Claire Hart - Square Metre Gardening

This blog is from a previous Exmouth Garden Club newsletter, written by former Chair of the club, Mike Wheeler.

Square Metre Gardening was developed by American author and TV presenter Mel Bartholomew in the 1970s.

• A simple way to create easy-to-manage gardens with raised beds that need a minimum of time spent maintaining them.

• Square metre gardening – growing vegetables in one-metre box frames, edged with timber boards to create raised beds.

• These are, in turn, divided with a lattice of wooden laths that form a planting grid of nine squares.

The Square Metre Gardening method saves gardeners time, effort, tools, space and water. Schools across the nation and international humanitarian groups around the world are using the Square Metre Gardening method and making inroads against poverty and hunger. The Square Metre Gardening method is estimated to cost 50% less, uses 20% less space, 10% of the water, and only 2% of the work compared to single row gardening. Additional benefits are: virtually no weeds, no digging or rototilling, and no heavy tools are necessary.

Step 1: Build a box

You can use many materials to build your 4’ X 4’ box such as UNTREATED cedar, pine or fir. If treating wood, only treat the outside of the box as to not have contact with the soil. You can even use brick, cement blocks, vinyl or recycled plastic. Be sure to put down weed mat or landscape fabric to prevent weeds from sprouting up through your soil.

Step 2: Fill the box with Mel’s Mix

This tested and proven formula is easy to make at home. Please note: these ingredients will be in equal volumes, not by weight.

• 1/3 Coarse grade Vermiculite (Mel’s preferred medium)

• 1/3 Sphagnum Peat Moss (You can also use Coconut Coir)

• 1/3 Blended Organic Compost (Mel recommends 5 different composts combined for optimal results)

Step 3: Add a grid and start planting!

Grids can be made inexpensively from Venetian blinds, or wood lath sold in home improvement stores. The grid is one of the most important features of a Square Metre Garden. The grid lets you clearly see how to space your seeds/plants and keeps your garden looking neat and organized.

• Don’t Walk on the Soil: This is now common practice with raised bed gardening but back in the 1970s it was revolutionary to suggest that you wouldn’t need to dig your soil if you didn’t tread on it.

• Plant in Squares: To keep the planting simple there are no plant spacings to remember. Instead, each square has either 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants in it depending on the size of the plant – easy to position in each square by making a smaller grid in the soil with your fingers. As an exception to this there are a few larger plants that span two squares.  Climbing peas and beans are planted in two mini-rows of 4 per square.

• If plants need to be spaced 30cm apart, e.g. cauliflower or aubergine, grow one plant in each square.

• If they need to be spaced 15cm apart, e.g. lettuce, grow four plants in each square.

• If 10cm apart, for example parsley or spinach, grow nine.

• If 8cm apart, e.g. carrots or radish, grow 16.

• One box will yield a large garden salad for one person each day. Four boxes per person – or one 4 x 1 m box – is the most you’d ever need

• Grow hardy vegetables that you like.

• Pick out the things you like and that are easy to grow, then start experimenting.

• Group together salad vegetables in one box, soup ingredients in another and pizza and pasta favourites in a third box.

• Or try curry plots and stir-fry plots, all packed with a variety of green leafy vegetables you can pick for months.

Some cooks decide to grow a square metre of gourmet food: in summer, eggplants, chillies, spring onions and a herb or two; in winter, cauliflowers, celery, garlic and cavolo nero (black cabbage/Tuscan Kale).

One of the main principles of square metre gardening is crop rotation – never replant an identical crop in the same square.

A general crop rotation system is legumes (beans, peas); then plant fruiting crops (capsicum, tomatoes); then plant leafy greens (lettuce, spinach); then plant brassicas (cabbage, broccoli); then plant root crops (carrots, radish, beetroot); then start with legumes again.

If you fancy continual harvest of a year-round favourite, plant seeds at regular intervals in each of the nine squares.

Square metre gardening is tailor-made for companion planting. because you have nine squares with nine different plants you have every companion plant you could imagine.

Because of plant density there are fewer weeds in a square metre garden.

If you need help designing your vegetable garden, try Vegetable Garden Planner (for PC & Mac) or for your mobile or tablet device, iPad & iPhone app Garden Plan Pro is available on the App Store
https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/planning-a-square-foot-vegetable-garden/