses and weeds from sprouting in the
>garden (ie: could this stuff be mixed deeper down into the bed or something
>like that?)  I just can't see paying money for the same stuff that is lying
>about the place and would cost me nothing to obtain.

How about composting the corral soil/dung for about six months? That should
kill the weed seeds?....

>3)  Can square foot garden beds be irrigated? Or must some sort of sprinkler
>system be set up?  Can you lay the hose along the walking paths or must you
>encorporate a  watering system in the raised beds?

I don't know about true irrigation, but we use soaker hoses laid around
in the beds in a circle or lines, or a pattern of some sort. I definitely
would not use sprinklers - garden veggies should not be watered overhead
because it spreads diseases. The water needs to be directed to the roots.
To irrigate, you could try making furrows between your plantings inside
the square foot bed, but I don't know how you'd deliver the water... some
people use drip systems, but that gets expensive (more so than soaker
hoses, and not as versatile). Others use Mel's method of hand watering.
We can't, because our garden is too large, and usually requires deep
watering almost every day or every other day in the hot dry summer.
Hope I've been of some help. Good luck!
Shawn
swestaway@smtplink.coh.org
Claremont, Ca (USDA zone 9b?, Sunset zone 19?)
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