Jim's Square Foot Garden Pictures
June 16, 2008
Not pictured is the minimum amount of water required (collected from rain gutters or gray water, if necessary).
Above: Enough Square Foot Gardening boxes to feed 4 adults all meals for one full year!
Above: The back 4' X 8' box will yield two corn crops for a total of 12 bushels per year or 5 pints of corn every week.
The box in front is a 4' X 12' One and a half 4' X 12' boxes will feed one adult for a year.
It will cost $150 to build a 4' X 12' box, but it will pay for itself the second month you harvest from it.
Above: The squash plants in the back row climbing the netting are only a month old and already being harvested.
Winter Garden: Plastic covering or other frost covering material (not shown) will extend the growing season to twelve months, as long as the ground underneath does not freeze.
A view of our mini farm containing twenty-six 4' X 12' boxes built in March 2009.
Above: Harvest time
Above: Two bin compost pile. Human manure and urine are added to the pile every two weeks and covered with hay. The pile will collect for one year then age an additional full year to kill all pathogens. It will never need to be turned or disturbed. A thin layer of this compost is then added to the garden boxes each year to provide all nutrients the vegetables need. The center bin is for storage of cover materials of dry leaves (in bags in foreground), hay, sawdust or peat moss. This cover material keeps away all odors and insects. It really works!
$20 homemade toilet for compost collection. It contains a five gallon bucket. The bucket is filled with two inches of shredded newspaper to begin with to absorb urine odor. Fecal matter is covered with a layer of more paper, sawdust, grass clippings or hay. Honest folks, there is no odor emanating from it!. You might also compromise by just using a urine bottle for the compost pile.
It will take a full week for two adults to fill the bucket. It is then covered with a lid and a second bucket is used. When they are both filled (every two weeks) they are emptied into a hole dug in the center of the compost pile and then covered with a two inch layer of cover material to protect it from odor and flys. This will provide the nitrogen needed by the plants so that fertilizer is not required. This may sound gross but it is a lot easier than finding a cow and following it around all day. Besides, you are no longer killing fish in the ocean with your sewage and fertilizers being emptied there by means of streams and rivers.
