Destiny Survival

Survival Gear & Supplies for Emergency Preparedness & Hard Times

Survival Gardening–My Square Foot Gardening Bed

April 22nd, 2010 |

Author: John

square-foot-gardening-bed ready for planting

Above is a photo of my new 4 ft. by 6 ft. square foot gardening bed. It was put in a week ago. It’s inspired by Mel Bartholomew’s All New Square Foot Gardening.

My good friend Gerald was instrumental in bringing about this bed. He decided we both should have one. One day last week we nailed the boards together, and the next we made a soil mix as close as possible to Mel Bartholomew’s Mel’s Mix.

The soil mix contains a bale of peat moss, a bag of coarse vermiculite and nine bags of Eko soil as the organic compost.

Since I’ve got a terrible problem with invasive tree roots in my yard, we decided to lay a couple of layers of overlapping plastic down before putting in the soil. My row cover had a few small holes in it, so it didn’t seem adequate to keep out the invaders.

The above picture shows the excess plastic before I trimmed it off. Now it doesn’t stick out above the edge of the boards.

I’ve planted sweet corn and beans in the bed. Golden Bantam sweet corn is planted along the far edge of the bed. That left 18 square feet, which is plenty when you plant intensively, as is called for in square foot gardening.

Nine square feet on the lower right part of the bed is planted with Hurricane bush beans, while the nine square feet on the left side is planted with King of the Early beans, meant for baking.

As of today, not much is coming up yet because our nights have been cool. I figure I’ve still got time to replant if need be. I’ll know for sure before long. Meanwhile, I have high hopes of good things from this square foot survival gardening effort.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could call a company near you and order all the supplies you need for making the square foot gardening bed? The soil mix ingredients would all be available for you, or you could buy premade mix. Better still, wouldn’t it be great if someone could come out to your place and put in the bed and soil for you? Then all you’d have to do is plant the seeds of your choice.

That may be daydreaming, but it sounds like a business opportunity—maybe even a franchise opportunity—just waiting to be developed.

If you’d like to have a square foot gardening bed or two in your yard, why not click on the image of All New Square Foot Gardening below and place your order for a copy of the book through Amazon.com today? The season’s slipping away quickly, but when it comes to gardening, think survival.

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Posted in Survival Gardening |

10 Responses to “Survival Gardening–My Square Foot Gardening Bed”

Tom Stanley:

April 22, 2010 at 8:30 am

I was on Yahoo and found your blog. Read a few of your other posts. Good work. I am looking forward to reading more from you in the future.

Tom Stanley
John:

April 22, 2010 at 9:11 am

Thanks. There’s plenty to see in the archives as well if you don’t want to wait for future posts. The archives are on the sidebar.
Lweson:

April 22, 2010 at 9:15 am

Gardeners.com has all the supplies you need for raised beds and more.
John:

April 22, 2010 at 9:59 am

Thanks for the info. It looks like an excellent resource. I’ll put a link to it on my Links of Interest page. Still, wouldn’t it be neat if there were ready made square foot gardening package deals that could be bought locally without having to do a lot of legwork? I know, it’s a daydream.
18 inch rims:

April 28, 2010 at 11:03 pm

hi what is your facebook page?
John:

April 29, 2010 at 9:41 am

Sorry, but I don’t have a Facebook page.
Amanda Blair:

April 29, 2010 at 2:03 pm

Square Foot Gardening is the most productive, efficient, and easy way to garden. Not only does it use just 20% of the space a traditional row garden, it saves water, and time spent digging and weeding. For more information on Square Foot Gardening please visit our web site http://www.squarefootgardening.com/ Happy Gardening Everyone! PS check out the new forums on the website, SFG certified teachers and master gardeners, as well as many gardening enthusiasts, are online quite often to answer posts and questions on all topics.
John:

April 29, 2010 at 2:19 pm

Thank you for that info, Amanda. By the way, one of our local nurseries says people are lining up for Mel’s Mix soil.
row cover:

July 20, 2010 at 12:35 pm

I want a gardening bed for my backyard now but to me The best and most important thing you need for your garden is a row cover they are very important so your garden can survive through harsh climates and destructive insects.
John:

July 20, 2010 at 3:22 pm

It’s a good idea to have row cover material on hand. I use it myself in cold weather. Gardener’s Supply and Burpee are sure to have it. Both are linked in the Survival Gardening category here at the Prep Mart or on the sidebar.