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News about us
11. All-New book hits #1
12. Ksl Story on SFG
1. BYU TV comes to SFG
13. Star Ledger Article
2. Newark Advocate articles on SFG
14. Pat & Connie Lahr in Tahiti
3. How does your garden grow
15. Muskegon Chronicle
4. Utah Community Gardens
16. SFG Therapy
5. Monastery uses SFG
17. Another reason to get an SFG
6. Gardening for the community
7. The Advocate Article
18. Square Foot Hero Gardens
8. Minnesota school gardening
9. Why go shopping anymore?
10. Junior Master Gardener Award
Early in July, a BYU-TV film crew came to Ogden Valley to tape a segment for their upcoming new series Gardening Essentials. BYU was interested in Square Foot Gardening (SFG) and wanted to do an interview with the inventor of this revolutionary gardening methodMel Bartholomew. Bartholomew, of Eden ,Utah is the inventor and author of the best-selling gardening book Square Foot Gardening .
The segment was filmed in the garden and yard of Steve and Karen Bastow of Liberty . During the day-long shooting, Mel taught the basics of SFG showing each step of the process through a hands-on demonstration. An in-depth interview was also conducted with Mel where he shared the origins of SFG and how he invented this easy and efficient gardening method. The Bastows garden was filmed in detail as an example of how beautiful and productive a SFG can be.
Other segments for Gardening Essentials were filmed in other areas of the United States as well as locations in Central and South America . The program will air nationwide on PBS in the spring of 2006.
It takes a lot of people to shoot just one sq ft. More than it takes to plant it. Notice how attractive the crushed stone pathways look and how much room there is to walk around. Youll need all that space when the summer plants take off.
Now we are making the best use of that grand entrance into the SFG garden. Thats Steve and Karens son Nathon and his new bride Spring. What a place to have a wedding reception.
2. Newark Advocates articles on SFG
Locals learn about square foot gardening
By SETH ROY • Advocate Reporter • August 29, 2009
NEWARK Local proponents of the square foot gardening technique met this weekend and learned from the man who popularized it in 1981.
"When you read the book, it was like talking to him," said BettyAnn Zimmerman, a Newark mother of three who met author Mel Bartholomew this weekend.
In Newark for a three-day symposium, the Utah native Bartholomew told a group of gardeners about how he began square foot gardening during a seminar Saturday morning at Second Presbyterian Church in Newark.
"I found out gardening is a lot of work," Bartholomew said of trying it after retiring from civil engineering.
"It didnt make sense to keep on gardening the traditional way if there was a way to take up less space, use fewer materials and do less work."
"I was so frustrated with single-row gardening," Bartholomew said.
Priscilla Hare, of McKean Township, attended the session with her 13-year-old son, Keegan Hare, adding that they started a year ago, and their efforts have grown quickly.
"We probably get more harvest from that than we get from the regular garden," she said.
Keegan has spearheaded the square foot garden and said he enjoys it because its less work and can allow for a larger variety in smaller space than a larger garden.
Hare first tried square foot gardening in 1989 when she lived in a house with little yard space.
"We had no yard, and I came from a family that had a huge garden," she said. "You do not need the 40-foot garden that I grew up with."
Bartholomew showed the audience examples of what other square foot gardeners have done elsewhere, including other countries such as India and Kenya.
Its not only all over the United States, its all over the world, he said. Our basic goal is just to get people to become more self-sufficient.
Zimmerman, whose family started a square foot garden in her front yard in May, said they get almost all of their produce from it, and the concept makes it easy to replant a square with a new crop.
Were on our third crop already, she said. All you have to do is buy the book and follow the steps. It seems too easy.
Seth Roy can be reached at (740) 328-8547 (740) 328-8547 or sroy_newarkadvocate.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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4. Community gardens spring up to feed Utah's hungry
By Bryon Saxton Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau bsaxton_standard.net
KAYSVILLE -- A tight economy, tight yard space at home and consumers wanting more control over where their next meal comes from have community gardens popping up like dandelions this spring.
The latest is a 12,000-square-foot Utah Food Bank garden planted by 60 volunteers at the Utah State University Botanical Gardens in Kaysville.
Produce harvested from the garden, including tomatoes, honeydew melons, corn and potatoes, will be donated to the Utah Food Bank, said Jaydee Gunnell, Davis County horticulture agent for USU Extension Services.
A similar garden was planted in Ogden at the Mount Benedict Monastery under the direction of a business-community partnership. The harvest generated from that garden is being donated to area seniors.
"We figure we have that land at the botanical center and the expertise," Gunnell said of the Kaysville project, which will have the assistance of master gardeners on staff.
The garden planted last week is part of an Eagle Scout project being shared among four Scouts and the community members supporting them, Gunnell said. The garden still needs 15 to 30 community volunteers to come in weekly for two hours to weed and maintain it.
While the aim of the Kaysville garden is to fill the appetite of the needy, the cities of Clinton, North Salt Lake and Syracuse are organizing gardens to give residents an opportunity to fill their dinner tables.
The Syracuse City Council this month adopted a resolution creating a contract with participating green thumbs, charging them $15 to plant a 20-square-foot garden or $25 to plant a 40-square-foot garden on roughly 60 acres at 1000 W. 2356 South.
"We have some park land that we have purchased that we have not developed yet," Mayor Fred Panucci said. "So we thought, why not allow the citizens to utilize that for community gardens?"
The city created the project after seeing the success other cities was having with similar projects.
"We learn a lot from our neighbors, and hopefully they learn a little from us," Panucci said.
Having the garden will also give parents an opportunity to teach their children about the land and where food comes from, he said, "and save them a little money on their grocery bill."
Clinton established a 2-acre community garden at 600 N. 1600 West last summer at the request of residents, said Terri Jenson, city public works office manager.
The garden space, offered at no charge, has 22 plots, she said.
Last year, not all the available garden plots were used, Jenson said. But this summer, no plots are available.
North Salt Lake is helping develop what is being referred to as the Orchard Community Garden, opening this month. The garden will be on a "building-lot" size of land at Orchard Drive and Center Street.
Three years ago, the city bought land to make a road improvement, leaving about a quarter-acre of surplus property not big enough to develop a park on, said Mayor Shanna Schaefermeyer.
After meeting with residents to determine what should be done with the lot, city leaders determined the best use of the land would be a community garden.
Community gardens are growing in popularity because more people want organic food and they want to be able to control their food source because of recent food poisoning scares, she said.
"I think it is good use of this piece of property," Schaefermeyer said of the land that would have cost the city $100,000 to landscape versus the $20,000 it has spent establishing the garden.
"I really don't believe we will be investing a lot of money into it," she said of the garden plots to be available to residents for a fee ranging from $10 to $40.
City officials hope that, through a partnership with USU Extension Services, it will be able to introduce around the periphery of the property gardening demonstrations and offer courses in planting and pruning, Schaefermeyer said.
The city is preparing the site with drip irrigation, and the ground is being leveled by Eagle Scout groups in preparation for raised growing beds, she said.
"We're just on that curve of getting it started," Schaefermeyer said. "There are a lot of possibilities."
Sunset has had a community garden maintained by a private resident behind city hall since 2007.
Officials said that garden, however, has not been sown this year as a result of the city council's discussion of using the property for development.
5. Monastery growing vegetables for those in need in the Top of Utah
By JaNae Francis
Standard-Examiner staff
jfrancis_standard.net
SOUTH OGDEN - Volunteers spent several hours planting a garden to feed the poor Friday.
But they said their efforts were just the beginning of what they would like to see happening in the Top of Utah.
"This is an easy way for the whole community to come together and help those in need," said Marcie Valdez, director of Northern Utah Catholic Community Services.
Called Sow for Humanity, the effort is the latest development of Catholic Community Services to better serve those who turn to them to meet their needs.
On Friday, volunteers planted 176 square feet in square-foot gardens at Mount Benedict Monastery.
The strawberries, tomatoes, onions and peas harvested there will go to the Joyce Hansen Hall Food Bank, specifically to be given to the elderly patrons.
But organizers also are getting help from area farmers, who will deliver their excess, and they're asking everyone in the community, including area churches, to grow an extra row for those in need.
"Fresh produce is a rare commodity," said Valdez. "We receive so much help from the community through canned goods and other items, but fresh produce is not something we often have available to those we serve."
The effort at the monastery was the realization of one woman's dream.
"All it takes is just one person and then she gets the rest of them going," said Yvonne Coiner, president of the new Northern Utah Catholic Community Services Advisory committee and executive director of St. Benedict's Foundation.
Pam Parkinson, who is also a member of the newly formed Northern Utah Catholic Community Services Advisory committee, went to the group's first meeting at the end of April with one goal in mind and that was growing a community garden.
She purchased all the supplies for her own square-foot garden on May 9, and when she found how simple it was to set up, she set about getting the supplies donated for the cause.
"Pam has really done all the work here," Valdez said. "She has gone out and solicited donations."
The sisters at the monastery volunteered their secondary water.
Bank of Utah has committed to provide 10 volunteers a week to plant and help maintain the gardens.
Plants were contributed by J&J Nursery, and other supplies were donated by Enable Industries, St. Benedict's Foundation, Ogden city, Wheelwright Lumber and the Square Foot Gardening Foundation.
"Catholic Community Services provides help and creates hope," said Kathryn Brussard, director of development and marketing for Catholic Community Services.
She said delivering fresh produce to seniors will brighten their day as few other efforts would.
Josh Pederson, a member of the CCS advisory committee as well as vice president of United Way of Northern Utah, said he was excited about the project that will benefit so many who can use the help.
He recalled a time when he was working with an elderly woman to help her save money on her prescriptions and to deliver food to her.
When he asked her what she was going to do with the money she saved, the woman told him she would buy fresh produce.
"She said, 'I haven't had it in seven years,' " he said.
Valdez said people who are not in need don't realize how expensive fresh produce is, especially for senior citizens who are on a limited income.
"Most of our senior citizens are living on less than $1,000 a month," she said.
But it's not just the recipients of the food that organizers hope to inspire with the effort.
A Bank of Utah volunteer, Wendy Parker of West Haven, spoke about the spiritual benefit she received from planting fruits and vegetables for the project.
"It brings (the spiritual side) out in a person," she said. "Getting in touch with nature is a spiritual thing."
And she said knowing that others benefit from her work is all the more gratifying.
6. Gardening for the good of the community
By Nancy Van Valkenburg
nvan_standard.net
Her first foray into gardening is taking all the patience that 3-year-old Matisse Rich can muster.
"It changes a little," the Ogden tot said. "I like to watch it."
Matisse and mom Heather Rich are among the first crop of gardeners to rent plots in the community garden, behind Grounds for Coffee, at Harrison Boulevard and 30th Street, on Ogden's east side.
"Matisse has always wanted to garden," said Rich, 38, as her daughter tried to fathom the difference between tomato plants, marigolds and weeds. "We live behind Weber State, and our yard is solid trees. We're really enjoying this. Sometimes we bring a lunch and eat at the picnic table, and watch people garden."
Grounds for Coffee owners Suzy and Dan Dailey purchased the plot just west of their shop, thinking they might put in a drive-through.
"After pricing the addition and thinking about staffing, and thinking about cars idling all day, we just couldn't get excited about it," Suzy Dailey said. "So we started to think about what else we could do. We know that the Wasatch Community Garden in Salt Lake has a waiting list of between two and five years. We thought, 'Geez, that is something people really want and need, so we decided to throw out the idea of a community garden, and people got really excited.' "
The square-foot way
Conceived last fall, the organic garden now consists of 30 garden boxes, 4-by-12 feet and suitable for square-foot-gardening techniques. Each box is filled with a soil-free growing mix, inspired by the recommendations of square-foot-gardening guru Mel Bartholomew, of Eden.
Each box is rigged with a drip irrigation system, and pathways are mulched to keep the mess minimal, even during this year's unusually wet spring. Boxes rent for $25 a season, with an additional $15 charge to help fund the watering system in the first year only.
"The location is perfect, and people got really excited about the project," Dailey said. "We've got a long waiting list, and we only wish we had more boxes to rent."
More than 60 people are on waiting lists for the boxes.
Seven of the grow boxes were donated to local charities, and are tended by those groups and by the garden community. For the remaining 23 boxes, the Daileys tried to choose gardeners who were novices and really wanted to learn.
Learning the ropes
Alicia Kirkman, who describes herself as an Ogdenite currently living in Roy, admits she is a beginner.
"I have never had a garden before in my life," she said. "Dan and Suzy pitched the idea, telling us we would have boxes prepared for us and three master gardeners to answer questions. That was a big draw for someone like me, with so many questions."
Dale Torgerson, who teaches horticulture classes for Utah State University, is one of those on-call master gardeners, taking questions by e-mail and occasionally dropping by the site.
"I was kind of surprised, actually, at how many people jumped right in," Torgerson said. "It's been really positive, for the volunteers and the gardeners. People have asked questions about what to plant and when to plant it. I haven't gotten too many questions about watering yet, we've had so darned much rain. People really want to learn, and they've been adding trellises and even garden art. It's been a really fun experience, for me, anyway."
Kirkman, 37, has kept her salsa garden, of tomatoes and peppers, basic.
"I'm just happy to be learning," she said. "It's been fun watching things grow. If one tomato survives to the end, I will consider this a success."
Pay it forward
Education was the goal from the beginning, Kirkman said.
"Dan and Suzy said the goal is to educate the community, and keep the information going," she said. "After people get the skills, the goal is for them to garden at home so new people can come in and learn."
Dailey said she and her husband are novice gardeners themselves, learning along with everyone else.
"We have a garden planted in some raised beds we built in our backyard last fall when we started looking into square-foot gardening," she said. "My husband volunteered when the Wasatch Community Garden in Salt Lake was building a straw bale greenhouse, and it was all really interesting, how they put it together and how they could extend their growing season."
The Daileys live in Salt Lake City, but saw more business opportunity in Ogden when they decided to open a coffee shop 19 years ago. They have commuted ever since.
Other features of the community garden include children's classes at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Thursd
ays. The free classes cover a variety of topics. One recent class taught children to make decorative steppingstones, and each c
hild made one to take home and one to leave for use in the garden.
On the street, on the north edge of the garden plot, volunteers have built a community herb garden. Dailey hopes that once plants are established, area residents will feel free to come snip a few herbs for their salads and dinners.
The cities of Clinton, Syracuse and North Salt Lake have organized or are setting up community gardens for residents on city-owned property. But this private garden project has drawn more interest than Dailey ever would have guessed.
"It's just been a really fun project that we have enjoyed and the gardeners have enjoyed," she said "It's
fun to look outside of our business and see people working away on their plots
. It's a great place to take a break, and we've made so many new friends. Gardeners are the nicest people. It's a win/win situation."
7. Square Foot Gardener To Speak
Mel Bartholomew's book, "All New Square Foot Gardening," a revision of his 1981 small-space gardening classic, tells new gardeners in direct, simple language how to grow vegetables and flowers in 16-square-foot grids, conserve water, use fewer seeds and make weeding something a child can do.
A foundation set up by Mel Bartholomew helps teachers show children how to garden. Proceeds from his book teach small-space gardening to people in poor countries who garden to eat.
Mel Bartholomew retired well as an engineer in the mid-1970s when he was 42. His books have sold more than 1.5 million copies.
Proceeds from book sales in the 1980s supported a square foot gardening show on public television.
"I didn't need the money," Mel Bartholomew said. "I did well with my engineering company. My goal was to get people into gardening."
Plants (and the occasional weed) in Mel's 4-by-4- foot gardens are easy to reach without stepping into the garden. Walking in a garden compacts the soil which means extra work to loosen the dirt.
The engineer built his gardens 4 by 4 because boards to make the box gardens came in 8-foot lengths at the lumber company.
"You just told them, 'Cut the boards in half,'" Mel said.
Inside the 16-square-foot box, the engineer plantsman laid out a grid using string. The individual squares of dirt inside the box became 16 places to plant.
"The first book said to use string," Mel said. "String got dirty and broke. Now, I use six pieces of lathe."
In the first square foot garden, Mel had gardeners digging up the top 6 inches of existing soil and adding to that a mixture of vermiculite, peat moss and compost.
The idea: Provide nutrients where the plants are and don't overplant.
"Our row gardens are a hand-me-down from farming," Mel said. "We thought, 'If it's good enough for farmers, it's good enough for gardeners.' Well, that's dead wrong."
Why fertilize and water an entire garden plot? What Mel calls "perfect dirt," his recommended mixture of vermiculite, compost and peat moss, makes additional fertilizing unnecessary. Since you're watering just where the plants are inside the grid, there's no need for irrigation hoses or sprinklers.
Weeds are few because the box garden is placed on top of cardboard or some other weed blocker and, then, filled with weedless growing medium.
Mel tells new gardeners how much space is required for different vegetables, seed germination time, days to harvest, even sunlight requirements.
"I sat down and listed all the bad things about single row gardens," Mel said. "Why fertilize the aisles? Why plant a whole pack of seed and then thin?"
The engineer part of Mel Bartholomew's brain made him count the lettuce seed in a packet.
"There were more than a thousand seeds!" he said. "I don't care if you're a family of rabbits. You're not going to eat a thousand heads of lettuce."
Seed packets these days are pretty stingy, but there's still more seed per vegetable type than most people need in one garden, Mel contends.
"Why overplant when the seed companies guarantee 95 percent germination?" he said.
In a square foot gardener's refrigerator, you'll find seed stored in sealable plastic bags.
"What does seed need to germinate?" Mel asked. "Warmth and moisture, right? So keep them cold and dry, and they'll last up to 10 years."
You'll have seed left over after planting if you follow Mel's dictum of "a pinch of seed" (two or three seeds) to the hole.
"I studied thinning," he said. "What happens to the plant you're leaving when you thin? You disturb it, right? So, snip the ones you want to thin."
Mel Bartholomew's Web site http://www.squarefootgardening.com will give you much of the information, and enthusiasm, found in his books.
"Yeah, they tell me I give away too much," he said.
"They" are his publishers, but once Mel warms to his subject, gardening thoughts sprout like spring pea blossoms.
Mel came up with a frame, an upside down "U" of galvanized steel he calls Mel's Tomato Tower. The frame's nylon netting is strong enough to support squash plants, melons and pumpkins.
Mel likes teaching children because they're empty grids waiting to be filled.
"If you have an open mind, you can learn the basics of square foot gardening in an hour," he said.
"If you're an expert, it'll take three weeks because experts keep saying, 'Yeah, but '''
By ED CULLEN, Advocate staff writer, first published: May 17, 2009
8. Maple Lake School Garden
Pat on Connie Lahr from Maple Lake, Minnesota. Two of our most active certified SFG teachers, are showing kids how to grow veggies in the Square Foot Gardening way.
Again this year the First Grade Students in "Maple Lake Elementary" are experiencing the growth of lettuce grown in warmth and self-watering in the school; and comparing this to lettuce transplanted outdoors on April 29.
The overturned bucket on the indoor bed provides continuous rainwater from the bottom to the plants; outdoors, since we may yet experience a light frost, the lettuce plants were given a protective milk jug cover. Over 40 of the 68 First Graders took a lettuce plant home for their family garden. This lettuce can be harvested from the bottom up, 2-3 leaves a day and is tolerant to both cold and heat, harvesting through late June, .
Welcome to everyone at the May 18 Square Foot Gardening OPEN GARDEN to receive a Queensland Non-Hearting Leaf Lettuce for your garden.
Do you want to be a certified teacher? You can be! Just go to the tab marked books and DVDs. Take a look, and become a Certified Teacher for SFG! You wont regret it!
9. Why Go Shopping Anymore ?
Author Bill Kibbyn just wrote a wonderful book called Deep Economy. In one part of the book he suggests that we might be better off to eat locally and supply ourselves more locally. This book has to do with world supplies, consumption, and markets. It highlights the renewal of methods of providing ourselves with energy, food, entertainment, activities and education more locally. Now I've got an even better idea.
Let me ask you the reader a simple question. If there is nothing in the house to eat for dinner, why would you want to search for your car keys, than go out and move some bikes and playthings from behind the car, back the car out of the garage, than find the kids and tell them you are going to the store for a few items. After backing out and turning around you now drive slowly down your street. Then while you wait and finally turn onto the boulevard, than drive five or ten minutes through traffic, then have to try and find a parking place near the grocery store. You end up going around the block twice before you finally give up and drive into the back parking lot. Then in your hurry you forget to note where your car is parked. After looking for a cart and getting in the store, you look over the groceries and decide the fresh vegetable department looks so good you are almost ready to buy a salad by getting a container and go through the salad bar, but then you realize you are a little short of money this week, and you know this is a lot more expensive, so why not prepare it yourself. In fact, buy all the ingredients and let the kids help prepare dinner tonight. So as you look through the different kinds of lettuce, radishes and onions and all the good things that go into a salad. You finally make your selection. Each individual item goes into a separate plastic bag. And then you are ready to scoot out of the door, but of course this is late afternoon and supper time so many others have the same idea so the lines are long, even the express line. There must be someone up there who has more than ten items. I remember a comedian who came over from Russia who said he decided he didnt belong in the express line because he had a whole loaf of bread with at least 15 slices in it. Ha-ha. Anyhow it was funny when he was on the stage.
Next step is to use your credit card which then increases the time to pay but, it doesnt have to be paid for another couple of weeks. So you are in the clear for a while, and then it is out into the parking lot to try and find your car. I remember my Mother in Law, a very funny lady, who said she always puts a big red ribbon on top of her car antennae but of course no one has antennas anymore on their cars, so that wont help. But you finally find it and it is a slow drive home. Once you are there and parked, it is now a matter of finding the kids. Getting them home and washed and ask them to help prepare the salad tonight.
Now my question to you is this. Why on earth would anyone do all of that? Spending the time, the money, the gasoline, the hassle, when they could step outside their back door and in two or three minutes pick the same items, fresh, organically grown, non-contaminated, wont be recalled, and most important, wont be handled by anyone else. And no credit card to use. In fact, each child could pick their own which is now a special treat, rather than just having to wash and trim the vegetables from the plastic bags from the grocery store.
What would the table side conversation be if you had been to the store? Would it have anything to do with family, or vegetables, or health, or anything like that? Probably not, It would involve subjects like we dont have much time, the roads were so crowded, and the store was just packed, more irritation. But if you had your own Square Foot Garden right outside your back door, Ill bet you the conversation would be around the garden, the vegetables you were growing, and harvesting, and eating, and what else could you grow, and why didnt we do this a long time ago.
Remember Square Foot Gardening has a special advantage when each child has their own box. They only need a 3 by 3, but that produces 9 square feet of gardening space and produces nine different crops. Having the children sit down with pen and paper and listing nine different things they would like to grow is a lesson in itself in penmanship, spelling, name pronunciation, reading a seed catalog, selecting, comparing, and getting the kids to think a little, and think about what they would like to eat. It might even get some of them to evaluate the pros and cons of having something like radishes which are ready in four weeks, where a different plant like peppers may take a couple of months before you harvest anything.
Now of course this example started with you having to go to the store to shop for dinner tonight, which is not always necessary. You might go to the grocery store two or three times a week and do several days shopping. But I think it illiterates the point of the simplicity and the savings in time, energy, harassment, and dollars to have your own garden. It is virtually free, and it is also free from hassle, worry, and time consuming activities.
Time you could be spending with your family!
Next week Im going to tell you all how easy it is to start a Square Foot Garden at your house. It doesnt matter where you live, how big or small your yard is, even if you live in an apartment or condo, Ill show you how to start.
If you cant wait till then, go to our web site, guess what the name is? squarefootgardening.com of course, see you're learning already.
See you next week and Happy Gardening. Mel Bartholomew
10. Square Foot Gardener
Chosen for National Junior Master Gardener Youth Excellence Award
Eighth grader Joshua Greene from Bluford, Illinois was recently selected as the 2009 National Junior Master Gardener® of the year. He will receive his award at the International Master Gardener conference on March 23 in Las Vegas. Joshua was chosen from a pool of national applicants and was the top vote getter of three finalists.
Joshua is a member of the Jefferson County JMG® group entitled The Dragon Lilies where he became a certified Junior Master Gardener in 2007. His accomplishments in this program are impressive and too numerous to mention in this brief article. Some of the highlights include:
Assisted his 4-H group leader in teaching community classes for all ages about vermicomposting and container gardening
Designed a pop-up book about the life cycle of a butterfly for a 4-H group lesson and assisted the younger children in the class
Assisted in presenting a container gardening class to the public at the Midwestern Herb and Garden Show at the Times Square Mall in Mt. Vernon
Helped his JMG® group design a Spooky Garden Walk for community children worked with his JMG® unit to design and plant flower beds at the county courthouse
As a Beespotter for the University of Illinois, he spotted an uncommon species of bee which helped researchers collect data on population status of bees
Joshuas favorite project has been his work with square foot gardening. He met Mel Bartholomew, originator of Square Foot Gardening who tutored him. Together with his father, Robert Greene, Joshua built a 4 by 4 foot frame where he planted vegetables and flowers. He produced enough produce for this family and friends. Joshs work with the JMG® has increased his science scores at school and he has learned respect, responsibility and how to help others. Congratulations to Joshua Greene on this prestigious honor.
11. Eden Authors Book Hits
Number #1
Eden resident Mel Bartholomew recently released his newest book, All New Square Foot Gardening. Bartholomews latest book applies the original concepts of square foot gardening with many new gardening tips and improvements developed throughout the past 25 years since the release of his first book a consistent national top seller with over a million copies sold.
Bartholomew's latest book, All New Square Foot Gardening brings the simple square foot gardening (SFG) method to people all over the world, revolutionizing the way gardening is done, and allowing people in developed and underdeveloped countries a viable and effective means of improving their diet by teaching them an uncomplicated and straightforward means of growing fresh vegetables and herbs. The all new square foot gardening method also teaches an effective means of providing a cash crop to supplement a familys income and especially important tool for low income or marginalized populations.
Bartholomew's book is full of helpful illustrations that will help all levels of gardeners from the experienced to the beginners understand this easy and effective gardening method. Special features of the 272 page book include:
•A history of Square Foot Gardening
•All new SFG improvements
•The Quick Start Guide
•The 10 Basic Principles of SFG
•Over 75 photographs, illustrations, and charts displaying how-to and step-by-step instructions, images of plants recommended by the author, and charts showing growth rates and proper plant choice.
•All New Square Foot Gardening has already hit number one as Barnes & Nobles top ranking gardening book for the season, and Bartholomew has been touring the United States this spring as a featured speaker at numerous gardening conventions and shows.
In May of this year, Bartholomew and Karen Bastow of Liberty were featured on the TV series Home Grown which was broadcast worldwide on BYU television. For future broadcasts or to see actual announcements and contents of the show, visit www.byub.org/homegrown/episodes/square_foot_gardening.asp
12. KSL Story on SFG
A community group has launched an effort to help families and neighborhoods all over Utah grow their own gardens. Now is the time, they say, with economic and environmental concerns, and you don't even need a "green thumb" or a yard.
The owners of an Ogden coffee shop decided they could make something more productive than a drive-through window. "For us, I think it's about building community. And what better way to do that than with a community garden?" co-owner Suzy Dailey said.
That's the attitude members of a nonprofit group hope to cultivate as they host a series of gardening summits.
"It's bringing people together for a positive benefit, whether it's to help raise crops for poor people or to just to get to know your neighbor, get to know your community members," said Ogden resident Nelda McClaskey.
Along with their back-to-basics message, they offer a whole new approach called "square foot gardening." The demonstration video shows, instead of rows, gardens growing in boxes and gardeners don't even need a yard or tools.
"It's a method that is so simple and so easy, and so foolproof," said Mel Bartholemew, creator of square foot gardening.
He says there is one aspect of square foot gardening that most appeals to people: with a special soil mixture, there's no weeding, no fertilizers.
Gardens can help family budgets, the environment and who knows, maybe even the coffee business. "It pulls people together," store co-owner Dan Dailey said.
If you want to try your hand at square foot gardening this spring, you can visit www.squarefootgardening.com. You can also learn more about the group's gardening summits by sending an e-mail to mrobison_squarefootgardening.com.
E-mail: dwimmer_ksl.com
13. SFG Cookbook
Mel Bartholomew: How small-scale growing brings bounty from garden to table
By Valerie Sudol
February 16, 2010, 5:56PM
Few gardening innovators can claim as large a following as Mel Bartholomew of Eden, Utah, a former engineer who invented a better way to tackle backyard vegetable growing.
Since he first published "Square Foot Gardening" in 1981, more than 2 million copies have been sold. His method is simplicity itself: Plant manageable amounts in a well-defined grid of 12-inch squares, replanting through the season as crops are harvested. Using this system, the garden patch never overwhelms the gardener.
Bartholomews latest revised edition, "All New Square Foot Gardening" (Cool Springs Press) went to press in 2007. Just last month, the same publisher released the "All New Square Foot Gardening Cookbook: Taking the Harvest to the Table," ($19.95) Bartholomews first collection of recipes, written with food editor and blogger Nicki Pendleton Wood.
Bartholomew has been on the road spreading the word about growing and enjoying home-grown veggies. His next stop is the eighth annual New Jersey Flower and Garden Show at the New Jersey Convention Center, 97 Sunfield Ave., Edison, where he will appear at five lectures and book-signing events Friday through Sunday. (Visit njflower.com or call 800-332-3976, ext. 120 for details.)
Meanwhile, we caught up with Bartholomew recently to discuss the new cookbook and how his square foot gardening method can help bring tasty home-grown vegetables to the table.
Q: What inspired you to produce a cookbook and what makes it different?
A: My cookbook is designed for the square foot gardening harvest, which is generally in small amounts. I wanted to give people an idea about how to use what they pick in simple, easy recipes.
Weve selected 135 recipes using 17 popular kitchen garden plants, arranged alphabetically by plants. Each section includes a harvest and yield guide to give you an idea of what to expect from each plant, along with advice on the best way to gather the vegetables and fruit.
Where applicable, weve included a recipe in each section to deal with bumper crops, including sauces and simple pickles. And where its practical, weve included a recipe to make the most of "overgrown" vegetables that have matured past the tender stage.
Q: What do you grow and what are your favorite meals?
A: What I grow the most of our salad greens. I love salads and like the different and unusual, especially salads seasoned with fresh herbs. If you replaced your usual lunch
or dinner with a fresh salad at least five days a week, youd be healthier and not
as irritable, youll quit smoking and you wont get a divorce. (He laughs.) Well, anyway, its cheaper than a lawyer or a psychiatrist.
Q: What makes the square foot gardening method different from traditional vegetable gardening?
A: Eighty percent of the space and effort involved in traditional row planting is wasted. Its all based on the agricultural model of mass production thats good for the farmer, but not for the backyard gardener.
In square foot gardening, you build a box of square foot grids 4 feet by 4 feet, for a total of 16 square feet and fill them with an ideal potting mix. Theres no digging and no equipment needed besides a hand trowel.
My way of gardening is more efficient and sustainable since you plant only what you want to eat and only as much as you can harvest at one time. Lets look at the numbers: Compared to standard methods, in square foot gardening you produce 100 percent of your harvest in 20 percent of the space using 10 percent of the water, 5 percent of your seeds and 2 percent of the work, dealing with 1 percent of the weeds.
Its simple and easy to maintain since it takes just minutes to water and weed when youre doing only one square foot at a time. People get discouraged when they cant keep after the huge gardens they plant in spring that are a mess of weeds by summer.
Q: What about the harvest?
A: In traditional gardening, people plant a whole packet of seeds even if they dont expect to eat what it produces during what is usually a short harvest season. Do most people buy or eat 20 heads of cabbage in a week? I dont think so. So why plant a row of 20 cabbage plants?
In square foot gardening, you plant only one thing in each square, but you have a big variety of fresh vegetables all through the season. As soon as you harvest a square, you throw in a handful of compost and replant it. There are actually three seasons to the growing year spring, summer and fall and you can have fresh herbs and vegetables the entire time.
When you harvest, you clip a little of this and a little of that, like sheep grazing. You can even take your salad bowl out to the garden and fill it every day. Its a sustainable way to garden that produces safe, nutritious, organic food. You never need to worry about freshness or contamination through poor handling when you grow your own.
Q: In your opinion, whats the ideal square foot gardening project?
A: I like to see families get involved since this method is good for the young and old. It can get parents, grandparents and kids outside in the sunlight doing something fun and worthwhile.
I love to see kids drawn into it. They can go to the garden every day and watch one thing as it buds and blossoms and then sets fruit. Suddenly, a teensy bean gets bigger and bigger. Then, its ready to pick and eat. Kids learn to nurture something by taking care of it.
Q: Whats the future of square foot gardening?
A: Through the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, weve taken this overseas as a method of sustainable agriculture thats especially well suited to developing countries where resources like soil, fertilizer and water are scarce. There, our model is square meter gardening, so families have a little excess to sell at market.
Were in Bolivia, Argentina, India, Africa and the Philippines. We offer free scholarships to our seminars that teach people our method so they can take it back home. Its a way to achieve self-sufficiency and attack world hunger.
Q: Who has been the most receptive to the square foot gardening message?
A: In general, were successful with beginners and those who have had to give up gardening because they have mobility issues or limited space. Its easy to convince them.
Abroad, we dont go to the men. We go to the women, since theyre the ones most concerned with feeding their families. Its a simple system, easy to grasp. "Experts?"
They cant understand this, it flies in the face of tradition and they dont want to change.
Learn more at Bartholomews website, squarefootgardening.com.
Cover story: Gardening done on the square
Originally published in the April 2, 2010, print edition.
By Richard Siemers
The Land Correspondent
Patrick and Connie Lahr sat in their Maple Lake home and listened to reports of Haitis earthquake on Jan. 12. They were set to fly to Haiti two days after the quake. Their flight was canceled.
Their primary concerns were friends they made while living in Haiti from 1985-89, and whom they have gotten to know in their biennial trips back to Haiti. These friends continue a program the Lahrs started. Once called Haiti Gardens, it is now incorporated as Gardening World Wide. Gardening World Wide is an education effort to bring fresh nutritious food to people by teaching them to grow their own.
Four square feet
The method the Lahrs teach is called Square Foot Gardening, an approach developed by Mel Bartholomew.
How did we learn about Square Foot Gardening? Connie asked, and then answered, Fixing televisions.
Pat was a self-employed electronic technician in St. Joseph in the early 1980s and first saw Bartholomews program on PBS, on television sets he was repairing. They were already gardeners but, Pat said, we needed some help.
Square Foot Gardening is a method of planting not in rows but in a four-foot square, divided by a grid into 16 one-foot squares. Planting up to 16 different vegetables and fruits though some squares can be duplicated and rotating what is planted year-to-year, the raised garden with its special soil mix can produce abundant food. (For a full explanation of Square Foot Gardening, log on to www.squarefootgardening.com.)
Mission trip
Pat and Connie were invited to go along on a mission trip to Haiti in February 1985. Accompanying Brother DePaul and the Mission of Mercy, they saw the conditions in Haiti and how the people lacked fresh food. They decided to go back at Thanksgiving in 1985 to promote gardening. Pat took his equipment to repair television sets for the wealthier people so the Lahrs could support themselves and work among the poorer residents.
With a visit from Bartholomew to boost their work, they trained people in Square Foot Gardening. The Haitians laughed at their small plots, until they saw them bulging with produce.
There were challenges to meet. One was to learn what kind of produce the Haitians would eat. To foil wandering animals, gardens were built on the roofs of houses.
Before leaving Haiti in 1989, the Lahrs trained project leaders to carry on their work, in both urban and rural areas. The project leaders send monthly reports to the Lahrs. According to those reports, over 50 urban families (with an average of seven people per household) have gardens, and in the rural areas, over $4,000 of produce is harvested each month.
In addition to Haiti, Gardening World Wide has a project in Guadalajara, Mexico, and they serve as advisers to people around the world through e-mail, including projects set up by folks they know in Zambia in Africa.
Maple Lake headquarters
Gardening World Wide is headquartered in Maple Lake, where the Lahrs settled upon returning to the United States. Nutritious food is as important locally as it is internationally, so they promote Square Foot Gardening wherever they can.
During March, they gave presentations in neighboring towns, with 41 people attending the last meeting.
They founded a group called Wright Home Gardens, a gardening group that focuses on vegetables rather than flowers.
They teach community education classes, and have established a garden at the Maple Lake Elementary School which the first graders help plant in the spring, tend and harvest during the summer, and as second graders in the fall collect seeds and dig potatoes.
Back to Haiti
Pat and Connie left on March 18 for their postponed trip to Haiti. They return to Haiti every other year to support and encourage what they started 25 years ago. They look forward to seeing old friends and on their first day there, Connie said they would host a gathering that includes leaders in other areas, such as fishing and pure water.
For two weeks we will be sleeping in a tent on air mattresses, Connie said. One of the guest houses we were to stay in is no longer there.
Despite the fact that they are both of retirement age, that wont hinder them. They have a passion for what they do.
Our effort is to provide, through the Square Foot Gardening system, the best nutritious, fresh vegetable garden to people around here and abroad, Pat said.
All packed, the Lahrs were ready to take that passion and thousands of seeds to Haiti.
You can read about Gardening World Wide and reports on their trip to Haiti at their website, www.gardeningww.com.
Imagine getting the same amount of garden produce using only 20 percent of the space you used to plant.
As added incentive, youll also have healthier plants, fewer weeds and less physical strain when it comes time to reap what youve sown.
That is the gospel according to Mel Bartholomew; a grinning, gregarious man in a straw hat who wanted to revolutionize the way Americans grow vegetables.
He is, after all, the father of square-foot gardening, a method of planting brought into the national psyche 30 years ago and promoted on public television.
The biggest mistake people make, he says, is going overboard.
Its so easy to put more and more in, Bartholomew said in a recent interview from his home outside of Salt Lake City. You get carried away.
Downsize
Rather than planting in conventional rows, Bartholomew wants you to downsize. Start with a 4-by-4-foot raised box filled with the perfect soil and assigned a grid pattern so each plant variety has its own square-foot section. That may mean only one head of broccoli in one square and 32 radishes in another.
HOW TO
Square-foot gardening
Step 1: Start with a 4-by-4-foot area
Step 2: Remove weeds from soil surface and level
Step 3: Use 2-by-6-inch boards plus hardware to join the ends together
Step 4: Fill inside with 6 inches of soil, using equal parts of peat moss, coarse-grade vermiculite and blended compost. Mix well and spread evenly.
Step 5: Nail six lengths of wood strips three east-west and three north-south to delineate 16 square-foot planting areas.
