A New Old Gardner

drrub 3/6/2014, 3:40 pm

Hello From God's Country. Have been Square Foot Gardening for years and just found this forum. Finished my new garden yesterday (About 10' X 4') at the new house. Has one at my last house (About 5 years) and the one before (About 20 years). So there is an old way and a new way?? So what is the difference? Buy the way, love this type of gardening and have had great sucess with it.

**walshevak** 3/6/2014, 6:27 pm

$glad you\'re here$ There are many changes from the original SFG book and the 2nd edition. In particular, Mel's Mix. No tilling, no digging. Go to the home page and then look at the left side. You will see a column of bobbly humps. Hover your cursor over them and click into what looks interesting.

Kay

Triciasgarden 3/6/2014, 7:32 pm

Welcome to the forum drrub!

Love the "bobbly humps" description Kay!

**sanderson** 3/7/2014, 2:07 am

And no dirt! Do get hold of the All New Square Foot Gardening book. Check eBay or Amazon for gently used copies.

**Turan** 3/7/2014, 10:47 am

The new addition basically is a big expansion and thus more thought into the patio/ roof top/ table top gardens mentioned in Chapter 17. He has thought more about what kind of soil mix those applications need and came up with his mix. So for me I find the two books give a broader set of tools for various applications.

drrub 3/7/2014, 12:22 pm

Guess I need to get the new book. made mine with Vermic, Peat Moss, Compost, Store bought garden soil mix, and good (bad) ole dirt. about 1 part each. Will keep adding Mel's mix to it as its too late to start over. Planted peas, onions, radishes, and carrots already. Guess you can teach a new old gardner new tricks.

**Turan** 3/7/2014, 12:48 pm

Depends on your native soil. If it is good soil there is no need to label it as bad unless you want to use it in ways it is not suited for, like table tops.

Triciasgarden 3/7/2014, 12:55 pm

There are plenty of us who did the original sfg method, me included. I made a new bed last year using home made compost, vermiculite and peat moss. Boy that was sure nice MM (Mel's Mix) and my plants grew very well. I would like to eventually change out all the beds but that will take some time and money.

drrub 3/7/2014, 5:58 pm

The soil here in this part of Va. has a heavy clay base. I added quiet a bit of sand to my mix as well. Just having some fun when I called it bad as someone posted you don't need soil in Mels new mix. I love my gardens and have always gotten a lot of veggies out of a small area.

Marc Iverson 3/7/2014, 11:25 pm

walshevak wrote: $glad you\'re here$ There are many changes from the original SFG book and the 2nd edition. In particular, Mel's Mix. No tilling, no digging. Go to the home page and then look at the left side. You will see a column of bobbly humps. Hover your cursor over them and click into what looks interesting.

Kay

Hey,well that's weird. I no longer get that on Firefox. Could it be launched by illiweb.com?

**walshevak** 3/7/2014, 11:41 pm

drrub wrote:The soil here in this part of Va. has a heavy clay base. I added quiet a bit of sand to my mix as well. Just having some fun when I called it bad as someone posted you don't need soil in Mels new mix. I love my gardens and have always gotten a lot of veggies out of a small area.

That red clay in VA actually is very nutritious, but such a pain to work with. I gardened in Fairfax for 15 years and got good crops, fortunately when I was much younger. Best year was when I covered the winter garden with newspaper and the leaves from the yard and hired a tiller to rototill them in when spring came. Otherwise, I dug the entire 15x20 row garden by hand. UGG! I do remember one year I dug in a few big bags of perlite.

Kay

Sponsored content

A New Old Gardner

A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner

A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner

A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner

Re: A New Old Gardner


	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.