Let's Hear Your SFG Story!

There was a post about everyone username, very interesting post. Now lets hear how you started SFG.

I know for myself, my office neighbor was looking into starting a garden and was talking about SFG. Lucky for me he was doing all the research and I grabbed his ideas. He ordered the two SFG books and I kept borrowing them until I bought my own book. For me it was an easy choice. I didn't have any land, I live in an appartment. The idea of starting a garden was not even in my mind. After reading the book I thought, Wow, I can do that if I can just find a small place to put the beds. Lucky for me I have a friend who is letting me use her yard. Now, I think she will be my first SFG convert.

Several times I have gone to check on the garden and her neighbor was standing their admiring the beds. I teased him and said "ha, I thought it was the rabbits getting into my garden but now I know better". He just laughed.

For me, SFG was very inviting because, well because of the whole idea. It is so simple and easy and no work. It fits well in my busy work schedule. I spend about 5 minutes a day and about a half hour on Saturday in my garden. What can a row gardener say? Oh my back, my knees and so many weeds!

I hope everyone is enjoying their SFG, Thanks to Mel!

Little Thumb

I was visiting my son in Sacramento in March. He had discovered SFG, and I do not know how. Probably his own online ramblings. I had remembered reading about it years ago and the more we talked about it the more excited I got. I helped him set up his first bed and I could not wait to leave to get started on my own. Now when I think of visiting them I mentally time how long I can be away from my garden!

He definitely created a monster. But we have been sending emails with pics back and forth and that has been fun, too.

After borrowing a tiller for a couple of years, I decided I wanted my own.

Cut to man wandering Lowe's in a state of shock after checking prices on rear tine tillers. I ended up at the book section and found the All New Square Foot Gardening book that saved me $600 on a piece of machinery I really didn't need.

Squat_Johnson -- did you later spend that $600 on SFG supplies?

I got the first SFG book from the library. It talked about amending the existing soil. It was a little over my head at the time. I also was dealing with a traditional farming family that couldn't understand the concept of SFG.
This year I went into a Dollar General and found the new edition of Mel's book for $5. I was sold. Where we live now I just didn't have the space for a big garden, but had places for SFG's! The MM was easier to follow for me than amending existing soil. We are doing some landscaping now and I am contemplating an English Garden SFG for next year!! Plus mom and dad are making a deck with composite boards. I have begged for any leftovers!!! While visions of SFG's are dancing in my head!! Stay tuned.........

We are all ears and eyes.................

My daughter saw the strawberry pyramid and begged for one at $80 not in my budget. So wandering the web last year I showed her the sfg's and she was sold.

We built the strawberry box recently while the neighbor helped, I bought a drill and still struggling to build boxes on my own.

Last year we had 3 4 x4 and one 2 x8 for vine things and the 4 1x2 for berries and 1x2 for peanuts.

This year bought more wood to make 9 more 4 x4 2 more 2 x8 and 3 more 1 x2.

I had dreams of butterfly concrete storms until last night all the new concrete is ruined $50 down the drain. I bought it and didn't realize we would get a freak unplanned storm. Before I could get it inside out of the rain, it was ruined even being under a top. I'm heartbroken.

Last year my son gave permission for me to try a veggie garden. Its his home and land, I just built my own in-law apt in his daylight basement after losing my darling husband. I remembered seeing Mel's tv shows many years ago and thought that would be the best way to go since I didn't want to have to till every year. I found this site, and the rest is history.

I got the book, bought the lumber for 12" beds, my son put them together for me after sod-cutting a large enuf area in the back yard so I wouldn't have weed problems.

Here's the beginning last year. Behind the little white pickets is my mounded strawberry bed. I put in two more of the same at the back side of the garden where I tried potatoes and corn and annual flowers last year.

This year its going to be cucumbers, squashes, and melons in the long back mounds. You see, I had leftover loam from the 6 cu yds I had delivered to fill my original nine 4 by 4 beds.


Its been a learning experience and this, my 2nd year, is wonderful.

Here are some hardening off on the garden bench.
This year I started my own crops under shop lights and on a heat mat and I had so many I gave some away already and more are going to the library plant sale so they can buy more books. I'm also getting more out of my garden having learned about cool-weather crops that can be started in the summer for another fall crop.

There's nothing half as good as harvesting your own crops, fresh and tasty, from plants you've grown with your own hands. I love it.

quiltbea wrote:Last year my son gave permission for me to try a veggie garden.

I'll bet your son does not regret that decision!

I built my 4 5X10 raised beds last year but was only able to fill 2 of them with a mixture of dirt and compost (I didn't know about SFG yet). They did great but I didn't get any harvest because of rats. Turns out the city was completely redoing the sewers about 1/4 mile away and the rats liked my yard. We killed over 15 in one weekend with 2 traps. I was worried about poison because one of my dogs caught a poison mole years ago and is now deaf and blind from the poison. But when the city offered me free poison traps I could not resist. So far so good but their favorites have not come in yet.
My endeavor into SFG started with an ecology class I took (at age 45 I decided to go back to college to get the degree I never finished). I fell in love with my garden and the out doors all over again. When I received a 40% off coupon to Borders I knew I wanted a gardening book. I found SFG and read it in one weekend then spent the rest of the week finding the materials I needed to fill my 2 empty beds.
I got a late start this year but I look forward to comparing my other beds (which will be emptied after this year to make way for more MM.) and the other concoctions I have come up with including MM, lasagna gardening, and self watering containers I made then filled with potting soil, compost, lime and perlite.

Oh man ... I'm loving all of these stories! Thanks for starting this thread.

4 summers ago, I tore out the grass along my neighbor's garage and put in a kinda, sorta row type garden. Small. It managed 4 great tomato plants (more than enough for daily eating/cooking for a family of 3 in my opinion) some lettuce, spinach, peas...a couple peppers. Last year, I went into a depression, just couldn't find motivation or enjoyment outdoors. I felt overwhelmed by being a stay at home Mom, and like there just wasn't anything for me out there. The weeds took over, my plants did poorly, I couldn't really put the tomatoes back in the same spot again this year...I mean, this would be 5 years in the same spot. I'm not even sure what questions I was googling that kept popping up in some context "square foot gardening". I think I began researching raised beds to neaten the area up and potentially "contain" my mess of a garden. I found the forums, I had gotten theh book, and suddenly I became swept up in the idea of the simplicity and neatness of it. It seemed to fit well into my desire for order. Anyway, fast forward to today, and I am using my first year as my experiment year, and already have gleened ideas for what I've done wrong and how to improve next year. I did cheat and only use one type of compost (composted cow manure) and am paying a bit of a price. It's still doing nicely enough, with some things being a big success over previous years, and other's being a strange, mystical failure....(stunted crops, bolting seedlings....things just not moving beyond the point that they're at) Anyway, it's a wonderful hobby and a joy. I think I might even attempt to drop my CSA membership next year, and get this garden going right and proper....first I have to call the city and have them lop off most of my neighbor's junk trees as they are shading my garden way way too much this year. Lucky for me, they also are touching the power lines.

Oh this is interesting.........

My story, well - I grew up in the country and have fond memories of it. I so wish my family was in the country now, but we're smack in the middle of town. Sigh.
A friend of mine told me about this SFG thing (actually raised bed gardening) and so I researched it and was sold. Well, no that's not true. I wasn't completely sold, but thought I'd give a few small beds a try. After 2 4'x4' and 1 2'x4' bed I am SOLD! I love it. It is neat looking, there is very little weeding, and it makes gardening so enjoyable. Now I have a little slice of country right here in town!

I first heard about Square Foot Gardening in an issue of Organic Gardening magazine over 20 years ago. I don't remember if I read all of the original book but I started with uncontained raised beds and planted in square foot blocks. I thought that it would be nice someday to be able to share it with others.
After several years at that residence I moved to a house with no garden area. Being short on cash, I had composted cow manure delivered from a local dairy. Neighbors saw the large pile and asked where I got the great topsoil : ) I formed it
into beds right on top of the lawn on the sunniest side of the backyard and I put straw in the paths to kill off the grass. Two of the beds were smaller – one for each of my children. They chose what to plant and planted, maintained, and harvested their small gardens.
I moved again and this house had contained raised beds. Knowing I would be there temporarily I used most Square Foot Garden methods there. I say most because I had not yet used grids and hadn't seen the importance of them.
Three years ago I moved to my present house where I put in four 4 x 4 beds using 2 x 6 and 2 x 8 Douglas Fir. The next year I added more beds so I have eight 4 x4 beds (two for strawberries), two 2 x 4 beds for perennial herbs, two 2 x2 beds
for rhubarb, two 2 x 10 beds for raspberries and blackberries, one 2 x 2 for potatoes, one 2 x 2 for sunchokes, and two 2 x 4 beds for asparagus. I read and own the updated version of the book. I now use grids made from lath and see the importance of having them. I also built trellises like in the book and I love them!
I am thrilled that I could be a Certified Teacher and I love sharing Square Foot Gardening with others.
I had mentioned Square Foot Gardening to my dad but he really wasn't interested. He grew up on a farm and I was raised on an acre where we gardened the traditional way. Eventually he understood the benefits and now he shares Square Foot Gardening with almost everyone he meets. He also builds 2 x 4 boxes on legs for people he knows that would benefit by having a higher box.

What wonderful stories. I love reading everyone's different experiences. I hope to see more here.

And YES, my son loves the fresh produce. My wonderful Dau-in-law is a great cook and puts it all to good use. Some of this food I'd never eat except she can make it soooo tasty, I love it.

Now if only I could talk my son into building a chicken coop (we're on 6 1/2 acres, mostly wooded) for fresh eggs and I'll be as close to Heaven as one could get without packing it in.

Wow...definitely some great stories! I found myself smiling as I read them.

As for me, (I'll try to keep this short, but sometimes I ramble...lol) I am a frugal mom from Idaho who uses coupons to save 50%-90% on my grocery bill each month. I have been couponing for a year and a half and have gotten to the point where I spend about $150/mo on EVERYTHING my family of 5 needs to keep our household running (food, cleaning supplies, makeup, toiletries, diapers, OTC medicine, EVERYTHING). I swear I'm not trying to advertise myself and this really is part of the story, but if you want to learn more about how YOU can save your family some serious money on groceries, check out my blog at http://AlisCouponAdventures.blogspot.com.

Any way, so I had gotten to where I was saving a lot of money for my family with coupons, but I wanted to take it to the next level. I knew growing my own veggies was a guaranteed method to saving my family more money. We just so happened to buy our first house this year (in March) and our back yard was just begging for a garden. We live in a subdivision and our back yard is big for a subdivision, but small in general. Especially since we still wanted lots of room for the kids to play and eventually get them a big wooden jungle gym thing in the backyard. So, I already knew I wanted raised garden beds, as that just seemed to make the most sense and was the most aesthetically pleasing (had to satisfy the HOA somehow). I got two 4x6 beds, filled them with dirt/compost mixture and got everything planted in the middle to late April. It wasn't until about a week ago that I actually stumbled across SFG and started researching it. I am totally hooked! I wish I had learned about this sooner before I had already gotten my beds started! I ordered my book which should be here today and I can't wait to learn anything and everything about SFG! Now comes the uneasy task of converting to new soil for next year. I am not sure if I will be able to afford to do both beds, but I figure if I can convert one bed next year and one the following year that would be good. I also plan to add on another 4x6 bed next year. I think that pretty much maxes out my available space, but I can definitely fit in more containers!

I am learning SOOOO much from these forums and truly enjoy it. I already know so many things to do differently next year and I look forward to seeing the difference between this year (with regular raised beds and regular soil) and next year with the true MM and marking off the squares. I also look forward to seeing how much more I can slash from my family's monthly grocery budget with all of the great produce over the summer. Hopefully during the summer I can find a way to only spend about $75/mo for my family.

Keep the stories coming!

silverbug reminded me of another 'benefit' of SFG. I had slid into a severe depression after my husband of 31 years walked out, stunning everyone. I had been struggling to bother waking up for 18 months when my son got me started on this simply through example. It is the first thing that I have done in all of that time to bring me any kind of joy or excitement. It has really reawakened my enthusiasm for life.

Thank heaven for SFG.

I was on facebook and a "friend" of mine posted "My husband just bought me the Square Foot Gardening book" The first thing that came to mind was a square shaped foot, as in the one with toes , and so I had to look it up, quickly realizing it meant dimensions . Anyways, I researched, and researched, and became obsessed. I rented the book at the library, bought a composite bed from Lowe's and filled it, and now my garden is thriving (well most of it is). Last year, I was proud of myself to grow 2 tomato plants, some jalapenos, and 2 zucchini plants in plain soil. Now I have over 20 container plants (mostly my herbs), a 4x12 SFG bed, a 6 foot wide, 3 tiered strawberry bed, an asparagus bed, and a bunch of flowers planted. I might build a herb garden in the next few days so I don't have so many containers. Next year I plan on expanding even more, possibly adding two 3x12. We'll see.

lisaphoto wrote:I was on facebook and a "friend" of mine posted "My husband just bought me the Square Foot Gardening book" The first thing that came to mind was a square shaped foot, as in the one with toes , and so I had to look it up, quickly realizing it meant dimensions . Anyways, I researched, and researched, and became obsessed. I rented the book at the library, bought a composite bed from Lowe's and filled it, and now my garden is thriving (well most of it is). Last year, I was proud of myself to grow 2 tomato plants, some jalapenos, and 2 zucchini plants in plain soil. Now I have over 20 container plants (mostly my herbs), a 4x12 SFG bed, a 6 foot wide, 3 tiered strawberry bed, an asparagus bed, and a bunch of flowers planted. I might build a herb garden in the next few days so I don't have so many containers. Next year I plan on expanding even more, possibly adding two 3x12. We'll see.

I would love to see pics of your space! Sounds great!

Aha! Duh! Because of the facebook post I posted a little blurb with picture about SFG and one person is actually inquiring about it. Great idea.

Facebook is awesome! I keep trying to convert people -actually most of my friends would never garden at all, but I have a few interested. I know I need to post some pics now that everything is up and growing (though it's not as impressive as it sounds)

I also encountered the concept of Square Foot Gardening a long time ago -- 19 years, I think, since that's how long I've been living on my current property. As I may have mentioned before, DH and I live on the sandhills of South Carolina. To quote the South Carolina Forestry Commission, "The region is characterized by deep sands with generally arid conditions. It consists of . . . infertile sand deposited by a prehistoric sea." So there, in a nutshell, is the reason why Square Foot Gardening was so attractive all those years ago: I found myself living on arid, infertile sand and I wanted to grow things -- organically.

At the time, I was also broke. I gathered what ingredients I could for the first 4 x 4, but couldn't afford to buy anything. I also quickly discovered that organic concepts were foreign in these here parts, y'all. Compost? You bought 10-10-10. Why would you ever want to fool with anything else? Even the extension service had no clue.

My first Square Foot bed was not terribly productive. Most of the plants I tried to grow in it did not thrive. I later found out that this was probably for the best, because I had been given by a neighbor what I believed was wood ash (to combat the high acidity of this environment), but it turned out he had also burned a lot of ceiling acoustical tiles in his fireplace. Heaven only knows what contaminants were in that original bed!

Following that failure, I decided to really study things organic and work on improving my two acres of sand, and that has been my blessing and burden ever since. I don't regret any of it for a second. We have beautiful flowers, earthworms, birds nesting nearby despite our multiple cats, a healthy microherd, pollinators, beneficials, toads, and predatory insects. Some plants grow very well in our amended, replaced, and lasagnaed areas -- but not tomatoes, and we really love vine-ripened tomatoes. Every year the tomatoes get sick as soon as the really hot, humid summer weather sets in, and by the time any fruits are of harvestable size, the plants are virtually dead and their fruits sunscalded. And most other veggie-type crops are never really happy. Many just limp along and never bear much of anything. And the weeds!!!!

So this year, wanting to grow more of our own food, DH and I decided to give Square Foot Gardening another look, and this time do it right. We read the new book and were entranced by the possibilities. We invested in four beautiful 4 x 4 cedar raised beds from Naturalyards and built four 2 x 4s of our own. We have yet to install the fourth of the cedar beds (have to dig it into a hillside), but we have seven beds with veggies growing and thriving, including -- so far -- tomatoes. Some of our beds are filled with Mel's Mix (which we mixed ourselves), others with an organic purchased mix (Dixie Mix, locally produced). It will be interested to see how the two mixes compare. We're just now getting around to putting up the trellises. When that's done, we'll post photos.

Oh, yes, we also have two EarthBoxes, and the tomatoes in them are growing gangbusters as well.

That's probably more than anyone ever wanted to know about how I got into square foot gardening, but since you asked . . .

Over the winter I read a newspaper article about some people who were involved with inner-city ubran gardening and maximizing the way they used limited amounts of space. I thought it was a neat idea so I googled urban gardening (or something like that), stumbled across SFG and decided to explore that a bit further.

I checked the book out of my library and read through it and found myself getting sucked in as if I had just discovered a cult!!! I subsequently bought the book and started with two garden boxes. Not having been fully indoctrinated into this cult and remaining a bit skeptical still, I did some traditional planting in my community garden plot but I'm prepared to go "all in" next year if things go as planned!!!