Does Square Foot Gardening and Mel's soil mix actually work?
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- Опубликовано: 28 май 2024
- Does square foot gardening work and is there anything you can change to make it even better? The square foot gardening soil mix is at the core of successful square foot gardening, but the suggested soil mix might not be the right soil mix for you in your local climate. In this video I talk about different soil types and which soil has given me the best square foot gardening results.
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Video timeline:
00:00 - Introduction
02:13 - What is square foot gardening?
06:05 - Square foot gardening soil mix
09:26 - An alternative soil mix
11:10 - Does square foot gardening work?
Here are some other great soil videos from my channel:
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How to improve clay and sandy soil and create your own compost - • How to improve clay an...
How to turn Bokashi into compost using a Soil / Earth factory - • How to turn Bokashi in...
What is square foot gardening?
The concept of square foot gardening was created by Mel Bartholomew in an attempt to increase the amount of food that can be grown in a small amount of space. This is done by creating structure in your vegetable gardening beds and planing crops according to their space requirements. A big part of square foot gardening is the soil mix. This gardening method uses intensive growing in small spaces which needs certain soil characteristics to have successful harvests.
You can find out more about square foot gardening here - squarefootgardening.org/
How does square foot gardening work?
The concept of square foot gardening is pretty simple. Growing space, or raised beds are divided into square foot, or 30cm X 30cm, blocks to create a grid of squares. Depending on the kind of crop you are wanting to grow you increase or decrease the number of plants per block.
For example you can plant 4 beans, 16 spring onions, 5 onions, 1 kale/brassica, 1 potato, 6 beetroots, 16 carrots in a block and you can mix and match blocks which create wonderful interplanting of crops.
What is the square foot gardening soil mix?
The soil used in square foot gardening is a very specific mix that was created by the inventor, Mel Bartholomew. The soil was very carefully created after years of testing and many people all over the world have incredible results using the square foot gardening soil mix. What is this mix?
The square foot gardening soil mix contains:
- 1/3 perlite or vermiculite if you don't have access to perlite
- 1/3 coco coir or peat moss (I would not suggest peat moss as it is damaging to the environment)
- 1/3 high quality compost
What makes square foot gardening soil so successful?
There are 4 main requirements for good quality soil and you need a healthy balance of each of these for crops to reach their full potential. These include moisture retention, aeration, drainage and nutrition. If any of these are not working properly then your plants will suffer - even more so with square foot gardening where we use intensive planting. Mel's mix is the perfect balance of all these elements in most climates BUT it does not always work.
Why Mel's mix doesn't work for me...
There are 2 main reasons why Mel's square foot gardening mix does not work for me and these are:
1. The cost of filling beds. When you use Mel's mix you need to buy in perlite and coco coir which can get really expensive, especially if you have a larger growing space or high raised beds. If you don't make your own compost then it becomes even more expensive. In a world where costs are constantly increasing using items like these become unsustainable and not very cost-effective
2. It uses A LOT of water! This is the biggest reason why I started looking at alternative soil options for my square foot gardening beds. Due to the fact that Mel's mix is so aerated and free draining it uses a lot of water. In climates that do not get a lot of summer rain, like the Mediterranean climate I am in, to keep Mel's mix constantly moist you need to water a lot to achieve this. As moisture retention is one of the key elements of good soil my plants started to really suffer not getting enough water and I was needing to water every 2nd day, sometimes every day. Using an alternative soil allowed me to only water once a week and have luscious, healthy plants.
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Are you using the square foot gardening method in your garden? Are you using your own soil mix that works for you? I would love to hear what works for you 🌻
I add loads of aged horse manure from a farm down the road....and my neighbor rakes up every single leaf on his property. So once a week I have bags of leaves to add to my compost. Helps it break down really quickly. We only have rainwater, so water is a big factor. This mix helps retain it really well.
@@tanja666 yaaaay, this is so awesome to hear as it validates my findings too that horse manure really is an incredible solution that hold water well and is super nutritious!
Luckily stable yards are more than happy to give manure away and hopefully they don't cotton on to how valuable it is 😂🌻
I get horse manure from a friend and I breed rabbits and have trained them to use litter trays. I put a layer of wood shavings at the bottom and straw or dried grass on top. Daily I add fresh straw and at the end of the week it all goes on the compost heap. I also have a Bosch shredder that I bought 20 years ago so all garden waste is also added to the compost. It makes a wonderful mix that I add to my raised beds!
@@kathyashwell8854 now that is what I need! I am still shredding all prunings with a pair of secateurs.
@@tanja666 not one leaf or twig leaves our property. I started mulching where we don't have afternoon shade and it starts to make a huge difference in soil temperature and moisture retention in the soil.
This is your most important video yet. Gardening is a continuous scientific experiment. Thank you for pointing out that not everything that works in one climate and one soil type will work in another. My climate has hot humid summers, dry cool autumns and generally damp cool winters. I use a lot of your ideas but not all are suitable here. Fantastic turnips BTW. Just now turnip planting here.
Oh wow, this is amazing to hear and thank you so very very much 💚
Gardening and growing food is 100% a local experiment and as much as people like myself can give you guidance and share experiences it's up to you to test its relevance in your local climate and microclimate.
This is also why I love it so much. You just don't know what's going to happen next PLUS everything just tastes so much better 😂🌻
I believe Mel’s mix formula in his book actually calls for vermiculite (which absorbs and holds water) instead of perlite (which is good for drainage) which may help with not needing to water as much.
Thanks for that insightful comment, I may have overlooked that. I think where I may have got things wrong is the videos and pictures I've seen show a white material being added. Here that white material is perlite. Vermiculite is gold here so that's maybe where I strayed away. That being said I think the perlite option would be amazing in high rainfall areas as peat/coir/compost plus vermiculite could have issues with too much moisture which can create an anaerobic environment.
Out of interest sake, do you get a lot of rain and use this mix? How is it working for you? 🌻
I live on a two hectare farm. You actually have more space to grow than I do. I have to grow in a cage, due to bushbuck, porcupine and monkeys. My urban garden was alot easier.
Oh wow! That sounds amazing yet challenging at the same time! I can only imagine having to cage things in and limiting the space you have available. Hopefully you get to enjoy your garden as much as you did your urban garden 🌻
Looks very impressive.
I'm up in jo'burg and you're right, soil is everything.
Thanks so much! Yeah, it is seriously the be all and end all when it comes to healthy and abundant vegetable growing 🌻
I am in Durban South - lots of Summer rain, but I use the horse compost as mulch because the days are so hot it sucks up all the moisture quickly. I use Mel's mix as a seedling mix, but not in my beds. I do mostly my own compost or a mushroom compost in the beds.
Thanks for leaving me a comment with what you do and it makes me so happy to hear that you have experimented and found what works for you! Horse compost as a mulch is a really good option because it holds moisture and will create a really good insulating barrier, plus the worms and other insects will start breaking it down from the bottom and release all those wonderful nutrients. Well done 👏🌻
Love your videos,Iive in the southern suburbs CT and I know that they sell horse manure, compost and woodchips very cheaply close to Tokai forest. Definitely going to get some. My onions seems to have multiplied instead of bulbing this year and I have never had much success with potatoes. Definitely going to work hard on amending my soil.
Thanks for leaving me a comment with your thoughts and experiences - I love hearing people's stories 💚
Yeah, I know that place well! Iny opinion you shouldn't pay for horse manure compost as stables desperately try to get rid of it and it is so easy to make your own. I have full broken down horse manure compost in 3 weeks and the garden absolutely loves it!
I'm about to start a 3 week compost video on how to get finished horse manure compost in 3 weeks so keep an eye out for that one 🌻
like to know where this place is. would you mind sharing?
I am still in the process of making soil on our loose coarse granite sand. About 40cm under the surface there is clay though. I put shredded twigs and thin branches with their leaves ontop of the soil and covered it with at least 8cm of compost that I bought in to make my beds. Now that it is broken down properly, it is starting to hold more water. It was a nightmare to keep everything watered properly.
I live in Wellington near Cape Town, where we already had a 33°C day this week.
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Wow! Now that sounds like a really challenging environment! Granite on top with clay underneath...wowzers...
I grew up in Paarl so I know all about that granite soil and how hot it can get so hats off to you for keep going and forging ahead until you find what works best for you to give you the best results.
A piece of advice I can give you is you incorporate as much animal manure as you possibly can. I prefer horse manure because it is 'gentler' but you can use cow, sheep, goat and chicken manure too. Many farms will gladly give this to you for free so they don't have to try and dispose of it 🌻
@@MySustainabilityJourney thank you very much.
Have you heard anything concerning keeping dwarf goats as pets?
I also have dense clay but have been working on building the soil for 3 years now and grow in beds that are about 200mm above the actual soil, but it is amazing how the underneath stuff starts to change when all the bus and bacteria move in.
Very informitive as I am gardening here in the Cape Flats. I tried to get horse manure that is free of insecticide ect, but to no avail.
Where can I buy these horse manure with the stable wood chips.
Ah, I'm so glad you found this video useful Peter 😀
Yeah, finding clean manure can sometimes be a pain! I used to get mine from a small stable in Noordhoek that only had 2 or 3 horses so they could feed them the good stuff and let them roam on paddocks.
What I would suggest doing is looking for and joining the Facebook group called Noordhoek Community Forum and ask who has horse manure in the area. There are lots of stables there and they mostly spend a lot on good feed. Also just remember to ask about deworming cycles as you don't want to collect manure after animals have been dewormed. That will result in dead soil.
I hope you come right. I know it's a bit far from you but it will be worth it and cheaper in the long run 🌻
Very interesting. Wish I had easy access to horse manure. Am in zone 5B in northern IL, USA. The last several years have been practically rain free in the summer and I refuse to water more than once or twice a week. What I have found is that the plants in native soil or low raised beds (like yours) do so much better than those in the higher (12 + inch) beds. Soil simply does not dry out as quickly. I have also read that roots will reach down further to look for water if plants on not watered excessively. Not certain if that is true or not.
Thanks for taking the time to leave me your thoughts! Yeah, having easy access to horse manure is a massive win and finding good alternative can be tricky, although cow, sheep or chicken manure will work just as well.
I also 100% agree with you! I also had higher raised beds that were made from wood and found them to dry out really quickly. How people grow in those metal/tin beds blows my mind. Those beds must use a lot of water!
You are also spot on with the way plants behave. This is also why the advice is usually to water less but long so you can water deep. This will force roots deeper to find water over time which makes for stronger plants that have access to more nutrients under ground!
I hope you have a good winter season ahead 🌻
@@MySustainabilityJourney Same here regarding the metal garden beds. I think many people get them for aesthetics and maybe longevity.
I've never been a fan and don't see the point of using them unless there is a physical need.
And sorry, but there is no such thing as a good winter in the Chicago area but I will enjoy taking time off from gardening for a few months.
.....Just took a little journey down the google rabbit hole.....looks like South Africa is a beautiful country and the weather, or at least the temperature, is fairly consistent throughout the year. So you probably get to enjoy gardening all year long. I'm a "senior citizen" so definitely need a winter break 😁!
Very interesting. Can i use another type of manure, we dont have any stables in our area, however, i have access to cow manure.
Good question! Absolutely! All animal manure is really good quality and the most important thing to remember is that different manures have different time requirements to break down. Horse manure is the fastest.
For cow manure you will want to leave it longer (roughly 6 months) as it will 100% burn your plants if it's not fully broken down. Once it is though, you will have an incredible source of food for your garden 🌻
This is so interesting as we have followed the back of the seed packets when planting and you end up wasting so much space.
Next plant season i am trying this.
Yeah I totally agree! I have never planted according to the back as those are often commercial spacings that most urban growers, or even homesteads, just don't have. So long as you have good moisture retention in your soil and it is alive with worms and organisms then closer plantings work great!
I'll do a few more videos on this so you can be better prepared for your square foot garden in 2024 🌻
@@MySustainabilityJourney awesome we also live in Cape Town so your videos help alot
@@amyjanegardner9908 ah, thanks so much and I'm so happy to hear that. Hopefully lots more knowledge and experience sharing coming your way 🌻