Diana Noonan reveals the roots of square foot gardening

Mel Bartholomew, who died in 2016, was not only a gardener but also an engineer, businessman, television presenter and author. Once retired, he became more interested in growing vegetables and, one day, when a composting tutor failed to turn up to the class he was to take, Mel and his fellow classmates decided to take the matter of gardening into their own hands, and established a community garden.

using the traditional method of ‘gardening in rows’, the community garden became infested with weeds and soon ground to a halt. that was when Bartholomew began to rethink this method of growing. He concluded that growing in rows was wasteful of space, labour-intensive, and unsatisfactory for dealing with pests and disease. to him, it seemed it was a method of commercial market gardening that had simply been downsized to fit into backyards – where it didn’t belong.

commercial growing was geared towards allowing space for animals or machines to move along rows. these otherwise empty spaces received as much fertiliser and water as the rows of vegetables themselves and, because they were bare, attracted weeds that then had to be pulled. in all, Bartholomew concluded that 80 per cent of a commercial field was being unused for growing.

commercial gardening, he also noted, involved mechanical sowing, something that inevitably led to the laborious task of thinning.

when Bartholomew asked fellow gardeners why they did things this way, they had no answer other than to say it was the way gardening had always been done. Frustrated, Bartholomew soon developed a style of gardening that was, in his opinion, much more suited to the domestic grower.

Bartholomew’s garden concept evolved over time to become raised beds divided into four by four foot squares, further divided into 16 one-foot-square spaces. Metric gardeners may find it easier to use the concept of 1m × 1m gardens divided up into nine equally sized squares. the size of a metric garden means that all sections can be reached without the gardener having to step on the bed, thus avoiding compaction. the beds are also small enough to be easily covered with shade-cloth, frost-cloth or mesh, if required.

square foot gardens were originally raised using timber, but any other available material that suits (such as bricks, hay bales or woven basket willow) is acceptable. it is even possible, where perennial weeds are a problem, to line the garden with weed matting.

in square foot gardening, each square is given over to a particular plant, and how many plants can be sown into a square depends on the variety being planted (see the planting suggestions opposite). climbing plants are grown vertically on frames around the edge of the garden in such a way that they don’t shade sun-loving plants.

the square foot gardener harvests carefully, taking care not to disturb neighbouring plants. Where possible, roots are left in place to contribute to decomposition and microbial life, and the mix is topped up with fresh material before the next planting. rotation is of paramount importance.

Bartholomew’s gardens were not a place for tools, and the close proximity of plants to each other was said to reduce water requirements to 10 per cent of that in a row-grow garden. The diversity of planting in a small area meant that pests would, hopefully, keep their distance.