Square foot gardening and no dig movement

Community Community General Gardening Sowing and Growing Square foot gardening and no dig movement

This topic contains 2 replies, has 1 voice, and was last updated by  Stevie342000 13 years, 1 month ago.

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  • #21090

    Stevie342000
    Member

    It occurred to me that when reading about the no dig style of gardening that it’s thought of as a new concept that it’s not at all a new concept just a replication of nature. There are other areas in which the no dig method of growing touches upon as well and that includes Square Foot Gardening.

    Simples…..you define your growing area based upon a square foot, in the book it is done 4′ x 4′ squares. However this can be adapted to any growing space, e.g. it is my intention to create 4′ wide strips across my allotment plot thus being able to access the growing area from both sides with paths in between e.g. 12-18″ wide, I prefer the former.

    Why is the concept of square foot planting so neat? Well it means you divide up your area in say 4′ blocks, in each square foot, you could for example plant 16 radishes and 4 lettuces. Or every two feet one sweetcorn plant or one cabbage or broccoli in each of the square feet. It is catch cropping and maximising the growing space at the same time. If for example you planted one square foot as in the first instance 2 weeks or a month later you can plant a similar area to the initial one, so that you get a continual harvest of radishes and lettuces, as one variety leads over to another with the seasons you change variety.

    In the case of cabbages and sweetcorn planting up blocks of them is the norm, but a single square foot could be a nursery bed for the seedlings of lettuces, cabbages, broccoli and the list goes on.

    You can grow your own plug plants and plan exactly what you are going to grow across the seasons, on top of which as let’s say the example of the lettuce and radishes first crop comes to an end, you then top dress with manure or compost or both and plant your next crop which might be peas or beans, if you had planted for an early crop of salad greens.

    Automatic crop rotation is a natural process of square foot planting, as it is feeding the soil with organic matter. It fits in nice and squarely with the no dig principle of gardening and if you growing space is divided into even squares it makes record keeping and planning easy.

    With 4′ wide strips there is no reason why you could not grow espalier fruit trees down the middle and plant crops either side of it e.g. if along the back of your permanent apple growing area you grew peas or beans one year (gives the soil access to nitrogen), top dress with manure and compost as normal and then in the second year you grew salad crops. Another crop which could be planted either side of a fruit espalier/cordon is asparagus, which makes for really simple no dig gardening as both are permanent crops and you just top dress with manure/compost; with the addition of sand for the asparagus to improve drainage.

    For me growing is not about regimental strips of growing as a replication of farming on a small scale but to use the space wisely, this method means you waste less, you only grow what you need and you can plan for any excess for storage in a freezer or turning into value added products such as pickles, jams and preserves. Whilst having a continual year round supply of fruit and vegetables for the table.

    It works for me…..

    #22328

    Stevie342000
    Member

    After the initial problems around water-logging of my allotment plot, there has been some progress made. Since my first growing season last year, which was far from adequate.

    Trying to sort out the whole plot for growing with limited resources meant a decreased harvest. 50% of the plot was in use but it was a continual bind between weeding that and trying to keep the slugs down and keeping on top of the section which was not in use.

    Hindsight is a wonderful thing, the half of the plot which was not in use should really have been covered over to stop any further growth.

    Other problems included finishing my degree and the preceding winter being a wet one when the site was taken on in November 2009.

    Last year, having tried and failed to produce an adequate crop and at the same time trying to keep the council of my back for not maintaining 50% of the plot in production was like fighting a loosing battle.

    But it seems I have it almost cracked. Currently I have 3 more 4′ wide strips by 33′ long to complete with a layer of manure. Along with a an area for seating and the poly-tunnel to install. There is to be a pond at the other end of the plot over by the sheds.

    The plan being to raise the level as previous occupiers lowered the level of the plot creating the problems with water logging by skimming off the top layer. The whole site for the allotments suffers from this problem, even the new plots they have put in with land drains at the cost of £100K are not perfect and still suffer from water logging.

    Rather than create my own blog for now, I will post my adventures in vegetable growing land as a series of updates on this thread so other people can learn from the mistakes that I have made, there are no hard and fast rules and one size does not fit all.

    Perhaps a good place to start would be at the beginning….

    #22329

    Stevie342000
    Member

    Having had my allotment since November 2009, a lot of reading was undertaken on what processes could be used to make the growing of vegetables and fruit easier.

    The first year was spent trialling different approaches and getting nowhere, hence the interest in No Digging which I had been aware of before I started out.

    I suppose I should define my plot it is 33′ wide by 93′ long. Where to begin is what you find you are asking yourself with an over grown plot which suffers badly from water logging.

    It is my theory that the water logging will cease to be such a problem with:

    A) the raising of the plot to a level by which the surface level is above the bordering paths. Currently there are spots where it is up to 18″ lower than the paths.
    B) The soil type is predominately towards the clay end of the scale.
    C) It lacks organic matter, which does not help with the drainage.
    D) The growing of vegetables itself will take up much of the water from the land and over time this will in turn stop the water logging. As it is a resource that will be removed with the crops.

    As I see it the solution is to:
    A) use the no dig principle for growing.
    B) raising the level of the growing area by using 4′ wide strips across the width of the plot. By covering soil with cardboard, manure and a layer of compost.

    Hard structures that I inherited on my rectangular plot include two sheds to the bottom right hand corner of the plot, a compost bin made from pallets in the top left hand corner opposite to the sheds. A large water tank to the right of the compost bin and a sycamore tree to the left of the sheds.

    A recent discovery through another blog proved to be useful it is an interactive growing plan/computer program which can be found here: http://www.growveg.com.

    It has proved a blessing as you can define structures and create growing plans. It has given me 14 growing strips 4′ wide by 33′. The first growing strip is 10′ from the boundary at the shed end. The top right hand corner next to the water butt/tank is where the poly-tunnel will be located, surrounded by a 2′ wide raised bed area.

    This is for growing those crops in such as artichokes, lovage, horseradish and herbs such as mint in, all those which need to be restricted. Other growing strips will have permanent planting in them such as fruit bushes/trees or asparagus.

    As yet there are no pictures and at this stage I am not sure how to post them but will look into that for future posts. It is not my intention to hi-jack this forum but to demonstrate a journey and a process by which as an individual the process that I have undertaken to get around problems and obstacles in growing.

    So to complete this first part of my journey, let me tell where I am up to currently.

    Towards the end of the summer in September last year I was still toying with the No Dig principle and finally decided it was the route to go. So my first act was to dig some of the plot over which raised the soil level but decided that this went against what I wished to achieve, it would take too long and I may have found myself in the same situation as the year before.

    Shortly after in early autumn the first lot of manure arrived and the covering of the site in strips was started. However there were problems some areas still had crops in and some other crops such as cabbages and broad beans were planted.

    At that time I had not discovered the vegetable growing program but I needed to get on with getting the site covered. This process along with using the program continued through to winter. By the first week in December 1/3rd of the site had been covered in manure. Winter weather put me off any further work until the new year.

    Freecycle alerted me to a poly-tunnel which was slightly damaged, but they listed where they got if from so I took a look at the website, they had a sale on and it was decided in or around Christmas to purchase one, it duly arrived in mid-January.

    Growing is a journey of discovery, knowing the limitations of your land, or your body, time limits and battling against the weather. The last 6 months have been nothing if not an adventure and period of enlightenment.

    What are the next steps?

    1. To finish off covering the remainder of the site in manure, having in the last week actually defined the growing spaces and paths. Currently I estimate that I have shifted over one hundred barrow loads of manure about 200′ from the bunker in which it sits to the end of my plot.

    2. To install the poly-tunnel and the seating area next to that.

    3. To define and develop a wild area, with native wild flowers and a pond next to the sheds.

    4. Create the new compost bins out of pallets donated by a new plot holder, some of them are of the double type which means less cutting, sawing, nailing to erect.

    5. Get some compost to cover the plots I have already manured ready for seeding with this years crops using square foot gardening.

    6. Growing seeds in the poly-tunnel ready for transplanting either outside or in the poly-tunnel.

    7. Purchase fruit bushes and trees over the coming year, for either planting out in late March or from November this year.

    8. Build the raised bed around the poly-tunnel this is to act as a barrier for crops such as artichokes that tend to spread and to stop the wind from getting at the covering. Not forgetting the raised bed is acting an anchor as well.

    I think that is enough for this year and for now….more to follow…….the last week has allowed me to define the growing areas and paths and to put more manure on the growing strips leaving me with only 3 more strips to complete that phase of the adventure.

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