Efficient and Effective Gardening Made Easy - Concordia College

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Efficient & Effective Gardening Made Easy
Jason Bergstrand
All New Square Foot Gardening jebergstrand@gmail.com
By Mel Bartholomew
Ph: 701-306-5280

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 Improve your families health: Eating more fresh fruits and
vegetables is one of the most important things you and your
family can do to stay healthy
 Save money on groceries: Your grocery bill will shrink as
you begin to stock your pantry with fresh produce from your
backyard
 Reduce food waste: When it’s “yours” you will be less likely
to take it for granted and more likely to eat it or preserve it
before it goes to waste
 Get outdoor exercise: planting, watering, and harvesting
add purposeful physical activity to your day

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continued
 Stop worrying about food safety: When you responsibly
grow your own food you don’t have to worry about
contamination that may occur at the farm, manufacturer or
during transportation process
 Enjoy better tasting food: Fresh food is the best food! If it
tastes better, you’ll be more likely to eat the healthy, fresh
produce that you know your body needs
 Reduce environmental impact: Food grown organically will
spare the earth the burden of unnecessary air and water
pollution. Less transport of fresh produce from all over the
world reduces the use of fossil fuels
 Build a sense of pride: Growing your own food is one of the
most purposeful and important things a person can do. It’s
work that directly helps you thrive, nourish your family and
maintain your health

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 Grow more in less space,
no tilling, no thinning, very
little weeding
 Grow your own nutritious foods
and save money
 Local foods are better for the
environment
 Encourages family involvement
 Source of physical activity

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1. Layout- Arrange your garden in squares, not rows. Lay it out in
basic sections of 4’x4’ areas. 4’ wide but any length
2. Boxes- Construct boxes to hold soil mix above ground in a raised
bed
3. Aisles- Space boxes 3’ apart to form walking paths
4. Soil- Fill boxes with special soil mix: 1/3 compost. 1/3 peat moss
1/3 coarse vermiculite
5. Grids- Construct a square foot grid for the top of each box to
organize and space plants

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6. Care- NEVER walk on your garden soil. Tend to your garden by
reaching in from the sides
7. Select- Plant a different flower, vegetable, or herb crop in each
square foot using 1,4,9, or 16 plants per square foot
8. Plant- Conserve seeds, plant only a pinch or 2 or 3 seeds per hole
9. Water- Water by hand from a bucket of sun-warmed water
10. Harvest-When you finish harvesting a square, add compost and
replant it with a different crop

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The following mix of soil is ideal for the SFG. It controls weeds,
maximizes nutritional value of food and production levels.
 1/3 Compost- 5 varieties is best (chicken, sheep, cow manure...)
 1/3 Peat Moss
 1/3 Vermiculite Mel Bartholomew’s Mix
Grids made
from wood lathe
Build Frame Fill Mix Add Grids Add Trellis

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One 4x4 garden will feed 1 person (salad or dish) for the entire summer
Advantages
Economical- reduces everything to 1/5 the space Mel Bartholomew, Author of SFG
New Method- easy to understand
User Friendly- all ages can do it
Locate Anywhere- close to your house
Efficient- produces up to 2x in much less space
Earth Friendly- reduce, reuse, recycle
Very Productive- just enough as you need

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Spacing Examples For SFG
1 Plant/SF – Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Corn,
Okra, Eggplant, Peppers, Tomatoes
4 Plants/SF(6” apart)- Lettuce, Swiss Chard,
Marigolds
9 Plants/SF (4” apart) Bush Beans, Beets, Spinach
16 Plants/SF – Carrots, Radishes, Onions

10. + Square Foot Garden Plot
Trellis Trellis Trellis Trellis
Tomato Cucumber Cucumber Tomato
1 1 1 1
Pepper Peas Beans Pepper
1 9 9 1
Beans Beets Carrots Peas
9 9 16 9
Radish Onions Lettuce Spinach
16 16 16 9
Number indicates the number of plants or seeds to be spaced in each square foot of your garden.
Questions can be directed to:
Dale L. Siebert, Extension Agent – 642-7793

11. Otter Tail Government Service Center
Pavers and Ledge 4’ x4’

14. Tip:
Gardens need
6-8
hrs/sunlight/day
Tip:
Place trellis on
North side to not
block southern
exposure of sun

15. Located close to employee entry

16. Onions

17. Pole beans-trellis on back side of garage

18. 4 ‘x12’ Box

20. Summer squash & Zucchini

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Do
 Train your plants to grow vertically (use trellis-place it on North side)
 Keep a diary of your garden’s progress- helps in design from yr to yr
 Rotate crops each season to reduce disease and improve pest control
 Practice composting
 Keep learning new information & techniques- (SFG, internet, library)
Don’t
 Use old tires or treated lumber to make a raised bed vegetable garden
 They may leak harmful chemicals into the food
 Over plant, start small and add to your garden in later years

22. Let produce climb
trellis system
Grow vertically
+

23. Tomatoes being
supported by
trellis system
Tip: pinch off
tops by August,
so energy goes
back into
Tomatoes not
the vine

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What country
or civilization
was most
likely to
develop the
idea for
container
gardening?

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Container Gardening
Benefits
 Allows
you to enjoy plants where traditional garden is
awkward or impossible
 Plants can thrive on rooftops, decks, balconies, or
stairs
 Grow different plants together that support each other
 Oregano repels insects that bother broccoli and oregano
enhances the flavor of beans
 Plants can easily be moved if necessary
 Rain, sun, disease, used as an insect repellant

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Hanging Baskets

27. Medium sized pot
Tomato
with tomato cage
Tip:
Can be moved
around for
convenience

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Flowers
Herbs
Cucumbers in a container Vegetables

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Grow plants anywhere
in just about anything

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Tabletop Square Foot Garden

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Cherry Patio Potato
Tomatoes Planter

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Benefits of Composting
 Growing hardly plants and vegetables
 Reducing the need for weeding
 Keeping your yard clean
 Reducing yard waste in landfills
 Producing natural soil conditioner

34. + Plants that Keep Insects and
Pests at Bay
 Marigolds
 Nasturtium
 Cosmos
 Aster
 Rosemary
 Basil

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•Eat fresh produce daily from your garden
•Store extra foods by canning or freezing
•Feel great by giving away food to neighbors,
friends, and food pantry

36. + Ideas to Engage and Sustain
Children’s Interest
 Let them be a part of the design of the garden- what to plant,
how much and where
 Let them develop a theme for the garden such as: pizza, salsa,
soup or stir fry garden and give it a special name
“The Smith’s Spicy Salsa & Soup Garden”
 Teach them to propagate seeds and transplant veggies and
flowers into the garden in the spring
 Give them assignments such as watering, weeding and
composting kitchen food scraps
 Play counting games with the grids and produce
 Have children check on the garden each day and report:
insects, damage to plants, and predators

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Resources
www.squarefootgardening.com
www.ag.ndsu.nodak.edu/
www.kidsgardening.org Ideas for children
http://childrens.wcroc.cfans.umn.edu/pages/educators/lesson1.php
University of Minnesota
http://www.gardeners.com/Vegetable-Gardening/5069,default,pg.html
Shows video of raised beds in a variety of themes
www.organicgardeningguru.com/ Benefits of organic gardening

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(2) 2”x8”x8’ wood- cut boards in half to build 4’x4’ frame
Use newspaper or weed barrier for bottom of frame. Use plywood
and cut drainage holes for a table top version
½” rebar (2) 4’ sections. Pound 1 ½-2’ into the ground on the ends
of the NORTH side of your garden
3/4” conduit (2) 6’ sections and (1) 4’ section. Use elbow brackets
to hold the 3 pieces together and slide over the rebar
If desired add (2) conduit brackets to secure trellis to bottom part
of the garden frame
Trellis netting- attach netting to the trellis frame
Most importantly the soil mix: 1/3 Compost (5 varieties), 1/3 Peat
Moss, and 1/3 Coarse Vermiculite