Can I square foot garden (sqfg) without raised beds?

I would like to try my hand at square foot
gardening and the area I hope to use doesn't
need raised bed to demarcate the space.
And honestly I can't afford to make raised beds.
Thought I would double dig the space and add
organic material.

Thanks for the advice.

Glad you asked about this. For now, forget the term "square foot gardening." It sounds like you are interested in traditional intensive double-dug raised bed gardening, a system that does not involve the expense of building sides or replacing your soil with purchased materials.

The book I recommend for this gardening system is "How To Grow More Vegetables" by John Jeavons. It is a great manual of biointensive gardening. It focuses on closely spaced planting, and more importantly, a sustainable system of soil building.

I'd recommend marking out the beds anyway, unless there is a compelling reason not to because the main benefit of double digging is to prevent the soil compaction that occurs from walking over the loosened soil by creating the permanent pathways. The beds will get raised by the act of couble digging and putting the topsoil from the paths on the beds. Round the edges of the beds, you won't need sides.

Wayne

If you look very closely at the pictures of Mel Bartholomews planting beds you will see thay are not raised. The only reason you would need to build raised beds is if the soil you have has an uncorrectable drainage problem. A raised bed improves the drainage so much that you could spend much more time making sure there is sufficient moisture there that you would not have time to do much else.

In the early editions of his book he did not raise the beds. I do not have a copy of the newer edition in front of me, but he later changed his "system." If you look at his website you will see nothing but framed raised beds. I assume the newer editions reflect this change, which in my view, makes his scheme even more limited in value than before.

It is not correct that the "only reason" to build raised beds is for uncorrectable drainage problems. That is only one benefit and perhaps that is the only case that you would envision empoying them yourself. I suggest you read a good book on the French Intensive methods or Jeavon's bio-intensive book for other reasons.

Hyperbole aside, my nearly two thousand square feet of raised beds do not require I spend my days in an endless marathon of watering. They will drain a bit faster in the spring or after a drenching rain, but any excessive rate of moisture loss is controlled by mulching and by the organic content of the soil, just as in any other garden, vertical or flat.

Wayne

Pomona,
A good link for the biointensive approach:
http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/GROW-BIOINTENSIVE.html
...and:
http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/GROW-BIOINTENSIVE-2.html

Ecology Action is John Jeavons.

Also, a link to Mel Bartholomews website:
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/

always happy gardening!

So what I do in a case like this is take everyone's input and develop my own system. As a matter of fact I like the idea of permanent non-raised beds. I will stake my reputation on you being able to square foot garden without raised beds. Just ask anyone about my reputation. ] Welcome to OG.

Dirt

PS. demarcate - You're just checking to see if we have our dictionary close-at-hand!

my nearly two thousand

I was expecting you to say "years experience"

:^O :^O :^O :^O

> my nearly two thousand
>
> I was expecting you to say "years experience"
>

It only feels that way, sometimes.

Wayne

Thank you all for the info.

Now that I have the land clear of ghastly overgrown
hibiscus and have a sense of the school of gardening
I would like to try, its time for me to get to the
compost section of the program! I haven't even allowed
myself the luxury of leafing (pun intended...) through
heirloom seed catatlogs till I get it together.

It seems that the more I read about composting the
more confused I get. When I double dig these bed,
where exactly should I put the finshed compost.
(Granted I will need to beg and borrow some to get starting.)

Also, jumping ahead to planting time, do I need
to put the seeds in a special design? Some say hexagons,
some say grid as long as the plants at all equidistant.

Hi again,
This is my garden compost champion:
http://www.organicgardening.com/feature/0,7518,s1-5-21-189,00.html
Nothing confusing about Ruth Stout, quite the opposite. :x

Wayne, what other reasons are there? Over many years of reading up on the "French Intensive method" and many of Jeavons books I've not seen any other. I know that when someone around here, with very well draining soil buolds a raised bed they have problems keeping those beds moist enough to prevent wilting, even with a heavy mulch.

I just read that article and had a brainstorm, uh oh! I wonder if I could make any money selling shredded leaves. A few years ago I posted a link to a website that had a guy with a horse trailer with a vacuum/shredder attached? If I had the land I think I'd give it a try. First there was Captain Compost and then there was Colonel Mulch. :O

You just gave me a braincramp...I mean storm.
:^O :^O :^O

A gardening board game! (Spin-off from Clue)
:^O :^O :^O

There are two or three "landscape" businesses around here that sell leaf mold. One has a contract with the city they are in to dump the collected leaves (vacuum truck) and that landscaper then turns the leaves, periodically, and after a couple of years sells the resulting leaf mold. Another "landscaper" collects all the "yard waste" from the yards he cares for plus whatever otehr leaves he can get from other sources adn kind of more or less compostes them, big windrows of some mixture of stuff that takes 3 or 4 years to become compost. The 3rd guy collects the leaves in the fall and the grass clippings in the summer and after modifying a blueberry picker mixes and stirs these humongus windrows and bags and sells the resulting compost for a fairly large sum. One thing these guys tell me is that most people want compost or leaf mold in bags or its no good.

> One thingthese guys tell me is that most people want
> compost or leaf mold in bags or its no good.

People love to pay for packaging.

Wayne