How Many Square Feet Do You Have?

This is my first year, after years of attempting with soil so full of rocks it broke my tiller.

3 4x8's
1 4x4

so 112.

Plus a Sams Club 3.5x7 filled with what I could come up with on a days notice. I came home for a dog agility trial weekend to find three bags of already sprouted asparagus roots on my front porch. Was worried about them surviving since everything I could find said transplant dormant plants.

Already planning fall additions.

Beth

2: 4x5
1: 4x10
2 2x8
1 3x4
1 2x2

Plus... three 2x2 high rise potato bins.

I'm starting with 2 3x6 boxes so 36 squares. But I hope to add at least 2 more next year. When I planned the size of the area we're setting up to put our beds in allowing for adding a "few" more boxes I calculated I could get 200 squares in it if I wanted. (shhh don't tell hubby, he'll think I'm crazy to even be thinking about it.)

I have 176 sq. ft. Planning on another 44 when I can afford more Mel's mix. I am feeding a family of 9. 44 sq. ft. are 12 inches deep so I can grow corn. How many family members are you all feeding with your boxes and are they all 6 inches deep?

30 square feet. Our box is a recycled sandbox that was 4 squares by 8 squares. I haven't had luck planting in two of the squares, so I will be trying Josh's worm tubes in those two.

This box helps feed our family of 4. We're still buying things from the farmer's markets and grocery stores, but we're buying less.

I have been toying with the idea of starting a dedicated strawberry box and a dedicated asparagus box. Right now, they are in the box of 30 squares. Now that I've read more about SFG, I'm really rethinking the idea of having the asparagus in the same box as everything else.

JustMe wrote:Now that I've read more about SFG, I'm really rethinking the idea of having the asparagus in the same box as everything else.

Good thinking!!

I have 2 2x8's and 2 4x4's = 64 sq ft

I'm going to do containers on my porch but they are round. I still plan on doing them like square foot gardens. I have to save for more MM.

Jojo

I have none right now cause we are moving in a few months and had to take my boxes out. Need a sad smilely.

I started last year(my 1st successful garden in 25+ yrs) with a 4x8 with about 10" of MM. I had a few more squares in beds that have since been dismantled and replaced with 3 beds that are made with 2x8s that are odd sizes totaling about 120 sq ft.
So total about 150 sq ft plus a large old wheelbarrow with pototoes in it. Feeding a family of 4, mostly salads and fresh veggies (no canning) but looking into dehydrating. Last year with about 40 squares we had about the following harvests:
Tomatoes - all we could eat and gave away a bunch for about 6 mos
Bell peppers - harvested several each week for about 4 mos
Lettuce - all we could eat for about 6 mos (got bitter in the summer)
Carrots - all we could eat for about 3 mos
Onions - harvested in june, lasted til feb.
Yummy potatoes & corn - just a couple of weeks worth but sooo good.
Plus we had cucumbers, bush & pole beans, chard, kale, celery, spaghetti squash, trombocino zucchini all grew well. Some (chard & kale) seemed to be trap crops (very holely when nothing else was), the celery was to strong (will try again). The goats ate everything we didn't.
Trying different squash this year, 2 types of onions, 3 types of garlic. Planting more carrots and several types of lettuce. 3 new varieties of tomatoes, plus 3 that I did last year. Have corn started now and plan to start more a couple of times during the year as I have a block of several squares available. Will use the seed I already have. I have beans soaking to plant now.

jojo477 wrote:I have 2 2x8's and 2 4x4's = 64 sq ft

I'm going to do containers on my porch but they are round. I still plan on doing them like square foot gardens. I have to save for more MM.

Jojo

Jojo, we call them PI R Squared gardens on this forum. . Congrats, you are off to a great adventure in gardening.

Kay

3 - 4'x4' = 48 SF

3 - 2'x8' = 48 SF

So a total of 96 SF ... although I don't know if they'd truly be considered SFG because they aren't filled yet! LOL

DH wants about 500 SF total. A little at a time, we might get there!

At Present
Two 4x4s, One 4x6, two 2x4s

Plans for a 2x6 to be made in a week or so, need three more composts.
Plans for two more 4x6s by the first of May.

So 2 4x4s= 32
+ 2 2x4 = 16
+ 4x6 = 24
Total = 72

Planned
2x6 = 12
2 4x6 = 48
Total = 60

Grand total is going to by 132 for this year.

This is what I plant just by sfg method.

I have

2 4x8 SFG for a total of 64 square feet.

Perhaps down the road increasing the number of gardens butthis is just my first full year....

I have three 4x4's and three 4x8's for a total of 144 sq ft.

I also have a "traditional" row garden in another area of my yard that is 16 by 25 ft for total of 400 sq ft. That gives me 544 sq ft of total planting area, but I get more bang for my buck from the SFG's. I use the traditional area to grow most of my corn and cow peas.

I have four 4 x 4's for a total of 64 sq ft. Actually one of those is not technically a SFG this growing season. I took the grid off and planted a variety of flower seeds.

1-4x8
2- 4x4's
1-4x4 tabletop new this season
= 80 sq.ft

Just 2 people so maybe 1 or 2 more boxes next year. This year will be the test of how much compost effort is needed to sustain everything. Not how many boxes I want.

My main garden has 144 sg ft. Next month I'm adding an additional 96 sq ft.
For a grand total of 240 sq ft.

timrichards9585 wrote:My main garden has 144 sg ft. Next month I'm adding an additional 96 sq ft.
For a grand total of 240 sq ft.

Wow...that's one heck of a garden you'll have!

No where near enough.
Seriously.
I'm going through the canning books, looking at recipes. (I just attended a canning class at Rutgers, so we'll buy a pressure cooker this year).
For example, the first pickled beet recipe I looked at wants 24 beets. So for a year's worth of pickled beets, that's a lot of squares, even when I'm the only one eating them.
But, I have nowhere to go to make more squares. The way I figure it, I have a few options:
1) convince my wife to convert all the flower beds to MM, then rip out the flowers some night and plant veggies.
2) convince my neighbor across the road to let me have the use of his front yard.
3) buy the woodlot across the road, cut down all the trees, make lumber for squares, compost the chips.
4) go vertical.
5) be content with what I have.
This last option is not realistic.
6. Become a better manager of what I have. This evening's frost alert has me planning for next winter already. How many crops can I get out of a square in one year? And I'm sure I will grow too much of one thing and not enough of another.

Tom

Hi Tom
The other option is to grow BIG beets.
The ones I had last year when I quartered them each quarter was the size of one usual one.
I think my secret was, and it IS a secret I read in a local paper last year that watered down pee was very good for garden....

First year and starting with two 4x4s for a total of 32sqft.

Also have potatos growing in a bucket, herbs in containers, and broccoli and tomato in a big plastic tote from where I purchased transplants that didnt come in small enough quantities. They may not make it but I refused to toss a perfectly good transplant just because I ran out of squares .

Hope to be able to add another 4x4 in the next couple weeks. Either way I already plan to have at minimum 100+ sqft by next spring, not including permanent beds for asparagus and strawberries.

I have 19sqft... and looking at the rest of this thread makes me think I'm doing it wrong. 'course, I also live in an apartment and those 19 squares are on my balcony... eesh.

eflan wrote:I have 19sqft... and looking at the rest of this thread makes me think I'm doing it wrong. 'course, I also live in an apartment and those 19 squares are on my balcony... eesh.

That's 19 more squares of fresh produce than any other apartment dweller I know!

I have two 4x4 beds for 32 square feet. 8 sq ft will be for trellised plants (tomatoes, zucchini, cantaloupe, and green beans). The rest will be mostly various types of greens (lettuce, spinach, turnip, green onions and the like) and flowers.

I have 3 4x4 boxes for a grand total of 48 square feet. now if i only had a bigger yard