Small Space Gardening

Lesson 4: Applying the Square Foot Gardening Principles in to Other Garden Styles

End of Season Journaling

Fall has arrived. It is time to put your garden to bed for the winter. What should you do? First, pull up all the single-year plants and put them in the compost pile. Second, check over your garden beds, particularly if you built raised beds and added trellises. Do any repair work necessary now. This will save you time when spring comes next year. Third, collect your tools, do any cleaning necessary, and put them away for the winter. Fourth, collect bags of fall leaves. Run your lawnmower over them several times. Then pile them in your square foot garden(s). If you want, cover them with light weight plastic to keep them from blowing around.

Record Your Failures and Successes

I strongly believe this is the most important thing you can do at the end of a garden season. Chances are you haven’t taken time to make notes during the season, so do so now before your memory fades. List those plants that did particularly well (best colors for flowers, largest amount of produce per plant, best tasting vegetables, or whatever other notes you want. Then list plants or varieties that you were disappointed with. During the fall or winter, you can read about those plants and decide if you can correct a problem leading to better success next season or if it simply is something you won’t bother with again.

Start Planning Next Year’s Garden

I love the late summer and early fall season. This is when I often visit my friends’ gardens with a notebook in hand. I list any plants I see that I simply must have for next year. I also spend a great deal of time studying garden books and identifying plants that may survive in my climate with my particular garden limitations and conditions.

Sometime close to Christmas, your first seed catalog arrives in the mail. Now the fun is just beginning. Collect a nice pile of those catalogs during the holiday season. Then, once the holidays are over, you are ready to spend some wonderful winter nights studying those catalogs. I must suggest you hide your credit card and checkbook during this process though! This time period is dangerous to your financial health.

In the past, I’ve actually resorted to comparison shopping for seeds. However, I found it was just as inexpensive to decide which company had the most varieties on my wish list, and then order all seeds from that company. This way I avoid paying multiple shipping charges. If at all possible, send your order in by the end of January. This timing allows you to take advantage of some of the free seeds and/or plants companies are willing to send to those who order early.

While waiting for your seeds to arrive, map out your projected starting dates for each package of seed and prepare to start the garden process all over again for another season of square foot gardening.

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