I have a pretty nice gardening book personal library. I thought it included this title, because it’s a standard in the field, but no. It’s a 2013 edition, which in the library world would make it old, but it is full of fresh to me thinking, and I now have my own copy.
I’ve been considering trying Square Foot Gardening for my vegetable garden for a few years now (how slow moving on these things I can be, right?) I’ve seen Square Foot Gardening “grids” of various kinds for sale and thought them awfully pricey, and somehow this contributed to my almost considering Square Foot Gardening to be a gimmick that couldn’t work.
What a pleasure to read the book is. I tend to read an entire non-fiction book if it is in one of my areas of interest. This means I read the introduction, all of the chapter heading notes and any sort of after notes at the end. I found that I agreed completely with Bartholomew’s take on the oddity of trying to plant with 30 foot rows and 3 ft spacing in a home garden. Most yards won’t accommodate that.
There is also the issue of SEED GUILT, knowing you won’t be able to use the 1000 seeds offered in each seed packet. There has to be a better way.
My garden season this year was delayed so I did not try it this time, but in the winter when I’m planning my garden and am ordering seeds, I’ll refer to the tidy charts here to see what I can can grow most efficiently. My selections were so small this season that I am twitching already to get a new start on a better, more extravagant (yet tidy) vegetable garden.
There are many additional growing, feeding and watering tips including pest control ideas. I should pour over it now to see what he has to say about foiling squirrels (I think I have the rabbits locked out now).
