Plant Spacing and Soil Questions

I apologize if this question has been asked previously.

I was recently introduced to SFG and really liked the idea, so I want to try this out in my yard this year. My only experience with SFG is reading Mel's book.

I am currently planning out my SFG and deciding what I want to plant. So I went to the nursery looking at plants during the weekend and found some tomatoes and peppers I want to plant. However, I was reading the tag and it said spacing at either 24" for the peppers or 36" for the tomatoes. I know Mel recommend planting a variety of plants in a 4X4 grid, but I have limited space and would like to plant the tomatoes and peppers all in the same 4X4. I have two variety of tomatoes, and two types of peppers. I know I am supposed to plant one in each square foot, but what about spacing? Take the 36" spacing for the tomatoes for example, does that mean I plant one tomato in the first grid, leave the second and third grid empty, and plant the second tomato in the fourth grid? Or that simply means to have 36" between two tomatoes, but I can plant other plants (for example pepper) in between the two tomatoes?

My second question is about the soil. Stores like Home Depot or Lowe's carry potting soil for raised bed, but it is a mixture of peat moss, perlite, and compost. I can find a store that carries coarse vermiculite, so I plan to buy the ingredients separately and mix myself. Mel's mix recommends 5 different types of compost but most stores I went only sell chicken and steer manure. I did a search and some places sell mushroom compost. So apart from the three, what else is readily available in stores that I can add for my compost? Do earthworm casting and bone meal counts?

Again, I apologize if the questions have been asking previously. I would really appreciate some help to get my SFG started. Thank you!

Hi Bllavc,  Welcome to the Forum from Fresno!    If you have already read All New Square Foot Gardening, then you know how to make the bed and put a trellis on the north side.  What varieties of tomatoes do you want to buy?  As a beginner, you can plant 2 tomatoes in the trellis row and use the trellis to stake them up with plant clips or ties.  If they are indeterminate, you can leave 1 or 2 suckers to grow up as secondary stems.  If they are bushy or determinate, for this first year, plant each in the middle of 4 squares each (the back 2 rows).  You can plant lettuce and radishes in the same tomato squares.  They will be done for the summer by the time the tomatoes are big.

In the remaining front 8 squares, you can plant 8 peppers.  Or less than 8 and plant something else in the extra squares.  What else do you want to plant?  Using grids allows for proper spacing and efficient use of the bed.

Regarding more composts, look for Ecoscraps or Whole Foods veggie-based compost.  https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t21089-recommended-store-bought-compost-photos-of-composts?highlight=compost

Another compost that is not bad is Nature's Care Really Good Compost.  https://www.walmart.com/ip/Nature-s-Care-Really-Good-Compost-1-cu-ft/41523064

Worm castings can be added but only 10% of the total of the blended composts.  It's kind of expensive.  Check Craig's List for a local source.

Please join in on the NoCal thread. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t21089-recommended-store-bought-compost-photos-of-composts?highlight=compost

Hi Bllavc. Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Glad you're here!

Another of Mel's books is the SFG Answer Book. Your local library may carry a copy. There's good info in there as well....

And no apologies! We expect lots of questions. And we're here to help you all we can!

There's also lots of information in the archives. Or you might want to look on the Home page for your region & poke around in there for ideas & inspiration...

sanderson wrote:Hi Bllavc,  Welcome to the Forum from Fresno!    If you have already read All New Square Foot Gardening, then you know how to make the bed and put a trellis on the north side.  What varieties of tomatoes do you want to buy?  As a beginner, you can plant 2 tomatoes in the trellis row and use the trellis to stake them up with plant clips or ties.  If they are indeterminate, you can leave 1 or 2 suckers to grow up as secondary stems.  If they are bushy or determinate, for this first year, plant each in the middle of 4 squares each (the back 2 rows).  You can plant lettuce and radishes in the same tomato squares.  They will be done for the summer by the time the tomatoes are big.

In the remaining front 8 squares, you can plant 8 peppers.  Or less than 8 and plant something else in the extra squares.  What else do you want to plant?  Using grids allows for proper spacing and efficient use of the bed.

Regarding more composts, look for Ecoscraps or Whole Foods veggie-based compost.  

Another compost that is not bad is Nature's Care Really Good Compost. 

Worm castings can be added but only 10% of the total of the blended composts.  It's kind of expensive.  Check Craig's List for a local source.

Please join in on the NoCal thread. 

Thank you for the reply Sanderson!

I saw some red cherries and kellogg's breakfast at Orchard Supply. The tags say they are indeterminate, does this mean I can plant them side by side?

Since I don't have any experience with planting, I plan to start with easy plants. So apart from the tomatoes and peppers, I also plan on doing some carrots, cherry radish, lettuce. If I can plant the tomato side by side, I will probably use the other two squares to plant some cucumbers and sugar snap peas.

So my 4X4 will be something like this: trellis row with 2 tomatoes, 4 cucumbers (2 in each square), 8 sugar snaps; second row with 16 carrots, 16 cherry radishes, 8 lettuce (4 in each square); third row will be 2 peppers, 16 scallions, 16 chives, and my fourth row will probably be another row of carrots, radishes, lettuce and scallions planted two weeks after I plant my first three rows, so I have enough time to eat all the matured vegetables.

Also, thank you for the recommendation for the compost, I will do some more reading and researching.

On the side note, when I go to the nursery and look at plant seeds, a lot of them mention zones. I did some googling but some websites say I live in zone 10a, some say zone 9, do you know which zone is for San Leandro?

AtlantaMarie wrote:Hi Bllavc.  Welcome from Atlanta, GA!  Glad you're here!

Another of Mel's books is the SFG Answer Book.  Your local library may carry a copy.  There's good info in there as well....

And no apologies!  We expect lots of questions.  And we're here to help you all we can!

There's also lots of information in the archives.  Or you might want to look on the Home page for your region & poke around in there for ideas & inspiration...

Greetings, AtlantaMarie!

I will check out the SFG Answer Book at my local library when I have time. Thank you for the information. There is an abundance of information on the forum, and it is a lot to read and go through, especially since I know nothing about planting or gardening. XD But I am enjoying the learning process, though I do wish there are more stickies for newbies.

It looks like San Leandro is Zone 10, because of the mild winter. I notice garlic isn't even on the planting list for different months. Check out gardenate.com for Zone 10A.

Four Season lettuce is suppose to tolerate a wide range of temps. I gave up on spinach and went with New Zealand spinach. While it is not a real spinach, it tastes and and has the same nutrient range of spinach. It is also weather tolerant and fairly resistant to disease and insects.

As far as planting 2 indeterminate tomatoes in adjoining squares, you will have to learn how to prune suckers and keep them to the mother stem and only a couple daughter stems. They can really get tall so a 6-8 high trellis may be needed.

Check out https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t21259-carrot-week-2017?highlight=carrot

sanderson wrote:It looks like San Leandro is Zone 10, because of the mild winter.  I notice garlic isn't even on the planting list for different months.  Check out gardenate.com for Zone 10A.

Four Season lettuce is suppose to tolerate a wide range of temps.  I gave up on spinach and went with New Zealand spinach.  While it is not a real spinach, it tastes and and has the same nutrient range of spinach.  It is also weather tolerant and fairly resistant to disease and insects.

As far as planting 2 indeterminate tomatoes in adjoining squares, you will have to learn how to prune suckers and keep them to the mother stem and only a couple daughter stems.  They can really get tall so a 6-8 high trellis may be needed.

Check out  https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t21259-carrot-week-2017?highlight=carrot  

Thanks for the clarification. I've already bookmarked gardenate.com from a previous forum post I read. It is really useful and I am going to use that to help me out when I finally start planting. Things have been going crazy and I finally got my box and all my compost ready, (the vermiculite database is not as accurate as I hoped, and a lot of the store-bought composts mentioned in the post are not available in the stores in a 20mile radius) hopefully, I can finish mixing it tomorrow before the rain comes.

The carrot week post was fun and informative to read, thank you for the link. I think I'll try the short variety this time (if I can find the seed) to save me the time for doing a top hat.

I'll try to find four season lettuce, that will make a nice shopping trip when the rain comes and I can't work the yard. I'm not a fan of spinach (don't like the irony taste), so I might skip the advice on New Zealand spinach this time.

Again, thank you so much for your help, it took off the stress of trying something new and I really look forward to my own SFG.

I'm glad I could help.  Orchard Supply carries Renee's Seeds. https://www.reneesgarden.com/products/lettuce-heirloom-merveille-de-quatre-saisons

https://www.reneesgarden.com/products/carrot-french-baby-babette