Skip to main content

Affordable Square foot garden building for Beginners in USA

The square-foot garden method is based on raised bed technique that is used for small or congested spaces. Readymade raised bed square foot gardening is costlier but it is possible at low costs at home without any special arrangements but with just basic requirements. 

Here, I'll share with you an easy DIY method of assembling and making grids for square-foot gardening at home at a very fewer cost.

Square foot gardening for beginners

Hopefully, you know the basic measurement technique and using the carpenter machines. If you never used such tools as drilling screwdrivers, cutters, or hammering nails, you should call for an expert adviser either for your friend or a professional. 

Square foot gardening in usa

If you are not aware of square-foot gardening yet, then take a quick look at this, and then let's go for the further DIY method of making a square-foot garden. 

What is square-foot gardening?

The square-foot gardening method is useful to grow a variety of plants in a single container. The USD of square foot gardening method is a plantation of a variety of food in small places. 

While growing plants in a square-foot garden, we use a raised bed of soil and then divide it into multiple squares with wooden or plastic grids. Though we can use the thin ropes and fix them at the walls of raised bed containers over the soil.  

Without gridlines, it becomes very messy and not easy to grow to fix a number of distinct plants. 

Although, there are readymade expensive raised bed square foot containers available in the market it is not that difficult to make it an affordable price at home. Let's understand all the requirements first and then an easy method to develop its grids for plantation. 

Requirements for square foot garden

Tools required

  • Screws 
  • Screws drilling driver
  • Hammer
  • Inchtape

Materials required

  • Raised bed wood
  • 5mm thick rope 
  • 5mm thick bamboo wood 
  • Potting soil mixture 

Wooden raised bed

You can make your own raised bed at home if you have the right type of wood. Either buy it from the market or develop your own at home. 

Always choose an N:N+1 sized container that should have at least 1-foot depth. It means you'll have a total Nx(N+1) number of square sections in the container. People do this fundamental mistake initially and while measuring squares for grids, they lack either some extra area or less area. 

It means, if you are taking a 2:3 sized(2 feet width and 3 feet length) container, then, you'll have 6 different square boxes for plantation. 

Thus, according to your space, you can measure the area and assemble the raised bed accordingly. 

How to make square-foot garden and grids?

Step 1- Installing raised bed container 

First, you measure the space you have in your garden or yard. According to the space, you need to be raised bed container size. Bring all the wood pieces and assemble them with their screws precisely. I want you to be aware here because after filling the soil, it'll push pressure on the walls of this container. Set this container in the right place because after filling the soil, it'll not give you ease to shift from one place to another. 

Step 2- Prepare the soil mixture for square foot container

Now, prepare the potting soil for your selected vegetables in the garden. Either you can use the traditional method of making potting soil or use 2:1:1 of garden soil, compost, and sand in a certain mixture. 

Finally, fill your container with 75% of the soil. 

Step 3- Measure and drill at the container wall

Start marking the points on every 1-foot width and length. Considering you've taken an n:n+1 sized raised bed container initially, you'll have a rectangular grid in the end. Simply, if you've taken a container 5 feet wide and 4 feet long then, you need you can have 20 sections for different plants to grow. Fix the hooks at all the marked points on each 1-foot gap along with width and length. Fix a strong 5mm thick thread or rope pieces along with width and length. These rope sections must be fixed on both front wall points of the container. Hence, you'll have gridlines in the end.

You can also create thin wood gridlines manually inside the raised bed or take bamboo gridlines of the same thickness. 

Step 4- Start garden plantation in each section

Finally, select the plant seeds according to their maximum growth spaces and numbers. You can grow 12 to 15 carrots in a square, 2 to 3 broccoli plants, 2 to 3 collard greens, 2 to 3 plants of spinach, etc. 

Start seed germination or direct plantation after germinating seeds in nursery beds. Later, you can transplant them in these container spaces. 

Thus, you can grow various varieties of vegetables at once even in small spaces by implementing the square-foot gardening method. 

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Center pivot sprinkler system cost per-acre, 10-acres, 40-acres cost, parts, and maintenance

Precision irrigation is a very helpful way to save water and increase production. In lack of water conditions precision irrigation is a very effective and futuristic method.  Center pivot irrigation follows the precision irrigation principle. We can save up to 40% of water waste and can increase 15 to 20% production through the Center pivot irrigation system. This system is suitable for crops like maize, soybean , sugarcane , vegetable crops, etc.  Although its installation cost and maintenance cost is high but still less than drip irrigation and it's worth it in bigger crop areas.  Center pivot sprinkler irrigation system cost  Flowing water irrigation is a very irresponsible method these days when we are facing irrigation water-related issues. Center pivot systems use sprinklers to irrigate fixed sections.  This system covers a circular field and irrigates through sprinklers. These sprinklers can be adjusted and controlled precisely according to crop water ne...
Read more

Lawn weeds in North Carolina(USA), identification, and common causes

Common weeds like warm climate conditions grow on roadsides, meadows, lawns, and gardens.  North Carolina is a warm climate region that is habitable for various weeds. This causes several species and varieties of weeds in lawns.  Here, I'm going to give you info on such common weeds that grow in lawns in North Carolina.  Lawn weeds in North Carolina(USA)  Lawn weeds can be very different from each other. Some are plant weeds that bloom flowers, and some are grass weeds that look like lawn grass but their nature and growth are different than lawn grass. Also, Ash composting is not helpful to remove lawn weeds, instead it encourages them to grow but sometimes it can help to neutralize the acidic soil. Let's understand every common weed one by one in North Carolina. First, their identification and then their common causes.  Crabgrass weed Identification Size- 5 inches height(max) and grow horizontally Leaves- Multiple leaves in a single stem and multiple stems i...
Read more

Turf comparison of Bahiagrass vs Zoysia grass in USA

In most warm regions in the USA, often people want to know about the comparison of both Zoysia grass and Bahiagrass(paspalum notatum) but because of lots of similarities, they get confused to decide which one is best for their lawns.  Although, with some other lawn turfs, people take these grasses as weeds sometimes it is not bad to have a whole of such grasses.  Here, we discussed almost every valid point of comparison between Zoysia grass and Bahiagrass.  Zoysia grass Vs Bahiagrass Before comparing both turfs, let's first understand why people often choose grasses like Zoysia and Bahiagrass and the thing that why these are different than Crabgrass and dallisgrass . Climate may be a reason, maintenance work, weather-friendly, perennial or annual, are some reasons for those who want to keep their lawns simple with no regular maintenance.  The following factors will help you to understand which grass is best for your lawn-  Identification With the following poin...
Read more

Crabgrass Vs Dallisgrass in USA and weed comparison in lawn

We can use an annual grass-looking weed in a lawn for short-term periods. It is quite beneficial too because of its invasive, similar-looking, and low-maintenance nature.  Crabgrass is one of those few weed types of grass that looks like st Augustine and can work the same as lawn turf for short periods. But considering it as a weed is more suitable in warm season lawns like Bermuda and St Augustine.  Dallisgrass is a perennial weed that looks similar to crabgrass but has different properties. Crabgrass vs Dallisgrass in Lawn in the USA I can understand what things make you trouble distinguishing both weeds. Here, I've covered most of the points to help you with this query. Keep in mind that Crabgrass and Dallisgrass comparison is different from Bermuda and Centipede grass .  Crabgrass is an annual grass that loose life just after a couple of seasons per year. Dallisgrass recovers itself every spring and grows with its seeds and rhizomes. It doesn't need any external caus...
Read more