This year is my second gardening season. As a successful graduate of the “first time gardener” club, I’ve learned how to:
- kill zucchini
- kill yellow squash
- kill grey-striped fruit flies
- make homemade ketchup
Yep, that first year learning curve sure was steep!
There was no real goal to last year’s garden, other than to “plant some stuff and see what happens.” This year though, I have a game plan and it includes facing the challenges of gardening head on… with you along for the ride.
Our first challenge: My gardening space is limited.
Possible solution: Urban square foot gardening.
Now, when I say my space is limited, I’m not kidding. Here’s what I’m working with:
- one raised bed that’s 8’x4′ (Tutorial: How to Build a Raised Garden Bed for Under $15)
- five 22″ round containers
- two oblong baskets that are meant to hang over a balcony railing (leftover from our apartment days).
I might be able to fit one more 8’x4′ raised bed in our teeny tiny townhouse backyard, but it would honestly make the yard feel cramped and a bit overwhelming… and being a novice gardener is overwhelming as it is.
The premise of square foot gardening is simple: You divide your space into square feet and plant a certain amount of plants (depending on the size of the plant) within each square foot. For example, bell peppers (that grow up and out) are one per square while carrots (that grow up and down) are 16 per square.
It’s really the perfect solution to maximizing small gardening spaces!
Urban Square Foot Gardening – Setting Up the Space
Before you begin, you need to have dedicated of gardening space. This can be a small backyard, a patio, a deck, a balcony… anything really. It just has to be dedicated to gardening because once you put dirt there, you’re kinda committed.
Step 1: Divide your space into square feet.
Use a tape measure (or ruler, if your kids hid the tape measure) and starting at one end, mark off every 12 inches. Repeat this on all sides of the gardening space so your lines can be as accurate and straight as possible.
Note: When I got to the end of one row, I was three inches short of another foot. I went back and re-measured at 11″ instead of a full 12″. Only time will tell if this makes a big impact on my garden overall, but hey, lessons gotta be learned somewhere!
Count up the number of squares (and half squares, if you have them) and that’s what you’re working with.
Step 2: Decide if you really want to go through with it.
Before you do anything else, consider your square footage and think about what you want to plant. Is it enough space? Do you need more? Do you really want to plant that much?
You’re investing more time and effort from this point on, so just be sure you’re still on board before you start marking stuff up.
Step 3: Mark off your feet.
Put a nail, screws or some other type of attachment at each 12″ spot you marked off, driving it deep enough to be sturdy.
Now, depending on your circumstance and what you have on hand, nails/screws might work for you. But I have two kids who like to help me in the garden so I chose to use industrial staples instead so there wouldn’t be anything sticking out to cause injury.
Step 4: Mark off your squares.
Using twine, tie one end to one nail and the other end to another nail at the opposite side of the bed. Make sure it’s pulled taught enough to be straight, but not so tight that it breaks! By the time you’re done, you should have several squares in your urban garden!
Urban Square Foot Gardening – Choosing Plants
Choosing what to plant in your garden is a combination of four things:
- What you want to grow
- What you like to eat
- What grows well in your area
- What will grow in the space you have
I can’t help you much with the first two, but I have some resources to help you with numbers 3 and 4.
What Grows Well In Your Area
Start with finding your gardening zone using this map if you’re in the US, or this map if you’re in Canada.
You can choose your state, or enter your zip code. Personally I recommend zip code to get the most accurate information, especially if you live in a microclimate (like we do).
Once you know your zone, check to see what plants grow best in your area using The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Put “plant hardiness zone ___” into the search bar and it’ll show a list of what grows best in your area.
What Will Grow in the Space You Have
Considering what you came up with #1-3, use this page to see how many plants you can plant in your garden. If you don’t see your plant listed, try searching “[plant] square foot gardening” and see what you come up with. Most likely someone out there somewhere has tried it and has shared their results!
Urban Square Foot Gardening – Map Out Your Garden
Before you plant anything, or even buy plants or seeds, map out on paper what you are considering growing. This way you can maximize your space but also consider things like:
- how much sun each plant needs
- whether one plant will provide shade for another plant (that might need full sun)
- if you have enough space to grow what you want
- if you’ll really eat all the yield from a square foot
- whether you want more or less squares filled with a certain plant
Ready, Set, Plant!
Get your plants and lay them out in your bed, just to make sure they’ll fit and you’ve got what you need. Make adjustments as needed, plant them accordingly and let the fun begin!
Looks like an awesome way to go. I am lucky enough to have a decent sized patch, but I still feel like I fight for space! I think no matter how much room you had, you’d always want just a liiiiittle more. Was curious as to how big your variety of zucchini plant grows? The ones I plant here grow to a minimum of 4 feet by 4 feet… the longer they last the further they spread too. I grew one this season that ended up being about 8 feet by 5. Eek!
Hi Kat! Yes, a liiiiitle more space is always needed. 😉 I’m trying two different NEW types of zucchini this year, so I’m not sure how big these will get, but the ones from last year were about 2-4 feet wide? They were infected by something though, and weren’t growing very well… so I’m not sure if I’m a good person to compare too, lol. 8×5 though – yikes! That’s a monster!
Fully assuming that was a typo and you didn’t have a 24 foot plant. Haha!
Ha! No, there’s supposed to be a dash in there, lol.
I garden. It used to be ‘we’ gardened, but my husband died in September 2014.
I have 5 raised beds that we built over the last several years. Three are 3×8′, two are 3×12′. The three smaller ones are for vegetables, usually peas, green beans, lettuce, radishes, carrots, and whatever else I want to see if I can grow. Tomatoes will not produce fruit in those beds. I do not know why.
The two 12′ beds have strawberries in one and raspberries in the other. It’s great to have these in my back yard. When we initially planted the raspberries, we had six varieties: two red, two black, one yellow and one purple. The yellow and purple were our favorites, but they have pretty much died out. The red and black ones are of questionable value. The berries are very small and don’t produce much crop. I am considering pulling out the reds and replacing them with yellow and purple.
I plant my tomatoes in a flower bed. They do much better there and actually produce tomatoes. I also plant cucumbers and some other vegetables in the flower beds.
I have a few herbs: lavender, oregano, sage, parsley, chives. About half of them are in containers, and the rest are in the ground.
We have had a compost pile for many years, but had never watered, turned or removed anything from it. This year,, I am working on it. I removed the top layers of grass clippings, kitchen waste and whatever else came with it. Then I am mixing the lower layers as best I can, and taking it to my gardens to add to what is there. I’m hoping it will help with the issues I have had with some plantings not producing.
Btw, I have peas that are up about 4″. I planted them on Good Friday, like my dad did. He planted peas on Good Friday, even if he had to shovel snow to do it.
Hi Martha,
Your tomatoes were definitely helped by all the pollinators attracted to the flowers in your flower bed. Those tomatoes were pollinated by all the bees, insects, etc that came to visit your flowers.
So, yes, keep on planting tomatoes/veggies in your flower beds…
It’s also a good idea to have a VARIETY of flowers and/or veggies in each bed, so that if a bug/insect comes along that loves a certain type of bean/squash/tomato etc, and eats your entire planting of that veggie/flower in that one bed, you might have some more of that plant in another bed. (You can also use “hoops” and special fabric coverings when you first start out planting your seeds/seedlings. Insects/bugs do NOT usually check UNDER a fabric covering, and have been known to leave behind an entire crop of a certain special plant that they love to eat, because the raised bed was covered or another bed that they missed had more of that same special plant.
I would pull out all the raspberries currently taking up space in your raised beds…Raspberries could be planted directly in the soil, and you might check out other types of raspberries that can give you two yields of berries during a growing season or that are better suited to your zone/garden needs. Ask your local nursery to help you with selections.
I have just two raised beds (with hardware cloth underneath, to foil those pesky rotten gophers that we have here in New Mexico), and an assortment of containers (planting one or two tomato plants in each
container. I try to plant veggies that are either more rare or very expensive to buy in the stores (shallots, leeks, fennel, heirloom tomatoes, etc–things that I want to use in cooking and in salads.)
Herbs are a must (in containers, so that I can take them into the garage or into my tiled floor “garden room” (otherwise known as the “television-family” room) during late fall and winter.
And plant ONLY WHAT YOU LIKE TO EAT, as you are doing…
As for your compost pile, see if you can MIX some of those layers of existing compost pile kitchen waste and some of the grass clippings (which tend to get all mushy and sticky when they are just dumped into a compost pile) into your compost pile…AND, why not try **VERMICOMPOSTING** (ie, using only the specific RED WIGGLER WORMS—available on-line or at your local Farmers’ Market), and let those worms do all of the work. You can add the red wigglers to any existing compost pile, or more effectively, use a minimum of three STRAW bales to contain your compost pile and worms, and put more compost, veggie peels, cleaned and crushed egg shells, shredded newspapers and junk mail–without the clear plastic fronts on the envelopes–plus lots of other items (see any list for composting and vermicomposting do’s and don’t’s—NEVER any protein like meats, cheeses, dairy, grease, etc) mixed in to the pile) and your worms will eat their weight in “garbage” daily (See the fabulous book, Worms eat my Garbage, by Mary Appelhof) Google anything about vermicomposting and you will find lots of information. The BEST thing about vermicomposting is that those sweet adorable WORMS do ALL of the WORK…NO turning, NO moving loads of processing compost. You could also have a Rubbermaid or homemade plastic bin worm composter under your kitchen sink…Oh, so much to share about composting with WORMS. (The only concern is keeping the outside worms alive during the winter…And, if you are using straw bales to contain your worms and compost, the worms will survive the cold by burrowing into the bottom of the pile or into the sides of the straw bales…Add a cover (a plastic tarp, old rugs, or lots of loose straw on top), and your worms will be just fine and survive the cold winter. OR, bring your worm containers into the garage or a protected inside porch…Worms can live in temperatures of 40′ to 85′–
Good luck to you with planting your veggie-flower gardens this summer and creating an easier, more productive compost pile using worms (and straw bales outside)…
I’ve been gardening for 8 years, and am obsessed. I love canning my harvest too! I have a lit of trouble with root vegetables, but I keep trying. No green beans? They are pretty easy to grow!
Oops! Just reread, yiu are doing green beans 🙂
LOL – because I heard they were easy!! 🙂
you should also look into compatibilities between plants. Some plants help each other to grow and some fight for space. That’s a very important issue in urban gardening. You have also to look into how long does it tkae for things to grow, so that you can plant some things after the others or at the same time, but blooming at different periods and this sort of things. I’ve read many things about it, but have forgotten the specifics…. :p
I have been gardening for years. I live on 10 acres but still square foot garden. Why because it is the easiest way to grow a garden. We eat out of the garden all summer and fall. I buy my bulk veggies from the farmers market for canning. Love my four 4×8 beds.
Thanks Kathy!!
Don’t be discouraged, every gardener has crops that have an off year now and again.
There are so many variables (Timing, temperature, moisture, soil composition, acidity, calcium and copper levels, etc) and things outside our control. And PESTS. 🙁
As a long time gardener (20 + years) I’ve never had good luck with melons until this year.
Too bad it’s a bad luck year for my squash and zucchini. 😉
We have bermed raised beds and soaker hoses at the root zone covered with composted mulch.
I also have a 3 x 8 x 3 raised bed/cold frame that grew amazing greens and lettuce in winter 2014 but had a poor turnout in winter 2015. It’s growing great carrots and beets this spring and summer.
Remember, you can always contact your local Cooperative Extension and ask for the Master Gardener(s) who can answer many questions specific to growing things in your area. And taking the MG classes is usually relatively inexpensive- $40 – $50 for the textbook, and the hands on experience and expertise for the cost of volunteering to share your knowledge with others.
Very new to gardening. I made my first raised bed last year. (8×8) Things grew fantastically. My problem I’m having is harvesting in the center of the bed. How do I get to all of the goodies in the middle without walking on the plants in the outer area? When the close of the growing season finally came, I found many things that were missed from the center plants.
I think this is why most best are 3-4 feet wide. Since yours is already built, what if you placed stepping stones (or bricks, or a plank or anything flat, somewhat heavy and sturdy) down a center isle so you can reach the harvest? If you plant via square foot gardening, maybe where the “feet” corners meet?
Last year I decided that I would pickle my green beans so I found a recipe on Pinterest for garlic dill beans, needless to say I will be growing twice as many beans this year, yummy!!!! If you like dill pickles you’ll love these!!
This will be my first year with a garden at my new house. I have tried some container gardens in the past with marginal success. I’m doing sq ft gardening too because my yard is long and skinny so my garden plot is too. Hoping to trim my overgrown lilacs on the south end of the yard this spring to let in my sunlight. Last fall I laid down plastic to help kill the sod in the section of yard I wanted the garden. Found lots of earth worms which I’ve read means good soil quality. Also the farmer’s almanac website has a garden planner now so you can plan out and move your plants around complete with settings for your area/climate and sq ft gardening or rows. I will have over 25 different types of plants; veggies or herbs and I’m building trellis’ for the cucumber, squash, and zucchini to grow up.
That’s so exciting Jenn! I hope your garden flourishes with all those worms!!