Not sure how to start square foot gardening? Our Free Square foot gardening Printable will walk you through the process and help you see bountiful harvests this growing season!
Many new gardeners have at least heard about the method of gardening called square foot gardening. Especially those who have limited space to grow their own food! But the process of getting started can be confusing!
But it doesn’t have to be! Square foot gardening is a great way to maximize your growing area and turn your small space garden into an overflowing oasis! And using our free square foot gardening printable is an easy way to walk through the steps!
In this post, we’ll talk a little about square foot gardening and show you how to use our Free garden planner pages to see the best results in your garden!
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What is Square Foot Gardening?
The square-foot garden method was created by Mel Bartholomew with the idea of maximizing growing space in small areas. It involves creating a garden grid system (dividing the growing area into 1-foot squares) within a raised garden bed or container and planting different crops in each square foot or several square feet depending on the crop. These grids can be made with twine, bamboo stakes, or even visualized using garden staples.
One of the key principles of square foot gardening is to eliminate the rows of the traditional garden and instead use dense planting techniques to maximize yield per square foot. This method also allows for easier maintenance, as there are smaller, manageable areas to tend to.
Why should you plan your garden using square foot gardening?
There are many benefits to using square foot gardening to grow your own vegetables! The first of which is the fact that square foot gardening quickly helps you see that your small available space is actually more than enough space to provide food for yourself and your family!
You can grow so much food with square foot gardening because with a square foot garden plants have different space requirements. Large plants like tomatoes can take up to 4 sq feet, but smaller crops like radishes and carrots can be packed 16 in a square!
Now, if you’re ready to try out square foot gardening this garden planning season keep reading and grab our square foot gardening printable.
How to get our Printable?
Grabbing your copy of our free printable garden planner is really simple! Simply sign up below to get a copy of this digital resource as an instant download! This planner template is US letter size and is delivered as a digital download.
Simply save it to your computer and print off as many copies of the planner as you need! You can always come back and grab more if you run out of space or want to plan multiple gardens. You can also download a pdf writing app such as Goodnotes or Penly and plan your square foot garden right on your phone!
This is YOUR YEAR to Successfully Grow Food!
The Square Foot Garden Planner is the Ultimate tool to help you turn your garden dreams into reality!
Whether you are a complete beginner or a gardener with years of experience, this quick reference guide will help you Maximize your garden space, choose the right plants and companions, and successfully grow your own fresh produce!
What’s included in our square foot gardening printable?
Our free square foot gardening printable is a great tool for planning and organizing your garden using this method. It includes the simple step-by-step process I believe is easiest for beginners to plan and start a garden! In the planner pages you’ll also find!
- Garden Grid Template to design your garden layout
- Plant list planner to determine what different vegetables to plant and how many of each to plant
- Plant Spacing Chart
- Companion Planting Chart
- Mel’s Mix recipe
- Notes pages for additional planning
These pages work together to help you plan, manage and track your square foot garden throughout the growing season. These printable pages are specifically designed to help new gardeners start off on the right foot with the square foot gardening method!
How to use our Square foot gardening printable
Now let’s walk very quickly through how to use the garden planner pages to plan your square foot garden. As with all of our gardening resources, I like to keep things simple and easy! With this garden planner you’ll be creating and executing beautiful square foot garden plans in no time!
1. Determine your available growing space
The first step in planning any garden is to determine your garden size how much space you have available. This will help you determine how many raised beds or containers you need, as well as the size of each one.
Remember there are different methods of gardening which are:
- Container gardening
- Raised Bed Gardening
- In ground gardening
And while square foot gardening was originally created for the raised bed or container garden, if the garden space and resources you are in ground gardening, you can still use square foot gardening.
Also read: Choosing the Best Garden Location for New Garden
2. Map out your garden space
The next thing you want to do is to map out your garden space. You can do this by drawing a rough sketch of your available space or using the Garden Grid Template included in our square foot gardening printable. This will give you a visual representation of how much space you have to work with and help you plan accordingly.
3. Determine what vegetables to plant
Once you have your garden layout, the next step is to decide what vegetables you want to plant in each square foot or group of square feet. This can be a bit tricky, but our Plant List planner will help you determine the number of plants and variety of vegetables you can use in your garden!.
Don’t forget to add companions to your list of crops to grow! As an advanced technique, you can use intensive planting to add your companion herbs and companion flowers after your main crops are placed in the garden design.
Another note is, consider the impact of succession planting in your garden, and know that not all plants on your list will go immediately on your garden grid layout. An example of this is beans, which I often plant in the garden after my potatoes are pulled!
4. Plan out the plants
The last thing you’ll want to do is map out your crops in the layout you drew from step one. Using the plant list you created you will add crops and mark out the amount of squares you’ll need for each! For example, a single tomato plant is planted in a 2×2 square foot area while four bean plants can fit in one square!
The garden grid paper can help you easily see how much space each crop will take over and help you adjust the amount of plants you plan within your garden space!
And for those of us who live by a more is more mentality, you can easily see if you have containers for the plants you plan to plant!
Ready to plan your square foot garden?
Unlock the full potential of your garden with our free printable planner. By following these simple steps, you’re on the path to quickly plan and create your own square foot garden, a proven technique to improve your harvest and make the most of every square inch of your garden space.
Our garden planner provides everything you’ll need in a simple and easily digestible form so that you can get to planning from the start! No fluff, just a garden full of vegetables for you and your family to enjoy!
Don’t hesitate! Download your free garden planner now and begin your gardening adventure. Happy gardening!
This is YOUR YEAR to Successfully Grow Food!
The Square Foot Garden Planner is the Ultimate tool to help you turn your garden dreams into reality!
Whether you are a complete beginner or a gardener with years of experience, this quick reference guide will help you Maximize your garden space, choose the right plants and companions, and successfully grow your own fresh produce!