Just call me skimpy

Skimpy, not skinny .. God knows nobody would ever call me skinny.

Anyway, in his book, Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew is very specific regarding how the growing medium should be compiled and mixed. Just in case the reader has any doubt as to the importance Mel places on the fill material, he titled Chapter 5, the chapter that deals with the fill, "The Backbone of the Square Foot Gardening Method." The chapter title should be sufficient to get the message across that Mel considers this to be a very important step. But just in case it isn't, in bold letters on the very first page of the chapter Mel tells the reader, "Don't Skimp On This."

Now, you know from my previous post that I didn't follow the Mel's Mix recipe when I purchased the ingredients for the growing medium that went into my elevated planters. Consequently, I have absolutely no moisture retention, which is the function of the peat moss and Vermiculite that I decided not to purchase. I have planted a few transplants in the beds .. they are living .. for now. Upon returning home from work the past couple of days the beds have been very dry. I'm watering heavily every evening to ensure that the transplants live and the seeds I've sewen will germinate. Luckily, the weather has been mild here on the Central Coast of California, the daytime temp is still in the low 70s.

I'm going to keep up the daily watering schedule until the weekend when I will purchase the peat moss and Vermiculite. I'll have to remove the veggie transplants that I already planted, remix the fill .. this time following the Mel's Mix recipe, and then replant. Considering that the plants will have only been in the planter for a week, hopefully they'll survive. I think I'm going to just try and remove the seeds by hand and re-sew; if I miss some of the seeds I will just pluck them when/if they germinate and sprout.

Mixing the fill .. or rather, mixed up fill

The SVGA method calls for the growing medium to be made from equal portions of blended compost, peat moss and course vermiculite; this recipe is referred to as "Mel's Mix." Note the absence of potting soil. By "blended compost" Mel is referring to compost made up of many different materials; Mel recommends that the compost be made up of at least five different components. Now, since any one bag of compost is not likely to contain five different composed materials, Mel recommends that different composts be purchased and blended; or, if making your own compost, to be sure that it contains as many different ingredients as possible. Peat moss is easily enough to come by, it can be found at most any garden supply, farm supply or nursery; it can be a bit pricey. Vermiculite on the other hand can be a challenge to find .. at least in large quantities. I found small four qt. bags in the garden department at OSH and a couple other stores. Only one nursery had the larger 4 cubic ft. bags; it also can be a bit pricey. At the nursery I told the lady what I was looking for and what I intended to do. She recommended different brands/types of compost, she pointed out the peat moss bales and the 4 cubic ft. bags of Vermiculite. The compost varied in price from $3 for 2 cubic ft. of steer manure, to $6 for 2 cubic ft. of general compost and $9 for 2 cubic ft. of Paydirt, which contains chicken manure and other materials (I hear chicken poop is good stuff). I explained to the nursery lady what I intended to do by blending the different composts and then mixing it with equal parts of Vermiculite and peat moss. Needless to say, the facial expression that followed left not doubt that she was skeptical of my plan. She insisted that I would need to use at least some potting soil. Now, I'm sure that she had my best interests in mind. She pointed out that the bags of compost also contain peat moss (except the steer manure), as did the bag of potting soil (potting soil was $6 for a 2 cubic ft. bag). The potting soil also contains Vermiculite and Perlite. Ultimately, I was seduced by the nursery lady's charm and knowledge of rotten organic material and chicken sh!t, and I took the cheap way out. I purchased a bag of steer manure, a bag of Paydirt, 3 bags of the general compost (Mix and Mulch) and one bag of potting soil.

When I returned home I mixed the products. The planters I made hold 6 cubic ft. of material each, in each planter I put :
1 cubic ft. of potting soil
1 cubic ft. of steer manure
1 cubic ft. of Paydirt
2 cubic ft. of Mix and Mulch
I reserved 1 cubic ft. of Mix and Mulch to add later in the week after the fill settles.

The planter filled with soil. I used cotton twine to create the grid for my square foot garden.

Building my SFG planters

During the summer of 2006 I started a very small container garden consisting of one “elevated” bed and one ½ wine barrel. I grew a cucumber, 2 bell peppers, 3 Anaheim Chile plants and my wife grew tomatoes. I enjoyed growing vegetables so much that I decided to do it again this year. This time I want to grow even more food.

I like the idea of using containers. I decided to elevate my containers about two feet off of the ground to make it easier to tent to the plants. Last year I constructed a 2'X6'X18" elevated bed using 4X4 redwood posts for the legs and cedar fence boards for the sides and floor. I made my own trellis using cedar. I used regular potting soil and fertilizer. All in all I thought it all turned out pretty good for a newbie. This year (2007) I will try the square foot method, here’s how I intend to go about it.

Instead of building planters that will sit on the ground, I'm going to build elevated planters (3 of them). The top of the planters will be 2 feet off of the ground, which will minimize the amount of bending and kneeling needed to tend to the garden. This year instead of cedar I’m using redwood, but only because the redwood fencing (untreated) was on sale. Either way, cedar or redwood, both will last a long time.

Here’s the materials list (per bed):
1 – 2’X4’X8’ rough cut redwood board.
6 – 5/8"X8"X6’ redwood fence boards
2 – 1"X2"X8’ trim material (I don’t know what kind of wood this is, probably fir or pine)
Lots of 2" and some 1" 18 gauge brads, or wood screws
Staples
Landscaping fabric

Equipment:
Circular saw or chop saw
Air compressor and brad gun or a drill if using screws
Jigsaw
Staple gun

The materials listed above will make one elevated bed, 6' long, 2' wide and just under 6" deep. I decided not to make the beds any wider because anything over 2' will require additional support lengthwise along the center; also, all the plants can be easily tended from the front of the planter.

This is the uncut material .. enough for two 6'X2'X6" planters.

I cut the redwood board into four equal 2’ lengths to create the legs. The boards were just over 8' in length, so I had to trim off about a 1/8 inch or so of the last leg to be sure that they were all even. I just stacked the legs on top of each other, squared one end and then marked the excess on the long leg and trimmed it using the circular saw.

Next I cut 4 of the 6 redwood fence boards into equal 2’ lengths. Two of the 2' pieces will be the sides of the planter, the remainder will make up the floor. My circular saw could cut 2 boards at once, which saved some time.

Again, since the fence boards were just over 6' long I had to stack the boards and trim so they were all the same length.

Here is the cut material.

I created the ends of the bed first, connecting one of the 2’ pieces of redwood fence boards to two the 2’ pieces of redwood boards using 2" brads (and lots of them).

The completed ends.

Using 2" brads, I connected one 6’ redwood fence board to each side of the frame, creating a bottomless box.

I created a ledge on the inside of the frame for the floor slats to sit on. I measured the inside of the box to be sure to get a snug fit.

Using 1" brads I connected the trim material to the inside of the box to create a lip that the edges of the boards will sit on.

I used a jigsaw to trip away the corners of the end pieces so that they would fit around the legs. I only measured once and traced the remainder of the pieces using the first trimmed piece as a template.

A snug fit. (Each planter will have 4 of the 2' fence boards that have the dog-eared ends. I used two as the ends of the box. I used the other two as the pieces to trim around the legs to maximize the amount of material on the lip).

I placed the 2' fence boards on the inside of the planter to create the floor; 1 board should be left over. There will be a roughly 2" to 3" gap in the floor. I measured the gap and used the circular saw to cut the extra piece lengthwise to fill the gap.

A solid floor. The area between the slats is more than sufficient for drainage.

The completed bed. I stapled landscaping fabric onto the inside of the bed. (I don't know exactly why I did this; it just seemed like a good idea at the time.

I completed the second bed in the same manner and then moved them from the work area to the yard where I filled them with bedding material.