You want to garden but think that your garden is too small? Or do you think you may not have enough space? Well, how about square foot gardening. The technique of square foot gardening might be for you and it's been around for some time. Planting plants in a square foot by placing 1, 4, 6, 9, or 12 plants allows you to have many plants in a small area.
I have been gardening for quite a few years now, and only in the last six years have I been doing square foot and companion gardening. I find that the two go hand in hand. I started square foot gardening in pots. Money was limited, and the large pots were free. I experimented with how many plants I could get into a large pot. I was excited about how much I could grow. I wanted to grow more, but space was limited. This made me think, instead of having a million pots around (ok maybe not a million, but you get the idea) I'll build a raised bed instead. This allows me to have more vegetables in a small space.
Now, gardening in a raised bed has its benefits, and that is a post for another day. You can square foot garden without a raised bed. You can do as I did and get a bunch of really large pots, and plant everything from tomatoes, peas, beans, lettuce and so much more. Use tomato cages to grow up instead of out and it's also a great way to figure out what you like and don't like without committing to a large area. Planting in large pots is also perfect if you live in an apartment.
For me, I've built a few raised beds that I square foot garden in, and love how organized it makes me feel. Now, if you are going the route of a raised bed you can go even one step farther. Why not cover it. This way you can start your garden way before anyone else does. I have covered my garden with a clear tarp so that I can start bringing out my seedlings way before the last frost date.
So now that you have an idea as to what you can square foot garden in, I wanted to provide you with a planting schedule that you can use to get yourself organized, but before I do that I did want to mention that I have a few videos that I created in getting started in gardening which you can check out.
I do want to point out that this is an approximate schedule that I use for my garden, which is located in Zone 5. Your garden might be located in a different zone, but this guide should be useful to all gardeners no matter where you live. For those new gardeners as well as for those more advanced, I want to remind you how important it is of keeping good notes on when you started or planted seeds and how well different varieties performed. Just a few bullet points are all you need and over time you should be able to refine your plan to maximize your garden successes and minimize your garden failures. For those new gardeners, start small and do not get discouraged by a few failures. This is how we learn and move on, cause there's always another crop and another year.
Note: The seeds that are started indoors are allowed to germinate indoors and then moved immediately out to the cold frame.
Last week in February or first week in March (10 weeks before the last frost date):
- Start seeds of leeks, celery, and onions indoors. The exact date will vary depending on the weather.
The first or second week of March:
- Start seeds of cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, and Brussel sprouts indoors.
The third week in March:
- Start seeds of peppers, and tomatoes indoors.
The first week in April:
- Onion seedlings/slips arrive via mail and are planted directly out into the garden.
- Transplant lettuce seedlings out into the garden under the hoop house if the seedlings are big enough. They are big enough when they just start to get their second set of true leaves.
The second week in April:
- Continue to transplant lettuce seedlings out into the garden under the hoop when they get big enough.
- Plant pea seeds directly out into the garden
The third week in April:
- Transplant broccoli, cabbage, and brussel sprout seedlings out into the garden.
- Start the seeds of cucumbers in a cold frame.
- Plant certified seed potatoes out into the garden. Dandelions should be out by now too.
The fourth week in April:
- Transplant tomato and pepper seedlings into bigger pots.
- Start more heat tolerant lettuce seeds indoors like butterhead and romaine varieties.
The first week in May:
- Start harvesting a few of the small leaves on your early planted lettuce.
- Start harvesting green onions, if large enough. Harvest about half of the top setting onions for green onions before the plants get too big.
- Transplant celery seedlings out into the garden
- Plant corn seeds directly out into the garden.
The second week in May:
- Transplant pepper, tomato, and cucumber seedlings out into the garden.
- Plant seeds of bush green beans and pole lima beans directly out into the garden.
The third or fourth week in June:
- Pull up the garden peas and replant them with bush green beans.
The first week in July:
- Start seeds of fall broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower in small pots.
The second week in July:
- Pull up cucumber vines. By this time the cucumbers are finished producing, for the most part. This seems to help out the pepper plants that are growing close proximately.
- If the majority of the onion plant tops have fallen over, pull them up and clip the tops off and let them dry/cure for about 10 days on screens over the garden plot where they were grown.
The first week in August:
- Plant bush green beans seeds directly into the garden where the spring planted onions grew.
- Transplant out into the garden the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower seedlings. Make sure to keep these seedlings well watered!!
- Plant carrot seeds directly out into the garden. Keep seedbed shaded, if possible, and well-watered.
The second or third week in August:
- Plant bush green bean seeds into the corn plot when corn is finished.
- Start seeds of fall lettuce in small pots
Tomato and pepper plants should be producing a nice harvest about now!!
The first or second week in September:
- Transplant lettuce seedlings out into the garden. Make sure to keep these seedlings well watered!!
From this point on it will all depend on the weather and how long it will stay warm. Using a cold from or a make-shift cover will help, but the Canadian winters are very unpredictable.
The month of October:
- Keep a row cover handy to keep frost off of late-planted beans.
- Keep the carrot and lettuce plots covered with hoops to keep them growing throughout the fall.
- Harvest the lettuce as needed.
- As heavy frost approaches, cover broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower plants. This keeps the plants actively growing until harvest.
- Around the third or fourth week in October, pull up the pepper plants and replant the area with topsetting onion tops that have been drying since late July. New green growth should be visible from these onions in about 2 to 3weeks.
The month of November:
- Cover all unused garden areas with 2 to 3 inches of shredded tree leaves.
- After the first hard freeze, cover topsetting onions with a thin layer of shredded tree leaves.
- Start harvesting carrots when they mature. Mulch the carrot bed with a 1-inch layer of shredded tree leaves.
The month of December:
- Finish harvesting lettuce. If the weather stays relatively warm, expect to harvest lettuce nearly through December.
- Finish harvesting the carrots depending on the weather.
Now, take about two months off. Use this time to plan for next year’s garden. Make sure to order your seeds early enough to have them in time to start your spring garden.
Until next time, enjoy the growing season and the harvesting.
Cheers,
~Susan