Square Foot Gardening

[JCDEERMAN]

Plan on doing this next year. Just out of curiosity, what is your watering schedule? Up to now I've had a regular ground level garden and ran drip lines off my irrigation system. Never could seem to get my watering done right, either too much or too little!

This method definitely was worth it and grew very well. I had a timer set to water for 30-40 minutes every morning around 6am. There was no rhyme or reason I came to that timing. I think I started out at an hour and it just seemed excessive so I backed off that amount of time. Our neighbors were asking what type of soil I used, because everything was growing so tall.

Definitely learned a lot from it. I never knew okra would grow to 9 feet tall and it was on my front row and got to where it was blocking a lot of the sun from everything else. We had more okra than we could eat. Tons of tomatoes - I had 109 on my kitchen counter at one point. I made salsa and marinara and canned them. I won't use those fencing trellises again for the vining squash, cucumbers, etc....I'll move to a pole or rope for them to climb.

Some of the stuff in the middle was hard to pick weaseling through all the greenery. Next year, I'm going to not plant the center of each of the three boxes - I'm going to have a 2X10" piece of lumber to lay across so I can stand on and access the middle.

 

[westtntoms]

This method definitely was worth it and grew very well. I had a timer set to water for 30-40 minutes every morning around 6am. There was no rhyme or reason I came to that timing. I think I started out at an hour and it just seemed excessive so I backed off that amount of time. Our neighbors were asking what type of soil I used, because everything was growing so tall.

Definitely learned a lot from it. I never knew okra would grow to 9 feet tall and it was on my front row and got to where it was blocking a lot of the sun from everything else. We had more okra than we could eat. Tons of tomatoes - I had 109 on my kitchen counter at one point. I made salsa and marinara and canned them. I won't use those fencing trellises again for the vining squash, cucumbers, etc....I'll move to a pole or rope for them to climb.

Some of the stuff in the middle was hard to pick weaseling through all the greenery. Next year, I'm going to not plant the center of each of the three boxes - I'm going to have a 2X10" piece of lumber to lay across so I can stand on and access the middle.

Are those drip lines something you bought already made or did you make those?

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Are those drip lines something you bought already made or did you make those?

I got everything at Lowe's. I went to the store and was so flustered at everything I needed. Came back home and ordered everything online according to my checklist and plans I had drawn up. It was much easier that way and went and picked everything up from a locked cubby at the front of the store.

https://www.lowes.com/search?searchTerm=drip%20line&catalog=4294612487

 

[Specializedjon]

I see the problem....

Only the zucchini and peppers got beer.

We had a similar raised garden. The first year we put WAY too many tomatoes in and they went nuts, 6' tall. I built some wire mesh trellis for the cucumbers and they loved that. Easy to harvest cause they're just hanging. Peppers took a while to take. The second season was better for them. Drainage was the key for us. Also, we never sprayed the leaves of any of the vegetables when WE watered. God was the only one allowed to water that way. Not sure if that played into it, just our rule. Seemed to work. Good luck. Looks like a great garden. Nice construction too.