Landshare

Agriculture has a lot to answer for when it comes to your veg patch. The notion of strict patterns of rotation and of growing in lines suits the larger scale of field production, but you can be a little more creative. Square foot gardening has more in common with ornamental gardeners’ block planting. It’s as simple as its title suggests: you plant in foot square blocks rather than rows and in denser groups to ensure maximum harvest.

You can square foot garden over any area, but the popular size is 4ft by 4ft, in a raised bed filled with compost. The bed is divided into a grid of 16 square compartments by threading lines of string 1 foot apart from one side of the raised bed to the other.

The number of plants per square depends on the crop – one tomato plant or four lettuces or 16 carrots – you adjust the spacing to suit the plant. It saves seed and seedlings, and growing in blocks, you can squeeze more in.

Runner beans, cucumbers, squash and courgettes are all normally happy to ramble across your patch, but by giving them a climbing frame, they’ll motor skywards. Deeply rooting crops, such as potatoes, winter carrots and parsnips can be harvested earlier and smaller, or with the use of raised sides, allowed an extra depth of compost to continue growing.

The dimensions of the standard plot mean you can reach everything from the side, so the soil is never compacted and remains loose and ideal for you plants to establish and grow. Weeding is easier as a result, and the opportunity for weeds to establish is much reduced by the closer planting, effectively forming an edible mulch. Not only that but the underlying soil needn’t be a limitation. With the addition of home produced compost and natural feeds (such as nettle or comfrey feed) you can control the medium and maintain productivity.

A square foot garden is a great way of getting children into veg growing, the simple structure and scale encourages involvement and understanding, and the lack of wrestling with the tedium of weeds ensures their time is spent where the magic is. For those less able to bend or in a wheelchair, constructing a thigh-high base brings the veg patch to a comfortable height. It’s easy to create your own raised bed, but if you’re pressed for time, you can even get the raised bed complete with dividers sent to you from www.thelittlevegpatch.co.uk.