12 Steps to Whole Foods

Reaping a Gardener’s Rewards
You can plant these as early as the second week in April:
Beets, carrots, radishes, lettuce, and chard from seeds; onion sets
Be sure to use untreated lumber to build boxes that will not leach chemicals into your soil and, therefore, your
food. Boxes sit on top of the ground and can be 4'x4', 4'x6', or even 2'x2'. Use string wound around nails or
screws to divide the boxes into squares that are 1'x1'.
I plan my square-foot garden by drawing tables that match each of my boxes, like this 6'x4' box below. I plan
for staggered plantings by detailing the date I want to plant that crop in each box. Then I write a check mark
when I have planted the square, to keep track of what to water.
Carrots
Apr. 1
Spinach
Apr. 1
Spinach
Apr. 8
Spinach
Apr. 15
White onions
Apr. 1
Yellow onions
May 1
Carrots
Apr. 8
Spinach
Apr. 1
Spinach
Apr. 8
Spinach
Apr. 15
White onions
May 1
Scallions
May 1
Carrots
Apr.15
Spinach
Apr. 1
Spinach
Apr. 8
Spinach
Apr. 15
Beets
May 1
Radishes
Apr. 15
Carrots
Apr. 22
Spinach
Apr. 1
Spinach
Apr. 8
Spinach
Apr. 15
Beets
May 15
Radishes
May 1
Plant 16 per square:
Radishes, carrots, onions, pole beans
Plant 9 per square:
Beets, spinach, bush beans
Plant 4 per square:
Lettuce, chard, parsley, marigolds
Plant 1 per square:
Cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, tomatoes, zucchini, corn, peppers, basil and other herbs
The author of square-foot gardening actually says to give zucchini four squares, and tomatoes and cucumbers
two squares. But I vine my zucchini and cucumbers down the rock wall below my garden, or up the fence
behind my garden, away from the squares so they don’t take up so much ground space. And I cage my
tomatoes and plant one per square.
Water newly planted crops every day until you see the plant above ground. (If the seed dries out, it dies.) After
the plant appears, you can water it every three days, and tomatoes should go 4-7 days between waterings.
One of the best reasons to do square-foot gardening is that you can often get two crops out of one square in one
season. For instance, in April, you can plant cool-weather-loving lettuce, which matures quickly. Then you can
pick it around the end of May, add some compost to that square, and plant some radishes or beets in that square.
For detailed information on this method of gardening, I recommend Mel Bartholomew’s Square-Foot
Gardening. You can learn more about vining in the square-foot method, building trellises for vines (I use the
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