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Re: Division markers



Elizabeth Snively wrote:

> I recall seeing a web article about plastic divider sets on one of the
> Square Foot Gardening pages, but couldn't find it again today. Does
> anyone recall it?
>
> The dividers are essentially plastic grids that you could put on top of
> the soil for a neat appearance.

Here in Israel the garden centers have snap-together plastic grids - but
they are intended as garden paths, not fencing. These are made in Germany
out of recycled plastic, and the open honeycomb design blends in well with
the garden. I find I can plant almost right up to them, since they let the
water and air get through to the soil.

I don't use them for my sqft/biodynamic beds, however. I have made paths
around my beds with the considerable amount of rock that I removed from the
beds themselves. For decoration, I have placed a few bricks end-up at the
corners and 1-foot (actually, 30 cm) marks of the beds. I am usually able
to sight along these during planting, or stretch string between the bricks
temporarily. If you use trellises in your sqft plot, or build raised beds,
you should construct them so they, too, can be used to sight along the
subdivisions.

Another thing that simplifies this: use planting templates. Cut up a big
corrugated carton into 1ft (30 cm) squares, and punch out holes where the
plants should be. I do not direct sow, but I use the template to mark where
seedlings should go: lay the template over the square, and poke a stick (or
drop seed) through each of the holes. Instant spacing.

I have found that I am expanding the area planted from year to year. This
means that I usually don't plant a single square of a crop. My square beds
have merged into long rectangles 4 ft (120 cm) wide, and I often plant in
strips of 4 squares. I just start at one edge of the bed, and flip the
template from square to square across the bed. There's no need to precisely
locate one square in mid-bed. At this point sqft blends imperceptibly with
biodynamic and other intensive cultivation methods.

Ben

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