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Square Yard Gardening - Veggie - 05-01-2024
Please note that Square Yard Gardening (SYG) is very different to Square Foot Gardening (SFG) and Square Metre Gardening (SMG).
SFG means dividing a bed into one foot square sections and growing a different veg in each square. SMG seems to mean much the same thing - divide a metre square bed into 9 and grow a different veg in each square. Both too fiddly for my little brain.
As you know, I struggle to grow anything in rows, probably because the rows are too long and they start wandering off course (much like me). Today, playing about in the garden, I weeded a patch at the end of a long bed, a patch that was approximately a square yard. I could reach into the middle from both sides and it seemed manageable. My little plan is to divide the beds into yard wide strips and subdivide these into yard long mini beds (bits of cane will do).
In each SYG, I could sow 3 rows of the same veg - say, carrots, but sow them successionally, maybe at monthly intervals. Three x 3' rows = a 9' row in a big bed. When the first row is harvested, sow more in its place. There'd be room for intercropping between the rows, maybe spring onions or lettuce. At the end of the season, this carrot bed would move to another SYG for rotation.
The more I think about it, the more I like it! It may actually be a plan I can stick with. Its more orderly than I'm used to but still interesting enough that I wouldn't get bored.
What do you think? Does anyone do this or similar?
RE: Square Yard Gardening - Small chilli - 05-01-2024
I won’t be joining you, but it sounds very interesting.
After googling what a yard is in a measurement I could understand
( just under a meter) . All this really proves is our minds work very differently when it comes to simple gardening plans
.
RE: Square Yard Gardening - Veggie - 05-01-2024
I still think imperial - not this new fangled metric stuff. Anyway, I don't want the Mel Bartholomew SFG/SMG confused with my version. https://www.growveg.co.uk/guides/planning-a-square-foot-vegetable-garden/
RE: Square Yard Gardening - JJB - 05-01-2024
For once I think this plan is excellent. Hopefully it will offer enough diversity to keep you amused for a while and looks doable. I too still work in feet and inches, my garden measuring stick (a bamboo cane with marks on) is primarily imperial with metric equivalents opposite. I can do 30cm (1 ft) & 1m (a yard and a bit) but have no idea without figuring, what say 18cm might be. I have trouble converting planting distances on seed pkts back to inches.
You could look at new plan as being unraised beds.
RE: Square Yard Gardening - Veggie - 06-01-2024
Thank you, JJB. This may be the first time you've said I've had a good idea.
They'll definitely be flat, "raised beds". I'll mark them out with canes or some bits of dismantled GH. Need to clear some ground first!
The rows will need to run parallel to the outside edges, with another row in the middle - which will make it easier to sow. If I sowed across the bed I'd have to move from one side to the other to finish sowing as I can't reach across 36".
RE: Square Yard Gardening - Veggie - 06-01-2024
Remember when I asked for advice on how to divide up a large bed 13'x10? I mentioned Square yard beds then! https://gardenandgossip.org/showthread.php?tid=1274. Weather permitting I'll mock up this bed tomorrow. Can't clear it all as there are carrots and leeks and who knows what else growing there.
RE: Square Yard Gardening - JJB - 06-01-2024
Never thought I'd hear you talking about 'rows'!
RE: Square Yard Gardening - Veggie - 06-01-2024
Nor me!! Its still an idea, not put into practice yet!
RE: Square Yard Gardening - Moth - 06-01-2024
(05-01-2024, 09:24 PM)Small chilli Wrote: ..After googling what a yard is in a measurement I could understand
I'm another dinosaur... confronted with metric measurements my chant is - ten cm equals four inches - I'm adept at dividing by 10 and multiplying by 4
RE: Square Yard Gardening - Veggie - 10-01-2024
I've just bought this book "One Magic Square. Grow your own food on one square metre"
https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Magic-Square-Grow-Metre/dp/0857842803
Unlike the other SQM books it doesn't divide the metre into 9 little squares but designs the bed in its entirety. There are plans for themed beds like pasta, pizza, curry, salad, Aztec, beans and more. One idea that I like is to run a tall crop, like beans diagonally across the bed, splitting it into 2 triangles.
Food for thought!