Square Foot Gardening

Rating:
Summary: Science Garden Neighbor
Review: If I were to recommend one book, or if I could only have one book about gardening, this would have to be the one.
I've had this book for a little over 2 years and it's damn near worn out already. I've read it cover to cover 2 times
and refer to it constantly. I used to hate yard work and gardening but now, in 2 years I've developed a wonderful
small garden plot that rivals the author's own pictures. The first year of using this method of gardening, my
neighbor peered over the fence, beer in hand, gave a quizzical look and wanted to know if I was doing some strange
kind of science garden. Two months later when the results started rolling in (along with the lettuce that's hard to
grow in this part of the country), my skeptical mother, who was raised on a farm in Canada, could not stop raving
and telling everyone what a wonderful garden I had. This year it's going to be even better... and I'm expanding my
vertical crops all over the place! If you have any interest in gardening, no matter your experience level (but very
inspirational for beginners), this is the book for you. From what should be the simple obvious way to garden, and
with its extremely effective methods, to the great tips and ideas, along with the book's simple readability... this book
is tops. Look no further!

Rating:
Summary: Great for beginners
Review: Like many other reviewers, reading this book was a real breakthrough when I started getting serious about gardening. Everything you need to get started is in here. (Even if you've gardened for a long time but only in traditional rows, this will really help increase your productivity.) However, since then, I've moved on to Permaculture and biointensive and have hardly looked at this -- I'm mainly keeping my copy to lend out. If your library already includes books by authors like Jeavons, Mollison, or Steiner, you'll probably be disappointed by this. But for someone new to intensive gardening, those may be too confusing and intimidating. This is definitely the book to start with.

Rating:
Summary: only gardening book I regularly recommend
Review: I love this book. I have read hundreds of gardening books, mostly taken out from the library, but have only actually shelled out the cash to buy about 5. This is the only one I recommend to people regularly.

I went to the author's website and emailed him a couple questions. The guy emailed me back with replies in less than a day. That was really nice of him.

BTW, one of his replies was that the recommended spacing for potatoes is one square if growing to full size, or 4 to a square if growing for new potatoes (or a small variety).

He said he would post to his site with more info on my second question. He has a lot of other additional info available on his site as well.

The site is great for owners of the book. But get the book, it fully explains the system and includes reference tables for many types of plants. It's indispensable.

Rating:
Summary: EVERY gardener needs this book!
Review: I am a beginning gardener -- ambitious, but not very experienced. I have a shady backyard, and I LOVE tomatoes -- not factors that really go together. This book explains how to save space, time, effort, and resources while you get more out of your harvest. It turns gardening into a few-minutes-at-a-time proposition, something you can easily do every day to keep up. Now I have an idea of how I *can* grow tomatoes, despite my big trees.

Square Foot Gardening offers specific information (valuable for a beginner!) in just about every area. I can't think of a single thing I still need to know. Mel Bartholomew also offers suggestions for wheelchair-bound gardeners (build planters and raise them to a comfortable level) that are also great for anyone who can't get down on the ground easily. He suggests good plants to try in a garden for kids. In short, this book is thorough and fascinating.

My seed catalogs are coming in the mail, and I have NEVER been so excited about the prospect of growing stuff -- because I have the tools to succeed at it now. Square Foot Gardening made it much less daunting.

Rating:
Summary: Best Gardening Book bar none! Especially City Gardens!!!
Review: Best Gardening Book bar none! Especially City Gardens, where space is limited!!! Anything you need to know about gardening is in this book, nothing is left out. I have a 6' X 12' garden and in my first year I yielded enough vegetables to last from end of June to October and I'm still growing (I live is Mass too where it gets really cold, really fast)

This book contains the best formula for creating the best soils, plans on how to build raised beds, cold frames, vegetable support structures, charts that explain: when to plant, how to maintain, when to harvest, handling pests, and everything in between. THIS IS THE ULTIMATE GARDENING BOOK! YOU WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED... THIS IS A 100% GUARANTEED, CUSTOMER SATISFACTION BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: A must for your gardening library
Review: This is an easy to read, no nonsense book you will refer to for year to come for all the wonderful reasons other reviewers have sited.

You'll learn something new every time you pick it up.

Rating:
Summary: More Food, Less Chemicals
Review: I'm buying copies of this book for my gardening friends. I bought my first copy almost 15 years ago and I was able to start a food garden with less space than I thought possible. When we moved into a house I didn't waste any space and made myself a 10x8 raised bed and had lettece, tomatoes, chard, onions, garlic, and much more. It cut my grocery bills way down and we were eating fresh veggies daily. The thing I liked best was ways to combat pests using other plants, like garlic, to reduce or eliminate my use of pesticide. A definate plus. I would recommend this to beginner and advanced gardeners alike. The technics I've read about turn everything I had been taught before upside down, but I've never had better results. I'm a beliver in Square Foot Gardening.

Rating:
Summary: ...and they said it couldn't be done.
Review: I moved to Southern California a year ago, and bought a house on a hill in San Diego's East County area. For those of you that don't know, that means HOT summers and very poor soil. As I was telling my new neighbors about my enthusiastic plans for planting a vegetable garden, I was met with nothing but skepticism. "You'll never grow vegetables in this lousy soil." and "I tried for several years - the gophers got most of it and nothing ever grew anyway." and "The soil here is so bad even the cactuses have a hard time."

They didn't know what I knew. I had purchased a copy of this book a few years earlier. I dug out a small area, lined it with 1/2 inch hardware cloth to keep out the gophers, and followed the instructions in this book for preparing the soil and planting. I now have a small garden (total of 32 sqaure feet) that produces more vegetables than I can eat, and still has room for some colorful flowers to break the green monotony. (I wish Amazon would let us post photos in these reviews!) My neighbors are now believers, as I shower them with the excess produce.

I highly reccommend this book to anyone who wants to grow a vegetable garden!

Rating:
Summary: Can't wait for Spring!
Review: This makes so much sense! Eliminate over-sowing then thinning. Stop the endless weeding of empty spaces between rows. Successive plantings will avoid the over-run of ripe veggies during the busy Summer. Wow, why didn't someone tell me earlier? I can't wait for Spring so I can try it myself.

Rating:
Summary: Maximum production- minimum space and work
Review: Square Foot Gardening is innovative, quaint, and informative. However, it is difficult to explain to the neighborhood farmers who have done long straight rows since the dawn of time. But it's time for a better more fruitful way.

After hearing the "facts" from the local people I didn't use this method, and you know what happened? I used too much space, I'm still battling weeds, and caterpillars or something similar destroyed all my beautiful cabbage. They were absolutely certain the plants wouldn't have enough room to grow and produce anything worthy of eating. I knew in my heart it would work and I'm positive next year will bring a happy hearty garden using the Square Foot Gardening recommendations.

I've received a couple of helpful emails recommending alternatives to the planks I couldn't find out here in rural country. So, I'm off to build my raised beds and hope for much better results next year.

Please, buy this book, learn it-use it, don't waste your time with any other method. Feed your loved ones home grown goodies- their healthy bodies will thank you.

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