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    Square Foot Gardening: How To Grow Healthy Organic Vegetables The Easy Way
    Square Foot Gardening: How To Grow Healthy Organic Vegetables The Easy Way
    Square Foot Gardening: How To Grow Healthy Organic Vegetables The Easy Way
    Ebook125 pages56 minutes

    Square Foot Gardening: How To Grow Healthy Organic Vegetables The Easy Way

    By James Paris and Norman J Stone

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    About this ebook

    How To Grow Healthy Organic vegetables In Only 16 Square Feet

    If you would like to grow your own healthy vegetables but have limited space to do so, then this is the book for you! Best-Selling authors James Paris and Norman J Stone combine their knowledge of self-sufficiency and growing organic vegetables to present this book on square foot gardening.

    This method of growing vegetables in small spaces, combines Raised Bed Gardening with the concept of providing a good range of organically grown vegetables within the smallest of areas. Through the combined use of the ideal growing compost for best nutrition, and Companion Planting methods for nutrition and pest/disease control; SFG is the gardening method of choice for millions of ‘switched on’ gardeners today.

    Along with Raised Bed and container planting methods, SFG is another way that individuals can take back control of their food needs from the big corporations – and benefit from fresh organically produced vegetables - by growing their own easily and with minimum fuss!

    What You Will Find In This Book:

    1. An introduction to SFG – What it is all about.

    Growing vegetables in a square foot garden is all the rage just now – but what exactly is it all about? Here you will find out about the background to SFG and why it is so effective for growing fruit and vegetables of many kinds.

    2. How to construct your own Square Foot Garden

    Simple instructions for constructing a simple SFG frame – it does not get much easier than this!

    3. How to make your own ‘special mix’ of compost for infilling.;

    The ‘secret sauce’ behind the success of this intensive gardening technique, lays in the growing compound. Find out how to make top-notch organic compost to improve your soil and subsequent crop-yield.

    5. Guidelines for planting out your SFG.

    Simple and clear diagrams and pictures to get you started on your own SFG.

    6. Introducing Companion Planting – Good and Bad companions for your veggies.

    Companion Planting plays a crucial role in the success of a square foot or raised bed garden. Some great tips here to get your vegetables growing strong and proud.

    7. Beneficial herbs and Organic pest control.

    Herb gardening is extremely important in the control of destructive pests. Find out which herbs are more beneficial for your plants.

    8. Instructions on plant support and growing methods.

    Some instruction on how to go about supporting your plants so that you may get the best out of them and minimalize damage due to heavy crops.

    9. A list of popular vegetables and herbs to grow in your SFG, including planting, plant care and harvesting/storing your vegetables.

    A comprehensive list of good vegetables and herbs that will complement each other throughout the growing process, as well as how to harvest and store your crops for later use.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDeanburn Publications
    Release dateSep 2, 2015
    ISBN9781516384433
    Square Foot Gardening: How To Grow Healthy Organic Vegetables The Easy Way
    Author

    James Paris

    Born in to a family of nine children; Amazon Best Selling Author James Paris, was soon thrown into the deep end of providing 'value for money' for his parents by growing vegetables - along with keeping chickens, geese, turkeys and everything else associated with a small farm. He is a great enthusiast of Raised bed gardening, and growing fruit & vegetables in containers. A builder/joiner to trade, James also studied for the ministry through Bible College in England,and has been involved in "Christian things" for many years. Hobbies include Fly fishing, gardening, playing guitar and D.I.Y. Oh and of course,...writing! Writing has become his main passion these days,and he especially loves to write from his own experiences, that includes anything from gardening to building to Bible studies - The 'Spotlight on the Prophets' series, and The Bible Brief, a Bible Summary / study book, being two examples of the latter books.

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      Book preview

      Square Foot Gardening - James Paris

      What is it?

      Easy Gardening?

      Compared to the traditional way of growing vegetables in long rows straight into the soil, Square Foot and indeed Raised Bed Gardening, certainly involves a lot less effort in order to produce significantly larger harvest. The reasons for this are simple, as this list suggests.

      The growing medium in a SFG is much lighter and easier to manage – no need for heavy digging equipment or back-breaking work to lift weeds.

      The small area involved allowing access from all sides, means that the plants are easy to maintain and keep in good health thereby producing the best crop possible.

      Combining Companion Planting methods means you have no need for chemical fertilizers or pest control methods.

      The compact nature of the SFG means that you have a larger harvest in a smaller area, for less effort.

      Even though this method of gardening does not require any heavy digging or raking out of soil - does this mean that there is no effort involved at all, in order to grow fantastic healthy vegetables?

      Ha ha – you wish! Joking apart however the fact is that anything worthwhile doing requires effort of some kind – it is a sort of universal law. Employing methods such as Square Foot Gardening though, ensures maximum returns on the minimal effort you have put into your gardening.

      If you are truly looking for an effortless way to produce vegetables; I can tell you there is no such thing – unless a trip down to the supermarket can be included; although even that takes effort, only of a different kind!

      With all that said however, it is beyond doubt that employing the SFG method does ‘produce the goods’ and there is something intensely satisfying in the whole process of growing your own vegetables, picking them from the plant, cooking them and presenting them at family mealtimes.

      Apart from the fact that they are the healthiest vegetables you will ever consume, there is a great satisfaction in growing your own food that goes beyond mere effort and production; and indeed for many it has a definite spiritual benefit – as George Bernard Shaw once quoted..

      The best place to seek God is in a garden.  You can dig for him there.

      Back to SFG..

      Square foot gardening is a concept or idea that was promoted back in the 1980’s by Mel Bartholomew who coined the phrase ‘Square Foot Gardening.’ Since then it has gone from strength to strength, as the desire to grow vegetables free from harmful pollutants, as well as the need to save money and the environment in the process; has gained in popularity.

      It is now firmly planted in the gardener’s consciousness as a way to maximise vegetable production whilst employing the minimum of spaces.

      The name comes from the idea that a small frame measuring 4 foot by 4 foot, is sufficient to produce a good selection of vegetables over the growing season, that will equal the needs of a small family.

      The box or frame is divided up into square foot sections as in the picture below. This equals a growing area of 16 square feet, sectioned into square foot spaces. This is an important aspect of the SFG as it is this intensive rotational method of planting that is the essence of the whole concept.

      Properly planted and cared for, this small area of garden is able to produce an abundance of vegetables.

      The actual construction materials of your SFG can vary widely – as will be discussed later - but traditionally is a simple framework of timber about 4-6 inches high. The depth very much depends on the crops you wish to grow, as root vegetable crops like carrots or parsnips for instance need a suitable depth of compost in order to grow adequately.

      Cabbage or lettuce, zucchini or cucumber however will thrive quite well in only a few inches of good compost as they are of course above-ground vegetables, and so do not require depth in order to grow adequately.

      Each of the foot-square spaces is occupied by a variety of vegetables, with the larger plants like potatoes and tomato for instance occupying a square all to themselves; while beets can be grown 9 to a square and carrots can be grown 16 to each square as in the example chart below.

      The diagram above is just an example of the way you may lay out a SFG, with the taller plants to the rear where they will not block the sunlight to the lower vegetables. The number alongside the individual plants, is the number of plants that you can grow in each individual square.

      Types of plants and the numbers that can be grown in each square will be discussed in further chapters.

      Why Square Foot Gardening?

      Along with a growing awareness that the human race must start taking more responsibility for its environment, some people have also come to the realization that doing so actually means a win-win situation for us all in many different ways. Why is this? In a nutshell it is simply down to the fact that if we treat our environment with respect,

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