The New Square Foot Garden

I participated in a gardening workshop recently at East Side Cafe in Austin, TX. East Side Cafe sits on an acre of beautiful land surrounded by dozens of pecan trees. A third of the acre is designated as a wonderful organic garden where organic herbs, vegetables, and flowers have been harvested for 15 years for use in the restaurant’s kitchen. Not only is the food wonderful, but the garden is a beautiful sight.

The subject of the workshop was based on a book by Mel Barthomew called The New Square Foot Garden. The premise of the book is that anyone can grow a garden with little effort in a 4 x 4 frame that will yield more harvest than an 8 x 10 garden bed. After testing this concept for more than 30 years, Mel continues to perfect this concept of gardening. My interest was peaked when I learned that in this 4 x 4 square, vegetables, herbs, and flowers all are mixed together. The idea is that the plants provide and share nutrients with one another, attract bees for pollination and repel insects.

Here are the steps that I learned in this workshop for easy, organic gardening:

1. Pick a spot in your garden that receives 6 to 8 hours of sunlight each day and in an area that does not puddle when it rains.

2. Make 4 x 4 squares built out of untreated wood. We used 1 x 6 untreated pine. It is best to use untreated wood so that chemicals do not leech out of the wood, into the soil and into your plants. Read the rest of this entry »

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