Vinyl Grid

Inca Heat 9/24/2010, 9:08 pm

Is there somewhere that sells what appears to be untreated vinyl like:

http://squarefootgardening.mybisi.com/product/sfg-grid-4x4-vinyl

in an Agway, Lowe's, etc?

Megan 9/24/2010, 9:12 pm

I used to work at one of the big box stores, and I don't recall a product like that, but that may not mean anything. Wood lath, though, is readily available. (And hello and welcome to the forum! Very Happy

$glad you\'re here$ )

boffer 9/24/2010, 9:23 pm

I agree: a grid is mandatory.

BUT: For my fifth year of SFG, I tried nylon string, and it's better than the re-bar, mahogany lath, plastic baseboard, 3/8 round scraps welded together, and vinyl blinds that I have used in the past.

I know Mel doesn't like string, but I do!

acara 9/24/2010, 9:24 pm

x1 ... havent seen that in the box stores.

I used the composite wall molding on mine though & that worked great (and is cheap)

Inca Heat 9/24/2010, 9:26 pm

Megan wrote:I used to work at one of the big box stores, and I don't recall a product like that, but that may not mean anything. Wood lath, though, is readily available. (And hello and welcome to the forum! $glad you\'re here$ )

I used basic wood lathe, and boy is it gnarled up after a long hot summer. Thats why I was asking about the vinyl product, if it was available perhaps in a raw form off the internet, would be good. I didn't think about string, but that sounds interesting as well.

How do you border off the squares with string?

elliephant 9/24/2010, 9:31 pm

I'll tell you how I did it with yarn (leftover from craft projects).

I got little (1/4 inch long) screws and screwed them in every foot, leaving just enough room to slip the yarn under. Then I tied the yard around those.

Megan 9/24/2010, 9:33 pm

Inca Heat wrote:How do you border off the squares with string?

I used green garden twine (the sort that comes on a reel at the big box store and costs a dollar or two) myself. I put screws in, wrapped the twine, then screwed it the rest of the way. A few pieces eventually broke, but it gave me the delineation I wanted. I thought about eyehooks but I was afraid I'd trip on them. (I have landscape timbers, not boards.)

Steve144 9/25/2010, 3:35 am

I agree, as Mel says, "If it don't have a grid, then it's not a Square Foot Garden!"

The one thing I don't like is sagging and untidy grids. I have constructed my grids from PVC pipe. They are relatively inexpensive and yet, maintain the "prominent and permanent" characteristics that Mel speaks of in the book. The parts are readily available to anyone with a few tools.

Steve Earls

Garden Angel 9/25/2010, 9:50 am

We used clothesline from the dollar store , I guess it is meant to be out side and will hold up. Just used a staple gun to secure it tight to the box ,I like the string too!

Old Hippie 9/25/2010, 10:13 am

SEarls wrote:I agree, as Mel says, "If it don't have a grid, then it's not a Square Foot Garden!"

The one thing I don't like is sagging and untidy grids. I have constructed my grids from PVC pipe. They are relatively inexpensive and yet, maintain the "prominent and permanent" characteristics that Mel speaks of in the book. The parts are readily available to anyone with a few tools. Check out my site for ideas. Blessings!

Steve Earls

Love your idea Steve. I checked out your site. Using the PVC pipe for irrigation as well is a fabulous idea. It would be fairly easy to attach that to a hose from my rain barrels which are set up on concrete blocks and have a gravity fed system.

The structure of the grid is important to me. I love the look and the order it gives to my SFG. But untidy grids bother me too. The vinyl slats from old venetian blinds break and don't stay straight and that bugs me. They were free though and better than NO grid.

GK

acara 9/25/2010, 10:21 am

Careful on that .... unless you have a huge height differential (20'+) or a massive amount of water (and huge surface area) in that rain barrel, your going to need a pump to get decent pressure through 1/2" pipe (consistently) across the entire bed.

I've never been able to get any kind of low volume distributed flow out of a cistern/waterbarrel arrangements .... been trying for years with my ponds because adding rainwater is always preffered to adding treated water for my fish (especially since they started disenfecting with chloramines down here if central FL).

Wont take much of a pump ('lil giant submersibles work well) ...but I suspect it will take a pump to keep you from having more than annoying dribble out of everything past the first or second hole in the watering frame.

Old Hippie 9/25/2010, 10:27 am

Hmmmmm.......MORE food for thought! Thanks for that info.

GK

SFG in Chicago 9/25/2010, 1:19 pm

I also just used some leftover yarn I had. I just pushed thumbtacks into the top of the boards & wrapped the yarn around them. It worked fine and the yarn has lasted all season.

middlemamma 9/25/2010, 11:06 pm

+1 Boffer

I also an taking out the lathe strips. I hate the room they take up. I mean if you laid all three side by side and measured, it is significant. And I was REALLY sick of the dandelion seeds landing right under the crosses and getting splinters in the top of my hand trying to get to the sprouts. I am converting to string as I pull out the summer stuff and start fall crops.

Hubby had some nylon string but it has stretched already and I need to replace...clothesline sounds good...or was considering kite string.

Inca Heat 9/27/2010, 1:22 am

middlemamma wrote:+1 Boffer

I also an taking out the lathe strips. I hate the room they take up. I mean if you laid all three side by side and measured, it is significant. And I was REALLY sick of the dandelion seeds landing right under the crosses and getting splinters in the top of my hand trying to get to the sprouts. I am converting to string as I pull out the summer stuff and start fall crops.

Hubby had some nylon string but it has stretched already and I need to replace...clothesline sounds good...or was considering kite string.

Middlemama is the best mama. I just bought myself some eyes to use, so I can tie my string up. Also built myself a 2'x2'x10" potato tower on the fly, seeing as I did not really know you are supposed to constantly mound dirt on them. I will be building another one as well to stack on top, as all of my potato plants are at least 30" tall now, lol.

Weedless_ 9/27/2010, 11:32 am

These look pretty good. The thing about permanent grid though, is if you plant something that takes more than a square, you have no way to temporarily remove the grid in that square.
I'd venture to guess that string will work better for those scenarios.
I used vinyl blind slats, cut them to the right length with regular kitchen scissors, and stapled them together into a grid with normal stapler. works like a charm, they are washable, look neat, easily moved when I need to add some mulch, and if I decide to plant a zucchini "bush", I'll just clip out the portion of the grid that I don't want, and before next planting, I'll replace the clipped slat with the new one at a fraction of a penny cost.

Squat_Johnson 9/27/2010, 12:49 pm

I used a 1/4" thick corrugated white plastic material that is normally used for signs. I cut them into 3/4" wide strips and stapled them together. They work great. I replaced them last year. They rotted over the winter. This year I will put them in the garage.

If you go to a local sign company, you should be able to buy these for about $25 per 4x8 sheet (that's 48 1" strips). Ask them to do the cutting, they are easy to cut if you have a specialty knife.

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