Poll: How Many Squares Do You Have?

**Scorpio Rising** 3/20/2016, 4:57 pm

Curiosity as I peruse the archives; interested in how many squares our members have, and part 2; What are your top 5 priority plants?

Me: Not enough! I have about 34 squares, but my boxes aren't squares, they are re-purposed window boxes, so they are varying lengths and about 18 inches instead of 12 inches wide, so a bit of a conundrum. Am building my first actual 4x4 this spring! Maybe 2!

Priority Plants? Tomatoes, Peppers, Beans, Potatoes, and salad leaves (cheated, spinach, lettuces, chard, etc.)

Spill, SFGers! Poll: How Many Squares Do You Have? 3170584802

Poll: How Many Squares Do You Have? 3170584802

yolos 3/20/2016, 6:24 pm

Here is an older thread asking the same question about the number of squares. But it is a couple years old so many SFGers may have added more squares since that time.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9390-how-many-square-feet-do-you-have?highlight=square

My priority plants - Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Southern Peas, Shell Peas, Beans.

Number of Square Feet = 380 last time I added it up.

**sanderson** 3/20/2016, 6:31 pm

Finally have 103 squares, plus pots, totes and special use containers. Nine (9) of the squares have a bad case of weeds so I can't use them until I solve the problem.

Summer: Tomatoes, peppers, "green" beans, winter squash and melons.
Winter: Swiss chard, kale, onions, garlic, and broccoli.

Is this considered cheating? Laughing

**Scorpio Rising** 3/20/2016, 6:39 pm

Absolutely not! lol!

CapeCoddess 3/20/2016, 6:41 pm

ANSFG squares = 131
Old school SFG = 24

Now to the hard part. If I could only grow 5, what would they beeeeeeee....
thinking

1) collards
2) kale or beets
3) lettuce
4) Sugar Snap peas
5) Sungold tomatoes

You can't believe how many times I changed this 2nd part....like there's no more lines for garlic and onions. Sad

And the poor green beans....

CapeCoddess 3/20/2016, 6:42 pm

Hey, wait a minute...we can cheat???
Poll: How Many Squares Do You Have? 931411784

I feel better now.

jmsmall 3/20/2016, 6:51 pm

The wife and I just went out and paced off our garden area that we planted last year for the first time. It looks like about 150 squares! Goodness sakes.

Then down below we have a berry bed and a "squash mountain".

We obviously have some serious planning to do and soon.

Jim

**Scorpio Rising** 3/20/2016, 7:03 pm

CapeCoddess wrote:Hey, wait a minute...we can cheat???

I feel better now.

Cheat away! Lol

Jim, that is amazing! What do you have as your "must grow" plants?

jmsmall 3/20/2016, 9:34 pm

My "must grow" list...
Tomatoes, a few types (Denver is tough!)
Lots of greens (kales, chards, turnips, collards for the southern wife)
Peppers
scarlet runner beans (grow over a decorative "arch")
Eggplants
summer squashes green and yellow, maybe delicata too
Radishes (they are fun)
Flowers: Nasturtiums and Marigolds at least
some herbs
Broccoli, cauliflower
cabbages
tomatillos
colored leaf lettuces
Maybe's:
turnips

I'm a paleo/low carb kind of guy so not planning on much in the way of beans, starches.

Jim
(PaleoPathologist.com)

landarch 3/20/2016, 10:10 pm

Community Garden Plot: 88 squares
Home SFG: 100 squares
25' long SFG-type trellis...The Legume Tower of Power (sugar snap peas now then tomatoes and cukes later).

audrey.jeanne.roberts 3/20/2016, 10:38 pm

166 sq ft.

2, 4x8 low table tops
3, 4x4 high table tops
1, 5x10 raised bed

And of course it's never enough, lol! Wink

Then we have really good base soil that's sandy loam so we have created in ground beds using no-till, heavy mulching of the beds and composting right on top of the beds over the winter. I use them for my large, heavy feeding plants like squash. We grow tons of winter squash, zucchini, strawberries, rhubarb, raspberries, beans and tomatoes there where they can spread out. It's about 50 x 15 or so.

ralitaco 3/21/2016, 12:46 am

CapeCoddess wrote:Hey, wait a minute...we can cheat???

I feel better now.

I'll be honest...using the SFG method feels like cheating to start with. Smile

Plus, my beds are all table tops so that's like double cheating. Very Happy

I have 2 - 2x8's = 32 squares and 1 - 4x4 = 16 squares for 48 total.
I plan to add 2 more 2x8's this summer.

My top 5:
1. Slicing tomatoes
2. Cherry tomatoes
3. Bell peppers
3. Lettuce
4. Zucchini
5. Something that will run up and over my trellises

**sanderson** 3/21/2016, 2:38 am

RT, Talking about cheating, I just noticed you have two #3's! Razz

**Scorpio Rising** 3/21/2016, 8:10 am

that is funny!

**AtlantaMarie** 3/21/2016, 8:51 am

Currently I have 241 sq, most of which are covered by grass & weeds as I was lazy & didn't do fall cleanup... Good lesson to start small and work up as Mel suggests. But being the CDO folks that both DH & I are, once we got started, we didn't stop. And we still have room for 3 more 4x12 beds. This doesn't include the containers on the deck.

(You know what CDO is, right? It's OCD in it's proper alphabetical order!)

My must have's: Tomatoes, bells, okra, cantaloupe, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, watermelon, peas, beans, herbs...

No_Such_Reality 3/21/2016, 9:53 am

i have 32 squares in four small boxes, plus a collection of various pots. I blame the low number of squares for failure since I tend to try ad 'squeeze' an extra in.

Summer season
-------------------
Improved telegraph cukes
Melons
Tomatoes
Green beans
Peppers

Cool Season
----------------
Onions
Garlic
Lettuce/Spinach
Carrots
summer carryover

Last year I kept a Anaheim pepper plant over winter it's been decimated by the slugs but as the heat comes back I'm hoping it bounces back. This year I lost a couple squares to a volunteer tomato.

I've only been gardening since I started SFG about the time I joined the forum. I still haven't adjusted to the Orange County planting schedule compared to the northern midwest. It's January, I'm looking to snow capped mountains thinking skiing while I apparently should be starting my watermelon seeds indoors.

ralitaco 3/21/2016, 11:42 am

sanderson wrote:RT, Talking about cheating, I just noticed you have two #3's!

You caught me!!
I was wondering how long I could go w/o being caught

p14shooter 3/21/2016, 12:46 pm

by comparison I do not have as many as some. Lets see how this year goes and may expand next. I have 32 squares in 2 4x4. not including my separate patch of garlic and hopefully onions, which I suppose you could equate to 5 more squares.

Gotta have this year
1 garlic
2 radish
3 gold dust bean
4 gold mine bean
5 gold rush bean

What can I say. I like beans.

johnp 3/21/2016, 12:59 pm

As of today I have 100 sqs. ready to plant. I have 144 sqs. cleaned out but not recharged yet. I also have a 4x8 of raspberries and two clumps of rhubarb. Oh and one 4x4 of garlic. Then I have my two containers for tomatoes in case of hail. Of the 100, 20 are in the greenhouse for sweet potatoes and gourds.

Must have: Tomatoes, kale, beets, lettuce, tomatillo's, serrano peppers. That's 5 right.

katjohn83 3/21/2016, 1:38 pm

For me its a gross. 144 squares. + 10 5 gallon buckets.

Top priority in order:

1. Tomatoes
2. Squash/Zucchini
3. Okra
4. Peppers
5. Greens

**trolleydriver** 3/21/2016, 4:30 pm

After looking at all the numbers in the previous posts I had to laugh at my own attempt at SFG. Last year was my first year with SFG and I had a grand total of ... wait for it ... drum roll please ... 32 squares. darn funny

I am planning more for this year but I will never ever achieve the big numbers that many SFGers are reporting.
I give up!

Five things I like and that grew well in the SFG beds last year and which I will repeat this year are as follows (in no particular order):

Carrots
Lettuce
Spinach
Swiss Chard
Cucumbers

Other things I like and that did well are radishes, beets, yellow wax beans, onions, various herbs, marigolds, dusty miller.

Other things I tried last year include cabbage (did well), turnip (did well), pepper (did not do well), eggplant (complete failure).

I really like growing tomatoes but most likely will continue to grow them in my regular garden as I have had many years of success doing it that way and prefer to keep my limited number of SFG squares for other things.

**sanderson** 3/21/2016, 6:05 pm

TD, Don't feel bad, I started in 2013 with two 2' x 3' and two 2' x 4' beds, for 28 sq ft, plus some pots. I just can't stop trying to squeeze in just one more bed! Embarassed

**Scorpio Rising** 3/21/2016, 8:32 pm

So interesting! I truly don't have an official SFG since they aren't squares, yet, here I am! Lol. I look forward to a 4x4 to put a grid on! Then I will have about 50 squares...ish.

Yields out of these little gardens are just amazing. thinking

**sanderson** 3/22/2016, 3:32 am

SR, I have a bed 4' x 2.5' so there are 4 half squares plus 8 real squares. I plant the half squares with space appropriate plants. So you can count those remnant squares towards total sq ft. Wink

**Scorpio Rising** 3/22/2016, 7:40 am

sanderson wrote:SR, I have a bed 4' x 2.5' so there are 4 half squares plus 8 real squares. I plant the half squares with space appropriate plants. So you can count those remnant squares towards total sq ft.

My boxes are about 18", so I extrapolate the number of plants based on some low level algebra! 16 becomes 20, etc.

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