Question on My Blog

Hi Mel, I also have problems now with termites eating my SFG boxes I bought at lowes. It has been a year since I put them in my yard here. First I put down weed barrier then the boxes and more weed barrier in the boxes then your mix. The termites have eaten into the wood but also eat my radishs, corn, strawberries and carrots just to name a few. I have found that they dont eat the onions and most of the herbs I have in one box. I also have a vinyl box I got at sams club and and had the same problem with the termites eating my veggies although they are not eating my boards as they are vinyl. I am going to try next to raise the boxes on cinder blocks to get them off the ground to see if that makes a difference. Do you have any solution for nematodes in the garden? Any advice would be helpful. Thank you!

First off, the bugs that are eating your veggies in both boxes are probably not termites - looks like you have another bug problem with those. Termites do not eat fruits and veggies typically...they prefer to eat the cellulose in the wood boxes. You could have ants in the garden or some kind of critters that are eating the rest of your plants. I would go right to your county agricultural agent for your area of Florida so he can tell you what you might be facing.

For nematodes, the common practice in Florida is to cover your boxes with clear plastic in the summer and bake the devil out of them. The heat will kill the nematodes so you can grow in the boxes starting in the fall. It's not fool proof and the only other way is to start brand new with a new box and new soil. Usually they won't bother a Square Foot Garden unless there's easy contact with the native soil.

I would take 1 or 2 of your boxes as an experiment. Put on a plywood bottom and raise it off the ground like you have with your cinderblocks. See what happens then. You may also have an ant problem, which you can solve by putting the corners of your boxes in tubs of water - generally ants can't climb up there.