SQUARE FOOT Gardening, How to Grow MORE FOOD in LESS SPACE!

what's going on growers it's James Prigioni coming  to you live from Jersey if you're anything like   me then one of your goals is grow as much food  as possible but how can we get the most out of   the garden space that we have that's what I want  to share with you today let's when it comes to   producing your own food it's not just how much  land you have that'll determine how much you can   grow rather it's also the way you approach that  space one of my favorite techniques for getting   the most out of the garden area that I have is  using the Square Foot Gardening method here's   the book right here by Mel Bartholomew a great  book I suggest reading I'll leave a link in the   description for you but the Square Foot Gardening  it's pretty self-explanatory what we're gonna do   is break each section into one square foot  and approach it like that one of the reasons   I love this method so much is because it really  simplifies things for new gardeners it also adds   a lot of value for experienced gardeners too  but the reason it simplifies things so much is   because it's like when you go after a problem  when you go for a problem instead of trying to   solve the whole thing at once it's much easier  to just break it down into smaller fragmented   pieces so when it comes to planting a new garden  it could be really overwhelming to decide where   you're gonna plant things and the spacing but  this approach makes it very simple it's like   that old saying goes anyone can take something  simple and make it confusing when you could take   something confusing and really simplify it  I think that adds a lot of value and that's   one of the reasons I think this method is just  it's a great one if you've been following the   channel for a little while then this section it  looks a little different than it did in the past   recently I put these beds in here and the reason  I put these beds in was to make the perfect frame   size for doing this Square Foot Gardening so these  beds are exactly ten feet long and four feet wide   giving me 40 squares then I knock some stakes in  and then screwed the boards to the stakes so that   the bed doesn't shift or anything one thing I  want you to notice though is after I did that   I dumped compost over top of my ground and I  didn't mix it I just dumped compost over top   you'll see though this compost it like clumps  up and it dries out and it cracks on top of the   ground like this this isn't what I want if I  want to direct so stuff into into here because   it'll be tough for the seeds to pop through this  so this compost is great as it is here but I need   something over top of it you'll notice on this  other bed here what I did was I put some happy   frog soil just a very thin layer of happy frog  salt over top of this and you can see how it's   not cracking this is just gonna create a perfect  environment for me to sow seeds indirectly or   transplant right into now I'm just watering this  section down I don't want it really dry before I   put the happy frogs so over top of it now until  I take this bag a happy frog soil open it up I   specifically use the happy frog it's my favorite  saw that I've ever used it's got a lot of strains   of the mycorrhizal fungi in there something that I  absolutely love because the consistency is always   good and I've been happy with the results so what  I'm gonna do is just spread this bag along the top so what I'm doing is just making sure I get  a pretty level everywhere and then I have it   all cover when making these raised beds you  really need to make sure that they're level   or frame whatever it is both these are level  with one another this way when I water it it's   gonna water everything evenly it's not gonna go  downhill anyway now what I'm gonna do is just   take a board flat board and just make sure that  the soil isn't too I and I'm gonna show you why   there's a particular reason I don't want the soil  to be higher than the size I'll show you it just a   minute what I'm gonna do is just take this board  to make sure nothing's high if it is this will   drag it down as you can see some here is a little  high a little low is okay but we don't want it   high the rest of it looks good okay now we got  that frame all ready what we're gonna do is just   start building our grid system to make our 1 by 1  squares and the way we're gonna do that is just go   through measure a foot and market before I do that  though I want to make sure that you guys realize   when you're building these boxes you have to  make sure that the inside is 4 foot or 3 foot or   however many feet don't measure from the outside  because that's going to screw up your boxes on the   inside again we're gonna make sure we measure from  the inside and then we're gonna mark every foot we're gonna make sure we do the  same thing on all four sides looks like Huck found his own little spot there  a lot of you been asking about talkies had a   great winter and as you can see he's back  to his old ways digging some holes in the   garden get staying nice and cool and joined the  day and this guy is his birthday he's actually   coming up this little guy's birthday's coming I  was gonna be ten years old so throw some hearts   down in the comments for tuck if you're excited  to see him this year when he's gonna be digging   what he's gonna be eating he's just chilling  out right now hanging out while regarding and   maybe we'll grab a carrot a little wild for him  to see if he wants a little snack the frame is   all measured and marked what I'm gonna do  is make this grid using string so the way   I'm gonna do that is first I'm gonna pre-drill  then I'm gonna wrap a string around a screw and   then drill that right in so it's all flush the  way I'm gonna make it flush is I'm going to be   using a countersink bit I'll put a link in the  description for just what this is so I'm gonna   find my mark and pre-drill first make sure you're  pre drilling if you don't pre-drill you're gonna   split this wood so I want to kind of send it as  centered as best I can and that countersink is   just going to make it so the screw can sit flat  we're gonna go around and pre-drill all the marks there we go last one I'll finish screwed  next one I'm gonna do take my screws inch   and 5/8 screws decking screws we want to make  sure that they're not gonna rust or anything   it's gonna put it in just a little bit get it  started then I'm gonna take my string and just   wrap it around I don't even have to tie it  because I'm going to sink it in then we'll   just sink this through writing like that  go to the other side and do the same thing   started just wrap it a little tight but the  screw is gonna pull it as it's spinning so I   want to do it to tight as you can see it's  all flush there so it's gonna shed water   nicely so we're gonna do the same thing for  the rest till we have all square foot boxes take this last string wrap it around sink it  in it's a final one just cut it we'll take it   step back now you can see how we've got our all  41 foot sections it looks fantastic and now I   think you can start to get an idea of why this  is a simplified approach instead of making what   am I gonna play in this whole entire bed now  we'll go 1 squared time what am I gonna plant   in this square and then that one so let's grab  some plants and came in the ground you can see   my little nursery section here I've got a bunch of  stuff started and the first square the first four   rows the square is what I'm actually gonna do was  put spinach in so let's grab some spinach plants   and most plants spinach brassicas knows they're  good to be transplanted once they start showing   their first two true leaves these are just a seed  casing leaves here's the true leaves this one's   ready to transplant let's put a couple of these  out we've got some Bloomsdale spinach some teton   spinach and a few others for our first square  foot box we're gonna plant some spinach and the   book says we can fit nine spinach and just this  one square foot so we're gonna do one two three   four five six seven eight nine basically just like  that you can see in most of my little cells I have   two growing for instance this one here what I'll  do is just keep the good one and cut out the bad   one just gives me more of a selection so let's  start to get this first corner one in these plans   can be tough to get out of these sells I found  and it's tough you can't just kind of flip it   over whenever you're transplanting you never want  to pull the plants up from the base like this and   never never do that you want to flip it over  and and have it come into your hand loosen up   the soil a little bit but since I can't do that  these are all separate what I like to do is just   take these plant labels slide one on each side  all the way down and just lightly pull up which   is very minimal compression and see that long tap  root we want that spinach have a long tap root so   we want to make sure you get that in there that's  one of the reason the spinner just typically don't   really like being transplanted that much but they  can still manage so we'll get this spinach in send   them in really gently and you can see how nice  this happy frog soil is and how much it advantage   I could give you one in we're gonna keep doing the  same thing again nine in this one square foot box good-looking root system make sure it's pretty  deep in there and then we always want to tuck   it in we don't airspace so you want to push it  in you'll want to force it down but you want   to put a little pressure down so there's no air  space after well water everything in - that'll   fill up any gaps of airspace as well there we go  spinach all planted watered looking great by the   end of it there's gonna be nine per square foot  I'm gonna plant more spinach in the other rows   but first let's get onto this next box right  here and plant some carrots when it comes to   planting carrots and the Square Foot Gardening  method they say about 16 per square so I've got   a little carrot planting method I'm gonna go  with here so I'm gonna make a divot four of   them to four rows just like this little burrows  and then we're gonna plant the carrots into here   and then we're essentially gonna thin out two  for a row what we're gonna be left with is 16   carrots so these just little furrows the reason  I want to these furrows is because I'm gonna put   the carrots into these furrows and then cover  them a little bit and then this way every time   I water I know that the that the water is going  into these furrows because carrots need a good   consistent moisture in order to pop so you want  to have really really consistent moisture with   carrots in order to germinate that's why we  want to put these furrows in just like this   the first variety we're gonna plant is Napoli  carrots and again we have these little furrows   here they seem deep but I'm not gonna push the  soil all the way over let's get some carrots again for a row so we don't want to over plant   too many maybe about 10 or 12  in each space and pretty well get all these carrots in there's also the  board method of planting carrots which I   showed this is just a little different still  all about getting better germination but the   rest of these carrots back here another thing  about this Square Foot Gardening method is it's   gonna save you a lot of seeds because you're  gonna make sure you get the most use out of   each one now some of that excess soil that I  pushed off this side it's going to lightly go   over the top just cover it really lightly nice  dusting get a little moral from the side here now we're gonna order it in  and we'll keep those furrows there we go now you can see every time we order  we're gonna make sure it stays in those furrows   great germination that box is done we're  gonna move on to another box the spinach   is in the carrots are in it's looking fantastic  I only have a couple squares planted though I'm   gonna plan some more how do you see we've  got some beautiful kale here some cabbage   some beets when it comes to things like kale  cabbage cauliflower we can only plant one per   square but beets we can play an 8 obviously I  have a lot more squares to plant so I'm gonna   get at it that's today's video gross thanks for  watching I hope you enjoyed I hope you found some   value in it I hope you get outside and get your  own square foot garden going I really think you   can help your production if you enjoyed the  video hit the like button hit the subscribe   button share with your friends don't forget to  check out the merch down low I just wanted to   thank everybody for your continual support  even throughout the winter I mean talk one   into a little bit of hibernation we had our  break we need our reading and we're ready   Springs here it can be non-stop tuck and James  Prigioni will be back at you real soon, we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 803,131

Keywords: gardening, square foot gardening, garden, organic gardening, square foot garden, how to garden, gardening diy, gardening how to, organic garden, james prigioni, mel bartholomew, self sufficient me, david dobrik

Id: OXbhQOqvcwk

Length: 12min 42sec (762 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 05 2020