Birth of a Square Foot Garden

[HamRadio2008]

Is this garden still going? I am very impressed with this video and your work! Congrats!

[JVONROCK]

One of the most Important an overlooked. ROOTS they need some place to grow and something to eat. I'll bet your yield was poor. plants are what they eat and your bag of processed mix, well ?

[rhymepays]

Thank God there's a Mute on YouTube!

[shawnio]

yeah judging by the dead grass everywhere you have no idea what plants need to grow.

[Trinsmommy04]

Love the idea you made it look so pretty in the end!!! Wish my yard was bigger so I could do this too!!

[eron1979]

how much did it cost (sound track not included)?

[contreeman]

good job on the garden and the music.

[jcline1978]

I cant think about gardening, now I want to watch TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA!

[AngelikavonDeutschla]

have you consdered, whether or not you get about 8 hours worth of sun in this corner of your garden? Cause you seemed to have some shade there?

[scottiblasto]

what is the music for this?

[sqftsteve]

@scottiblasto

Wang Chung - Wait

[peacelovehippychick]

wow! very cool! so neat and tidy now!

[nerdmom920]

Probably already been suggested, but growing a green manure crop in your walkways, like clover, can be cut and used as mulch for your garden and has a more natural look than rubber mulch.

[pellcio]

We just did an 4x8 raised bed. Why the chicken wire cage? Do you have deer problems? Ours has been in for 2 weeks and have just now noticed somethig nibbling away at our basil. In the big city of L.A. we don't have a deer problem (just a racoon problem eating my koi) Chicken wire won't foil racoons or instects obviously.

[sqftsteve]

@pellcio

Our main problem has been a seemingly endless supply of groundhogs. We have deer in the area as well, but luckily they haven't made it into the fenced-in yard, yet.

[hooperlara]

@pellcio I ove your idea for the chicken wire cage!!! Is the chicken wire twisted or folded onto itself in the top corners? How did you make the cage? I can see that you clamped the wire in between the two lumber squares, but how is the top and sides enclosed? Is it strong enough for squirrels to scurry over the top without caving?

Ingenious idea!!!!!!! Thanks!  Lara

[sqftsteve]

@hooperlara

Lara,

The cages are each made from two lengths of chicken wire that are folded into U-shapes. One of these is rotated 90-degrees and put on top of the other one. So the top is doubled. Mel's book suggested just tying the sides closed every six inches or so, but I wanted to improve on that. I used some stainless steel wire and 'stitched' the sides together, working my way up. It took forever and I must have lost a quart of blood, bit it was worth it.

[kingorbit]

These square foot gardens look really cool but I just dont see how they could possibly end up requiring less money and less work than a traditional vegi garden. Am I missing something?

[kingorbit]

These square foot gardens look really cool but I just dont see how they could possibly end up requiring less money and less work than a traditional vegi garden. Am I missing something?

[ainemacdermot]

@kingorbit You never walk on the soil, so it's very soft & you can plunge your hand into it (if done right). By using the weed barrier cloth & metal hardware cloth, you prevent weeds or mice from coming up through the bottom... so, not much weeding needed, which saves a ton of work & you can get rid of stinky gas-using tools (like tillers & such)... in fact, you never need to till, you just dress the top of each box with compost, worm castings, and the like.

[Hendrix1326]

@kingorbit Getting them going is a little pricy, but once you have the boxes established, the only thing you have to do once the plant(s) in a square die(s), is pluck it out and replace with compost and mix it up a bit. With conventional gardening, in the long term, you spend so much more time weeding and wasting soil/compost every year and most of the space in your garden is wasted on unnecessarily wide rows, which weeds just love since you put good soil even between the rows. Hope that helps!

[Innperlenburg]

Absolutely brilliant. Really impressive. What a beautiful job. I love the hinged wire covers.

[SandDogSmith]

Wang Chung!

[Jtran84]

Nice video to watch but too much work for me to execute:)

[TheBgcheez]

I have always read that you shouldn't put any stain on your raised bed frames due to to toxins is this not correct?

[sqftsteve]

@TheBgcheez

I wrestled with this problem for a while. I played it safe and only stained/varnished the outside of the planter. I had considered linseed oil, but only raw linseed oil is suitable for this use, and that takes literally weeks to dry. The 'boiled' linseed oil you find at the hardware store contains 'dryers', which often contain heavy metals that I don't want anywhere near my food.

This is our 3rd year, and the untreated douglas fir is holding up surprisingly well.

[snowhyte29]

Easy to all the HATERS!! I dont get it - if you DONT LIKE DONT WATCH... Get a life...

GREAT VIDEO !!! Thats was awesome and i was very suprised with the end result..

[BradZChef]

I've been pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to raise a garden where I have moles, deer and squirrels. I decided I needed to figure out how to do raised beds with hardware cloth bottoms and removable or hinged covers; then, BAM! I see you did it! Thanks for confirming my plans AND inspiring me to follow through on them! GREAT video too! Thanks!

[lifesepiphany]

Nice!

[gekizai]

Square foot gardening meets 'The Breakfast Club,' ftw!

[Allen2045]

This video was the best.

[scotthw]

Great Job!!!!!! Very inspiring!!!!!

[lifearoundhome]

great transformation

[CultivatorsCorner]

the stone border and mulch really finished it off nicely. looks awesome.

[chbamb2001]

Awesome video! Great job. :)

[rompstar]

funny as hell music, did you roll a fatty joint to get the inspiration to clean up your back garden ? lol nice work!

[swsebrownsugar1888]

oh my goodness i love the way you did your square foot garden.

[easternstar12]

Great video!!! Awsome work. What did you use to make your grids???

[lilnurseratchet1960]

This is the best video I have ever seen. From beginning to end and to the point. I wish more video's were as easy to watch. Seeing the transformation was very inspiring instead of trying to follow several different video's to see the end product. Again, very well made video, and the music was perfect. Please do more. For all you other critics I guess you know everything, right, or you wouldn't be on here trying to learn something from someone else.

[lilnurseratchet1960]

Can I say fabulous 1000 times.

[ColeFried81]

I dunno.... i don't recommend using any sealant even for the outside of the wood. When moisture hits the sealant, it can bleed in to the soil. Where as it may not be toxic, it is not good for the soil or nature further on down the road. Just leave the wood bare and raw. Sure it might rot sooner but you'll get at least two or three solid years out of it before the rotting becomes even close to an issue. Think of it like an untreated fence and think of how long it takes them to rot...

[stimpy321972]

great video, a lot of good ideas,, do you have a list of materiels used ?

[harrisonfivehere]

very nice!

[PsionNinja]

It sounds like the guy is singing "I can't hardly wipe" :)

Nice start to the garden though-

[BreakfastBentoBox]

@PsionNinja I CAN HARDLY WIPE!!! XD Punctuality doesnt mean anything to me, I can hardly wipe. Forget about the time, I can hardly wipe! FUUGGHHET ABOUT IT! I Can Hardly Wipe!!

[brooke12839]

Any chance of you making these to sell?

[VivianRinSC]

Beautiful beds! Into my faves. :) BTW, love the music. :)

[WizzleThump]

1983 called, they want their music back.

[heyjustthetip]

I ve been lookin all over for this video!! Didnt u say u did this for your mother? I m doing the same thing. I m using pine. It doesnt stain so well so I was wondering what wood u used? Fantastic video!! Thats how its done.!

[sqftsteve]

@heyjustthetip - The base is untreated douglas fir and the cage frames are untreated pine. If you sealed the wood before staining you might be able to control the color a bit better, but I just applied it straight to the lightly sanded wood. Good luck with your SFG!

[bm5447]

looks great. I just did one 4by4 garden this week and it was seemed like a lot to mix up all the soil! How will you vertically grow with the cages?

[sqftsteve]

Oddly enough growing UP wasn't so much of a problem, but growing OUT was a problem. Wrangling together zucchini and side-ways growing brussel sprouts in order to close the lids was a huge PITA. I need to find a better solution for next year. I'm considering splitting the lids in half, hinged on the bottom, so that they open from the middle. Either that or hinge each individual side panel.

[sadia102]

WOW what a great vid and transformation. You were so organised. I'm jealous too. Got to see what I can do about those cages you set up. Would love to see a vid on how you did those ...although I get the concept. Cant wait to see you entire back yard when you are finished with it. Wonderful raised bed set up. Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

[QuickGardens]

Now that.s impressive! Amazing.

[twomeow]

I am soooo jealous! Great video. Thanks for sharing.

[dylan14570]

Absolutely beautiful!! :)

[atlsud]

quite a transformation!

Great job.

[sqftsteve]

Thanks! It sure was a lot of work, but also quite a bit of fun.