Greetings from Old York

Hi everyone, 

I'm Rupert, from York in the UK. I've been interested in SFG for some years now, and messed around a little with raised beds at my last place. We moved to a town in October 2019 and in January 2020 I got an allotment. Over 2020 I've gradually been moving it from flat patch of weeds to my wanted design. I've gone a bit overboard, and installed sixteen 8 x 4 foot raised beds. They take up half my plot and I intended to rotate on a 4 year plan, but using SFG. The other half of my plot now has a 6 x 8 shed, and a 6 x 8 glasshouse. I have two 1000l IBCs for water with more to come, and have planned that hald for a 10 x 20 polytunnel and also fixed beds of asparagus, artichoke, soft fruit and rhubarb. There will also be space for a 4 x 8 2 bay composting area. I got all my seeds ordered for next year, and potato sets, so very excited to get started. 

However, I got the latest edition of SFG for Christmas and am slightly overwhelmed and a bit worried too! You see, I had to do all the above on a budget, so my first mistake was filling my beds. I just bulk bought garden waste compost, and filled them all with that. I now see that 'Mel's Mix' is central to the principles of SFG. So, I am hoping for any advice here. My current plan regarding this is: 
1. plant this year into the current beds, as I have no choice. 
2. Empty a single bed and invest in the three-way mix as laid out in the book to fill just one of my 16 beds. 
3. Start making garden compost over the next 12 months. 
4. Begin to swap the contents of the beds over time to Mel's Mix. 
Does this sound like a good plan, or does anyone have any advice further, thank you. 

The other thing I found quite confusing was that the examples plantings with SFG have all sorts of different plant types in the same box. I originally was going to have 4 boxes for Pots, 4 boxes for Legumes, 4 boxes for Brassica and 4 boxes for Onion/Roots. Then I was going to rotate on a 4 year plan. As I have the space would doing this be alright? Or do I need to spread my varying plant families throughout the same boxes please. 

Lastly I wondered if any of you use and could recommend a garden planning program or app for phone or PC please. I am currently using one called Garden Planner from GrowVeg which seems alright, and as I've just found out has a section for SFG as well. 

Well, thanks for reading, and looking forward to learning from you all, and getting planting!

Happy New Year, 

Rupert 

I do not plant different squares with different veggie types in the same bed.  I predominately fill each bed with one type of veggie.  For instance, in a 2 x 8 bed I plant my pole Rattlesnake Beans.  In a 4 x 8 bed I plant broccoli.  In another 4 x 8 bed I plant Pink eye purple hull peas.  etc.  The different types of veggies require different watering procedures and different pests eating them, etc.  Therefore I like to group like vegetables together.

Hi Rupert. Welcome to the party from the SE USA!

The reasoning behind mixing the different plants is to confuse bad bugs. Some folks follow it, some don't. It's up to you. I WILL say that if you are planting different varieties of the same plant (tomatoes, for instance) and you're wanting to save seeds for the next year, you need to have them separated by a good amount so that there is no cross-pollination.

Sounds like you have a good plan in place to replace with MM. One step at a time....

I am a contented user of the Garden Planner as well.  I have been using it for the past four years and have found it to be extremely useful.  I'm beginning to learn how to use the accompanying Garden Journal which are now connected in the new Flash-less version of the Garden Planner. (Yay!)  All I can say is that the longer you use the planner and the better acquainted you get with it, the more useful it will be.  For example, for next year's garden, --if you create a follow-on plan-- it will tell you exactly where you planted plants from the same family when you select this year's carrots, or broccoli, or whatever.  Without having to go back and look, (or remember) you'll see where not to put them again.  

As for companion planting, I find that I can group similar things together (cabbages) and throw in some flowers (borage, marigolds, celosia) simply to attract pollinators and predators and enjoy what seem to be about the same results as mixing everything up.  And this way I get the viewing pleasure of the flower garden in the cabbage patch!

As far as that goes, the garden planner will also tell you what plants benefit from being grown together or near each other.  As far as I've been able to learn, they actually only recommend what research has indicated to benefit the plant companions, and not the "handed down wisdom" (old wives tales?) you can find all over the internet.

Welcome, Rupert!  You have come to the right place for expert advice on intensive spaced gardening and SFG!  

I think your interim plan sounds good, will give you time to get everything you need together.  

I don’t use a planner but do keep detailed notes as every year is different.  I don’t have near the SF you have though!  I do know traditional crop rotation isn’t necessary with SFG, but certain crops don’t like each other.  

I try to put brassicas together so I can cover them since they don’t need pollination.  

Keep us posted!

Hello Rupert:  Welcome to the Forum. Filling all your beds with Mel's Mix to start off would cost you a fortune.  Doing it over time as you are is a great plan.

Look forward to seeing your results as mixing so much mix is a huge task.   We love pictures.

Hi Rupert,
Welcome to SFG.

Read your post and depending on the depth of your raised beds. I  only have  6 I am afraid, mine are 1 mtr & 900m deep and  (6'x2' & 8'x2') I had simalar problem a lot of Mels mix I thought  , so i partially filled each one with mixure of compost - both garden & coir mix & horse maunure & garden soil 
on top of cardboard. I guess they were around half filled like this I then added approx 200mm ( 8" ) of Mels mix, that's all the time & cost I could do. Next year topped beds up with 100mm ( 4" ) Mels Mix and have done this for two years. Levels in the raised beds at the moment is about 100mm ( 4" ) / 150mm (6") from the top of the bed. For Mels mix the main items are Coir / Mushroom spent compost / vermicular plus varius fertilisers like chick & seaweed pellets.
I mix all in a barrow then shovel into the beds. For potatoes and carrots I use same mix but no vermicular and grow these in 250mm ( 10" ) black plastic buckets. Overall reasonalbe success some good years other not so good, buy thats gardening.
Regarding planting - which is all SFG I mix some beds and others single type of crop.


Regards
From Sunny Ayrshire 

Robert

When I started I used mixed beds as I had only two 4x4s.

 Later on some beds were all of one crop as I wanted to process them for storage, such as dehydrating,  freezing or canning. 

Then I changed the size of my beds to 6 x 3 as I am a small woman and in danger of falling into the 4 x 4s when weeding.