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There are a lot of different gardening layouts and everyone has their own personal preference on what works for them, their space, time, and more. A very popular method, especially for those who are new and have smaller spaces, is square foot gardening.
I always recommend that gardeners try new things each year to see what really works for them. Don’t be afraid to mix and match parts of layouts that work for you. As an example, I don’t use a square foot gardening method anymore on the majority of my gardening space anymore. However, I still use the square foot method for my raspberries, strawberries, and herbs. I do this becuase it is what works for the arrangement of the garden space I have.
The Basics
Square foot gardening was initially designed in order to help people with limited gardening spaces be able to maximize what they can grow. Basically square foot gardening helps gardeners get a larger harvest out of a smaller space.
But even if you have a large area of space doesn’t mean you can’t use the square foot gardening method. It will still be a space saver allowing you to grow even more.
Typically square foot gardening is done in boxes that are 4 feet by 4 feet. However, there’s a little bit of room to play with this.
When I have done square foot gardening in the past I have made my boxes larger on occasion. I’ve used 2×8 and 4×8 box sizes. It worked really well with the space I was in, plus with my long arms it’s easy for me to reach across the larger distance.
So don’t be afraid to play with what works in your area and what works with your body proportions. Also, consider your agility; if you have trouble leaning over too far, work with shorter boxes.
The key is to be able to reach into the middle of the box from multiple angles for easy planting, management, and harvest.
Within each box (regardless of sizing) and map out each square foot individually. You can use pieces of string and lay them out in a grid pattern. Or you can simply draw lines in the dirt with a stick or hand shovel.
Just note that if you draw the lines out in the dirt you either need to plant the whole box in one day or redraw the lines on multiple days. The lines are unlikely to stay present overnight due to the weather, whereas the string method will last a bit longer. Some gardeners will leave the strings out for the entire gardening season while others use it just during planting and initial sprouting; it’s a personal choice.
Plant Spacing
In each square foot of gardening space there’s a certain number of plants you can plant. The larger the plant the more room you will need to grow it in. The smaller the plant the more you can put into one square foot.
For example, you can put way more carrots into one square foot (16) than you can for tomatoes (1). There are also some plants like melons and pumpkins that may need more than one square foot.
I recommend that gardeners make a list of the plants they wish to grow and then list out how many plants go into one square foot. This way you can begin to figure out how to fit all your items into your space. Sometimes it’s almost like putting a puzzle together!
Plant Spacing Resources
To help get you started on your square foot gardening journey check out my Free Guides page for my Square Foot Gardening Plant Spacing Guide. This guide will let you see the number of plants that can go in each square foot based on the most common plants that are grown in vegetable gardens here in North America.
If you need to find the square footage allowance of a plant that is not on this list check out the back of the seed packet. The packaging will tell you how much space that the plant needs. You can round to the nearest square foot (or square in for smaller plants).
I’ve also used this great tool called a Seeding Square to help space seeds out in your beds. The Seeding Square is a one square foot pad that you press into the soil. Just poke the dibber into the correctly spaced holes (they’re color coordinated!) and you know where to plant you seeds.
The dibber also doubles as a depth ruler so your seeds don’t get buried too far into the soil. This tool works great even if you aren’t planting seeds directly into the ground for some larger plants. If you are transplanting simply use the Seeding Square and dibber to outline where to plant. Then center the plants over the marks the dibber makes, and plant!
Ease of Crop Rotation
If you can have multiple boxes, sometimes people will do boxes that have different varieties of plants in them. Or they’ll do a similar type of plant in each box (e.g. all brassicas or all cucurbits) to make it easier for crop rotation in the following years.
If you are planting a heavy nutrient sucking plant in one box be sure to swap it out the next year for a plant that gives nutrients back to the soil.
Great examples of this are corn and legumes. Corn tends to take a lot of nutrients out of the soil like nitrogen. Legumes will take nitrogen from the air and replace it in the soil. This helps the soil rejuvenate itself and you wont strip the soil of all of its nutrients making it barren.
Square foot gardening makes it simple to do crop rotation like this especially if you’re a beginner. You have designated areas and you know exactly what went where the year before. As long as you don’t repeat that plant in the same area each year and you move it to a new box, your soil should stay healthy.
Note: Don’t forget to keep track of what you are growing and where. That way crop rotation becomes easier next year, you don’t have to rely on your memory!
Beyond the Basics
In today’s gardening world there is a lot of gardening being done within larger planter boxes. They are a great resource to elevate your gardening–knee/back pain is a part of gardening– or improve your soil quality, regulate watering, etc. But it is not a requirement for gardening in any form.
It costs a lot of money to build boxes with today’s cost of lumber, and then more money to fill the boxes with soil. If you don’t have the funding to create these boxes you can create them in any dimension or forgo them entirely.
In some years I have used the square foot gardening method within planter boxes that were only 4 inches high. It didn’t add a lot of depth to the garden but did help me map out the garden visually. Plus you can add more height to the boxes each year if you want.
There are other people who build watering systems into their square foot gardening space. Don’t feel pressured to complete this. If it is your first time gardening you can use a watering can or a hose and build in watering systems later if you want.
Final Thoughts
I recommend going with the simplest route as possible in the beginning to avoid spending a lot of money and time on parts of gardening that end up not working for you personally or for your growing area. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to garden. It’s all about finding out what works out well for you, your needs, and your space.
Thanks again for growing with me here at The Busiest Bee Garden!
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