A few months ago, I set up my first square foot garden (you can read all of my Square Foot Garden-related posts
here). I placed it on a flat, mulched area. While things flourished at first, after heavy, long Spring rains, the garden became over-saturated, didn't drain well and rotted. All of it. It was quite sad.
While I hate to learn lessons the hard way, the lesson was learned.
Here's what I did (photo is pre-grid):
I kept it in the same spot since the light was right, but I combined the two 4x4 foot boxes and lifted the whole thing up on top of cinder blocks. How? I bought a 4x8 foot piece of plastic lattice fencing from Lowes. Placed this on top of wood planks, which in turn were on top of cinder blocks. I lined it with weed barrier to retain the soil yet let the water pass through. While I was at it, I added more vermiculite, compost and peat moss. I then went about the planting, then watered thoroughly.
Drainage problem solved! Just like a potted plant, I now water until it drips out beneath, then I stop. Makes it easy to know how much to water.
I am very hopeful for success. I'll keep you posted.
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2 comments:
Meg,
While I googled for SFG, I got your blog and you are doing wonderful job there. I live in Oklahoma and you know how things are here. Many useful tips from you. Regarding your latest post on 'Drainage' problem, it seems little confusing.
Is it like placing cinder blocks on the ground and on top of that you placed lattice fencing and on this you placed SFG wooden planks. Is this right?
I ordered wooden planks for SFG from Mel's website and I already got my seedlings for veggies and excited to start this project.
Oh - good question! Apologies to anyone else who was also confused.
There are countless ways to construct an above-ground SFG but here is my structure from the ground up (I tried to do this additional work using very low cost materials):
11 cinder blocks underneath, to lift my 8x4 foot SFG off of the ground. They were positioned sort of like this (cinder blocks are x, spaces are o):
xoxoxox
oxoxoxo
xoxoxox
Here's the step you're missing:
Over the cinder blocks (but beneath the lattice fencing) I laid four 4 foot long x 1 foot wide x 1 inch thick untreated wood planks. Looking at the above cinder block diagram, I positioned those horizontally to better support the SFG frame (planks are represented by the letter P).
x<-P->xox<-P->x
oooxoooxoooxooo
x<-P->xox<-P->x
Then I put the 4x8 foot plastic lattice on top, laid the SFG frame on top, lined it with weed barrier and then filled it with soil, planted and watered. So far, so good. I don't see any sagging anywhere and water is passing through really nicely - no chance of rotting now!
There are some cheaper SFG-esque frames at Lowes, though they are likely not as attractive as Mel's.
I hope this helps - let me know if you've any questions along the way. SFG is so exciting! (Some of my friends probably roll their eyes when I say that, but it really is exciting to see food growing in your own backyard - and it gives a great sense of empowerment)
Best wishes,
Meg
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