What is Reddit's opinion of
All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd Edition, Fully Updated: MORE Projects - NEW Solutions - GROW Vegetables Anywhere (Volume 9) (All New Square Foot Gardening, 9)?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
By popularity on Reddit, this product is:
11 reviews of this product found across Reddit:
Square Foot Gardening. (Check your local library; you want the second or third edition.) The book will take you through all the steps. It was designed to be an easy, reliable, and complete method for growing vegetables. A few tradeoffs: Raised beds need to be filled with something, which can get expensive. (SFG uses a combination designed for consistent results called "Mel's Mix", which IIRC is equal parts vermiculite, peat, and compost.) OTOH if you're in an area where the soil might be contaminated, you'll need a raised bed anyway. Raised beds aren't great in really hot areas; they overheat and dry out too quickly in the summer. The normal SFG raised bed is only 6" deep, limiting the kinds of vegetables you can grow; 12" is more versatile but also more expensive.
Here’s a great place to start All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd Edition, Fully Updated: MORE Projects - NEW Solutions - GROW Vegetables Anywhere (All New Square Foot Gardening, 9) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760362858/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_7Z26Q9QJMYSHVKCJKMQ6
In "All New Square Foot Gardening" Mel Bartholomew has a section that talks about how much to grow. Link to book on Amazon
One 16 sq box will give you a salad a day for one adult. A second box would provide a dinner a day for an adult. A third box would then be extras for giving away or preserving. It would all depend on what you put in each box. For my family of three i would theoretically require 9 boxes that are 16 sq.
I'm doing planning for next years beds and i think for my family i would realistically need at least Two 16sq boxes of just tomatoes but my growing season is very different from yours. We also wouldn't eat a salad a day but i may do the salad bed and share extras with friends and neighbors.
I'm pretty sure this is the book but I probably read an older edition. He's the guy that popularized raised bed gardening.
You should check out the book "All New Square Foot Gardening". He has detailed plans on how to build a backyard garden using raised beds. You can grow a lot of stuff. Combine that with teaching yourself how to preserve that produce you can do a long ways toward building your preps.
I love Square Foot Gardening!
Are you planning to build raised beds? Or just grow directly in the soil? Not sure how much animal pressure you have in the area as each method has different design aspects you can implement to protect your veg. In either situation you can lay down layers of cardboard to smother the lawn/clover and cover it with compost or if a raised bed then do something like your own Mel's mix.
Check out:
https://youtube.com/c/CharlesDowding1nodig
How to maximize yields doing square foot gardening https://squarefootgardening.org/ There's also a good book All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd Edition, Fully Updated: MORE Projects - NEW Solutions - GROW Vegetables Anywhere (All New Square Foot Gardening, 9) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760362858/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_KF4Q0VKZMTDQD0X1P2PN
Easy veg to try that don't take up much room: Radishes, leafy greens or baby greens (spinach, kale, swiss chard, any of the salad mixes from Renee's garden seed company), baby bok choy, just cover the brassicas with mesh cover to protect from pests
Hey! I'm also from the Raleigh area! (Fuquay) I'm in my second year of gardening. I don't have any tips, but I got some local and non-local resources that could help you out. Sorry if it's all a jumbled mess, but see below for all the stuff I have found useful
Books:
I really liked [Square Foot Gardening](https://www.amazon.com/Square-Foot-Gardening-Fully-Updated/dp/0760362858). As someone who is generally not very organized this really helped break it down to me about how simple it is to break up a box and it has ideas about different ways to build a box that might help make it easier on you.
Youtube:
There are a couple gardening folks on youtube that I like to follow:
[Gardener Scott](https://www.youtube.com/c/GardenerScott) - Out of Colorado
[Josh Sattin](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHynVrKVZtTXf3hndd2ZR4A) - Out of Raleigh, used to manage Raleigh City Farms and he does a series interviewing local farmers/gardeners around NC
[The Gardening Channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9V_-gqJsZNOy4v_HqbRz3w) - Out of New Jersey, does more permaculture
[Charles Dowding](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg) - Out of the UK, said to be the father of no-till gardening which could help as it is considered less backbreaking
[Epic Gardener](https://www.youtube.com/user/EpicGardening) - Out of LA, worked with the creator of Square Foot Gardening
Facebook:
If you have a Facebook, you should join the Raleigh Plant People group. It's mostly about indoor house plants (but these are some die-hard planters with jungles in their houses!), but I've found to be a good resource for local gardening information. And people are always willing to swap or sell plants.
Local Stores:
[Atlantic Gardening Company](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Atlantic+Gardening+Company/@35.854301,-78.600664,15z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x1687df5ffe45dc84!8m2!3d35.854301!4d-78.600664) - Has a lot of good products for outdoor and indoor gardening (Also has a taproom if you want to drink while shopping for plants)
[Logan's](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Logan's+One+Stop+Garden+Shop/@35.7899553,-78.6430657,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89ac5f422fe20897:0x6171416efe2390b2!8m2!3d35.789951!4d-78.640877) - In downtown Raleigh
[For Garden's Sake](https://www.google.com/maps/place/For+Garden's+Sake/@35.8648807,-78.9464908,277m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x89ace93934406abb:0x4cb27926358cdd75!8m2!3d35.8649942!4d-78.9461607) - Out in Durham, haven't been but this one is always recommended
Online Seed Stores:
[Renee's Seed Store](https://www.reneesgarden.com/) - has a solid listing of common seeds
[Baker Creek](https://www.rareseeds.com/) - good source if you want to start experimenting with some unique plants
[Johnny's Selected Seeds](https://www.johnnyseeds.com/)
[Southern Exposure Seed Exchange](https://www.southernexposure.com/)
[Seed Savers](https://www.seedsavers.org/)
​
Thank you for your service and happy gardening!
You can google "how to tell your soil type" for all kinds of videos and sites to get info on this. Here's a video on how to tell your type. There's a lot of them so look for one that makes sense for you. You can also get a soil test kit to check the ph of the soil. This can help you determine how acid or alkaline the soil is. Vegetables like a more acid soil typically. Here's kits on Amazon and as you can see they vary from cheap simple on up to digital meters etc. Also universities and counties sometimes have agricultural extension services that offer soil testing and area gardening information. Check your local library for gardening books. Often they'll have books that pertain to your areas climate. If there are any local garden supply/greenhouse businesses they are a good source for local information.You might see if there are any garden clubs in your area, they can be a good resource for local info. And there are an overwhelming amount of books online of course. Something like this is good. It's a classic for small spaces.
It can be overwhelming with so much info available, but go slow and simple and experiment. You can have early successes or quick failures. It can be trial and error. By the looks of your spot plants like it there. And most of all get your hands dirty and have fun.
Make your own. This is a good book
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0760362858/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_8QeHCbJZ666XA
Popular alternatives to All New Square Foot Gardeni...
Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills (Back to Basics Guides)
