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The Square Foot Gardening Foundation is dedicated to more than fantastic gardens. We're fighting global hunger, organizing and uniting local communities, and even helping those with disabilities enjoy the great pleasure of planting and harvesting their own gardens, all with little work, no heavy lifting, no heavy tools and perhaps greatest of all, NO WEEDS!
Click on the links on the left
to get more information about
our efforts!
World Hunger
1. Around the World
8. Teaching SFG in Ethiopia
2. Haiti Square Foot Garden
9. Helping the poor in Mexico
3. Reaching Out
10. Saving Seeds Part 1
11. Saving Seeds Part 2
4. World Hunger and
the SFG Foundation
5. Global Gardening
6. Humanitarian Project
7. Welfare agents in Bolivia
and Peru
What's Wrong With This Picture?
All of the world gardens and farms, but many parts of the world, are not blessed with the abundance we have in the U.S.A.
We can choose to share that abundance by shipping food all over the world, either as a commercial product or as a humanitarian project, and in doing so we will keep someone fed for another day. But we havent really done any good, certainly not in the long run because those people just become dependent on our abundance.
If we taught the same people all of our modern techniques in farming, it still wouldn't do any good because as soon as the machinery is delivered and the experts finish their training sessions and leave to go home, invariably the same thing will happen. It has year after year, place after place. The machinery will break down, the workers cant fix it, and the local organization runs out of either money, expertise, trained people, fuel or something. The whole technology, including all the machinery, just sits there, a total waste. Unfortunately, thats what we still keep doing around the world and it will never work. Our leaders keep coming up with great ideas both as a nation and in various organizations. We have high hopes and great expectations of shipping all kinds of machinery and methods all over the world. BUT, instead of that doomed plan, if we could share with other nations and other peoples the idea of them learning the self-sufficient way to raise food and feed themselves THEN AND ONLY THEN will they take pride in themselves, and their new accomplishment.
How do I know this is true? Ive traveled all over the world and Ive seen rusting equipment and machinery, vehicles and pumps, irrigation systems and tractors, and whatever else you can name. Ive seen it sitting in the fields rusting away and when asked why, the answer is always, "because it broke down, we dont have the parts, the fuel, the expertise, and we cant fix it." Unfortunately, this situation is right back where it started before that great effort was made.
The same thing happens when we ship food overseas. Planeloads, boatloads, and trainloads of abundant food supplies are sent around the world. Unfortunately, the inevitable result is that quite often very little of it gets to the actual people that need it. Now Im not talking about starving situations, Im talking about everyday subsistence. Square Foot Gardening cannot help the starving populations of the world, regardless of the situation or location. That is truly a humanitarian effort and I applaud all the organizations that step in when that situation occurs. But Square Foot Gardening can help create self-sufficiency anywhere in the world before hat drastic situation. Its being done all over, but theres no major organization teaching or promoting it.
Why can't these same leaders and organizations grasp or visualize the SFG idea? I think because Square Foot Gardening is so simple, easy, and uncomplicated that most organizations think it cant solve this huge problem that we have. They think we need something big and grandiose, something that costs a lot of money, something thats going to take a whole huge organization with lots of experts, money, training, and reserves. On the receiving end Im sure the governmental agencies and people in charge think the same thing. They dont want to receive something little and simple. They want something big and grandiose. They want something thats going to make the headlines and bring in a lot of money or spread a lot of wealth around. The idea of each family raising a small garden for daily fresh vegetables seems so simple that its not worth their consideration.
In contrast, consider the Square Foot Gardening project in India. Today there is a 6-acre demonstration garden where villagers come and work in the gardens. They are trained in the Square Foot Gardening method, including locating, building, and planting the gardens and also making compost. They then learn harvesting and going to market. The farmers who used to grow 2 crops a year in the 6 months of the non-monsoon rains went to market with the same 2 crops all at the same time, and you can imagine what happened to the price of the crops. But now converted to SFG they can protect their gardens. First , because theyre only 20% of the size of their normal gardens before. Second , its so easy to protect from weather, pests, or whatever. They are now working year round, 12 months of the year growing 22 crops, and theyre taking them to market and making more money than they ever thought possible. Besides feeding their family continually from the gardens, this training center has set up everything all based on the Square Foot system. Now people come from far and wide to learn the system, and then the group helps those people build Square Foot Gardens at their own homestead where they can continue feeding their family and going to market with the crops.
NOW, the big news is this was all done by all of the people themselves using all natural materials, and it happened because the leader, a Jesuit Priest, received one book, the Square Foot Gardening book. Everything was accomplished by just reading that book and putting everything into operation. No government agencies were involved, no shiploads of material or supplies were sent in, no regulations, nothing but a book. Now thousands of people are becoming self-sufficient, improving their nutritional diet and living a better life. And the best part is the material they make compost out of was a vigorous vine that was killing all of the hardwood forests and now its being pulled out of the trees and chopped up for compost, so now the environment is much better off because of this project.
This same story could be anywhere in the world. Ive yet to be in a country that Square Foot Gardening would not improve the daily lives and nutrition of all the villagers and all done by themselves on their own with just a little teaching.
My question to you and to the world is: what can you do to help make this happen around the world? Tell someone important of this opportunity. Do it this year!
It was sometime back in the early 90s, when my good friends Pat & Connie Lahr, of Maple Lake, Minnesota, asked me to come to Haiti with them to experience their mission to teach the Haitian poor how to square-foot garden and make them more self sufficient. They have been doing this for many years and have set up quite a program with a lot of support.
I was very hesitant to accept the invitation and even more apprehensive about actually going because Haiti was not the most stable country at that time, and I believe Papa Doc was still heading the government, but military and private coups were happening all the time, it seemed.
As we landed and traveled to their apartment in the city, we saw the usual military presence found in many developing countries. There were lots of army vehicles, men, and guns all over the place, but things seemed stable enough, so I started to relax. They took me on many excursions through Haiti, including some of the very poorest parts of the cities (make-shift shanties and cardboard shacks).
But, all the local people were very interested in why we were there and were very hospitable and easy to get along with. Pat and Connie had set up several demonstration gardens and we taught square-foot gardening with the help of interpreters and good-ole stand-by sign language when all else failed.
Several things stand out in my mind when I think about that trip. The first was goats. You have to be in one of these countries to appreciate how many goats, chickens, and other animals run loose throughout the towns and countryside, and they will eat or dig-up just about any garden as soon as you plant it. They are always scrounging for food. I just told the people to get some chicken wire to cover each 4 foot x 4 foot plot. I explained, with great pride, that square-foot gardening condenses your garden down to only 20% or 1/5 the space of a conventional single-row garden, which incidentally was what they were being taught by their government and agricultural experts. My, my, when will the world learn that single-row gardening is an antiquated wasteful, harmful way to garden, even to farm, for that matter.
PIC LEFT After showing them how little space they need, I said, Now to keep out the goats or chickens, all you have to do is cover this 4 foot x 4 foot garden with some chicken wire. Make a frame out of any other kind of wire or pipe, and then cover it, and you will be able to lift the whole thing off and tend to it, and yet it will keep all those animals out. Well, they merrily shrugged their shoulders and finally said, We dont have any chicken wire. We are a poor country and poor people, and we have nothing like that. You cant find wire or metal thrown anywhere.
Well, I was stunned for a little while. How to solve their problem? Bamboo fences and covers might work, but they in themselves were a lot of work to make and no one seemed really interested in this extra work. Then one morning I woke up with that light bulb on in my brain. How could we keep the animals out of the garden? Well, lets locate the garden where they dont or cant get to, the rooftops. Every building in Haiti has a flat roof and I was told that they were strong enough to stand and walk on, so why not put a ladder up and build our 4 x 4s right up there. Youll get better sun, no vandalism (take the ladder down at night), no animals, and just about a perfect spot for a garden. Because square foot gardening uses a light-weight soil and compost mix, there really wasnt much extra weight on the roof, and since we control the watering, that would also not cause any problems. Using scrap lumber, sticks, or tree bamboo and a sheet of plastic to contain the water inside the garden, it turned out to be a snap. It took a little getting used to watering so that the garden did not become soggy, and yet it was kept moist for the plants sake. Sorry about that goats!
Last year at one of our international training camps in Florida, I met someone who goes to Haiti a lot, and she said a remarkable thing. She was telling about her work there, and said, You know, a lot of the gardens in Haiti are located on the rooftops. I was very pleased at that and so you see, one person can make a difference in the world, even if it is just from one idea.
Another thing that comes to mind from that trip is the Peace Corps. In my travels around Haiti, and actually since then all over the world, Ive met many Peace Corps members. What a dedicated group they are. Quite often they were volunteered by the hosting organization in whatever country I was in as an interpreter for my talks and clinics. The first thing that all of the Peace Corps people said was, Wow, now I can have a garden right here, so I can have some fresh vegetables. The next thing they all said is, You should go to Washington D.C. to meet our headquarters and explain to them how perfect square-foot gardening is for the third-world developing countries.
What most people seem to grasp and comment on when I explain SFG is that, no matter what someone is doing in another country, whether they are teaching or helping with schools, or medical facilities, the additional knowledge they could present to that locality and its people about a new method of gardening that takes so little space, yet provides so much for those who need the extra nutrition and food sources, just fits in so well. I know many organizations send groups of people to a developing country to some small locale in order to build a new hospital or clinic or new school, and they are there for many, many months. Well, why not at the same time be able to teach square-foot gardening to all the local people. It works anywhere in the world and it will enhance and enrich everyone..
It was good advice, but like everything else in our busy lives, I never got around to it. Does anyone out there have any connections with the Peace Corps or with the government in D.C., or for that matter do you have any connection with any organization that sends volunteers, missionaries, or help to other countries. We would like to contact and tell them all about the square-foot gardening system. Incidentally, we have converted square-foot gardening to square-meter gardening for those areas of the world that use the metric system.
HAITI GARDENS, was established in 1985 by Pat and Connie Lahr of Minnesota, to empower the people of Haiti to plant small vegetable gardens near their homes to combat malnutrition.
Each year from 2,000 families have been involved with the program. In 2003, 4 project leaders, are directly working with 360 families and 4 classrooms of students.
Reaching Out
Id like to share an idea with you that I had several years ago for a simple, yet effective way to reach the poor and uneducated peoples of the world A way in which we could tell them all about Square Foot Gardening, how it will enrich their lives and improve their situation.
I was in Haiti as a guest of a missionary couple from Minnesota who conducted gardening classes in Porta Prince and the surrounding areas teaching the Square Foot method. It was one of the first countries where I learned that when people say, Were so poor we have nothing to make compost out of, you can look around and see they actually have an overabundance of material, they just havent identified it and dont know how to make it into compost. As we know from the SFG India project, compost is the true secret to a successful garden.
But, back to Haiti. As we toured the outlying areas, bouncing around in the back of a jeep over rough county roads, I was introduced to several CARE staff members. They were not only interested, but fascinated by SFG. They could easily see the potential for all of the people that they were there to help. As I held workshop after workshop for the farmers throughout the country explaining the advantages of SFG, I could see continual nods and smiles and a general agreement. Despite the difference in languages they seemed to understand very quickly the disadvantages of single row gardening, and yes, even in Haiti, all the farms and backyard gardens were planted in rows spaced a meter apart. It was amazing. I would ask them through the interpreter, If the plants could be 6-12 centimeters apart in the row, why did the next row have to be 100 centimeters away? They would turn their heads, look at each other, smile, shrug their shoulders, and say in Spanish, Because thats the way weve always done it.
Ill have to learn that phrase in Spanish; Might come in handy some day. I also met a few Peace Corps people in Haiti who volunteered to be my interpreters. The more days we spent together, the more excited they got at the possibility of also teaching SFG. Several of them recognized immediately that this could work in just about any country theyd ever been in or could think of. They then said that in a few days the head person of all gardening and agriculture for CARE was coming and they wanted me to wait and meet her. To make a long story short, we met and she was very excited and very desirous of doing something with all this new knowledge. She wondered how we could spread the word around the world quickly and effectively. She reiterated that most of the people they deal with are illiterate and poor, and they dont have any facilities, land, money, or experience.
We all agreed that pictures might be the answer, and I thought of developing a very simple brochure that could show in almost pictorial form how to make, plant and grow a Square Foot Garden. In addition, we would cover the subject of compost and how to make it. Then I had an idea.
Why not put this booklet in the form of a comic book? Everyone reads the funnies, everyone love comics, and kids learn to read from picture books and then comic books. If we could get a good artist to draw the characters, perhaps in several different styles for different areas of the world, we could then develop a very simplified booklet and translate it into many different languages. Everyone loved the idea, and I thought, This is really going to be it - this is my dream come true. The director of agriculture invited me to come to the Philippines the following Spring to present my idea at a national convention of all the CARE agricultural and horticultural agents from all over the world. I was very excited about the prospect and started developing all the ideas and working out all the details. She said, Just to make sure, when you get back to the states, stop in New York City and go to the headquarters and see so and so, and get approval from the tower.
I did go, but I didnt get approval. Everyone in the tower seemed to be rather cool, if not cold, to the idea of SFG. I could never quite understand why. Unfortunately I never went to the Philippines, never presented the idea, and never made the comic book. In the meantime, every organization is still out there trying to teach the world how to do it the American way, with plows and machinery, gasoline, pumps, pipes and all of the technicalities and chemical fertilizers that we like to use in our agriculture. I later learned that because SFG was so simple and so inexpensive, it might easily destroy a large corporation or foundation with many staff members and that depends on fund raising, big budgets, large staffs, lots of equipment, lots of everything. If it could be taught from a simple comic book, you would no longer need all of the trappings of a large enterprise or operation. Perhaps SFG was too simple and easy.
So be it, but it doesnt mean the idea of a comic book approach is dead. If an existing worldwide organization doesnt want to do it, well do it ourselves. So thats the idea. Describe SFG in a pictorial way with few words, showing basically how the system works, the advantages of the system, and how to do it yourself including the composting. Then assemble the comic book, have it printed and decide how its going to be distributed. Perhaps an advanced copy of this would receive a better reception at some of the large worldwide organizations. There seem to be so many of them, some religious and some just humanitarian. Perhaps even some governments could be involved in this. The funding would be minimal compared to so many of the grandiose worldwide schemes.
This idea could also apply right at home for organizations that are starting community gardens, or want to have gardens in prisons, or at shelters for battered women. It would certainly work for Habitat for Humanity houses.
Well, thats the basic idea. My questions for you are, What do you think of the idea?, Will it work?, How should we go about doing it?, and Can you help?
800 million people go to bed desperately hungry every night.
In addition, depending on whose numbers you use, 15 to 50 million people die each year from starvation and malnutrition related diseases. Three fourths of these are children under the age of five.
Even if you use the most conservative figure of 15 million, that is over 41,000 people a day (30,000 of which are children under age five) die from the effects of starvation and malnutrition each and every day. That translates into a person dying about every 2 seconds somewhere in the world. So in just the 5 minutes it takes to read this, 150 people (over 100 children) die from the effects of hunger and that goes on every day of the year. Kind of boggles the mind, doesn't it ?
One may ask how can I possibly help, how can anyone or any group cope with that ? Bad as it sounds, it is a battle that can be won. Today's rate is down about 40% from twenty years ago. But great as that is, it is still too slow. It would still take 80 years and hundreds of millions of lives to get down to under 2,000 deaths a day from effects of starvation.
We at the SFG Foundation believe that we can help in a most significant way.
Do you remember the old saying Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach him to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. ? We believe that the same can be accomplished by teaching a person to garden in a simple easy way that they can do, like the Square Foot Gardening method.
To that end we would like to announce our vision:
TO ELIMINATE WORLD HUNGER, THROUGH THE USE OF SQUARE FOOT GARDENING
Now admittedly that is a very lofty vision, but you can't hit a target you don't aim at and this is truly " shooting for the stars ". But even if we miss, we may hit the moon or beyond, and that's still a very worthy and worthwhile accomplishment.
How are we going to do this ? As you may or may not know the SFG is a non-profit foundation and we are seriously looking at the following ways as a means to accomplish our vision.
1. A core of former missionaries from the Mormon Church are willing to go back to their former mission countries where they know the people, the area, how to live cheap and where the need is. Several we have talked to are ready to go back almost immediately, following training in the SFG methods and as soon as we could find them airfare and a monthly sponsor.
The Missionaries have said that in these countries they could get by on as little as $100 a month and would be glad to go back for 6 to 12 months. Although we reside in Utah and are most familiar with the Mormon Church, the SFG Foundation is strictly non-denominational. Perhaps your church, club or organization might be interested in sponsoring or starting such a worthwhile program.
2. We are looking for people who can and have had success writing grants for projects like these. (Anyone who procures a grant for us would receive a percentage of the grant for his or her efforts) Do you know of anyone who could help here ?
3. Benefactors and corporate sponsors. We are looking for private benefactors and corporate sponsors to help with this work. It is sometimes much easier to obtain sponsors because it requires less red tape than grants. Again, anyone procuring benefactors and sponsors would receive a percentage for their efforts if they so desire.
4. Aligning ourselves with organizations like Ameri-corps, Peace corps, Habitat for Humanity and other groups of a similar nature. Can anyone help us here?
5.Do any of you have any suggestions to help us accomplish our vision, which again is: To Eliminate World Hunger through the use of the Square Foot Gardening Method.
Please don't let your talents go to waste ! Communicate with us and let us know how you can help and what you'd be willing to do. Email us at info_squarefootgardening.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Thank you for your interest and help.
Mel Bartholomew, originator of Square Foot Gardening, has established a new program called Global Gardening. The purpose is to teach a simple, natural and easy home gardening method that can be practiced anywhere around the world; especially by women.
A garden of one square meter utilizing compost as an inexpensive and natural growing soil, planted intensively and continually with a variety of vegetables, herbs, and flowers, can provide better nutrition as well as a potential source of income. Based on the Square Foot Method, the system is easily converted to Square Meters and works in all parts of the world.
How Can We Help Your Organization ?
Our purpose and mission is to help other organizations achieve their goals using this simple yet productive gardening method. We have helped many, and believe we can help you.
Our past projects include donating over 800 teaching gardens to elementary schools in California, Utah, Maine and Florida; building gardens for Habitat for Humanity houses; Boy Scout Eagle projects; working with the elderly; gardens for the blind, wheelchair gardening; youth correctional facilities; missionary training; as well as projects in several third world countries helping others become self-sufficient.
Thank you so much for your letter, for your enthusiasm and for the vision you have in recognizing that Square Foot Gardening is a method that will help change lives for the better. We will be happy to assist you in any way possible.
What you have described in your letter totally encompasses the whole scope and mission of the Square Foot Gardening Foundation. It is our goal and mission to better the world through teaching this gardening method to increase nutrition, foster self-sufficiency and then even to provide a means for the economic development of a family through the sale of excess crops.
We provide all our experience and information free to anyone who will use it and share it with those in need. We do not require any royalties, although we would like the Square Foot Gardening Foundation to be mentioned and credit given as well as a reference to our website on any printed materials you may use. All the information on the website is free for you to use.
Have you gardened using the Square Foot Method before? If not, my first suggestion would be to get started with your own garden, which could be used as a teaching model. Thoroughly read and study the website. Do you have the books and videos to use as references? Since all three of the ingredients for Mel's Mix - the perfect growing soil - that we use is not always available in developing areas, we suggest that you grow in straight compost. So, it would be important to get started with a compost operation right away. Again, you will find information on the website. Read the "Global Gardening" section. Also, read the "Teaching SFG" section as that will give you ideas for sharing SFG with others.
We have found that it is best to provide knowledge and training and to have someone on site responsible for the project. In our experience, this ensures the sustainability of the project.
SFG really does work - not only here but in developing countries throughout the world. Here are some highlights of why it works so well as part of a humanitarian project:
Very inexpensive to implement. There is no need for heavy equipment or even many tools. A box made from wood, stones, blocks, bamboo is needed, with a grid on top.
Existing soil doesn't matter. It doesn't matter what condition the existing soil is in because we don't use it. In the USA we make a new soil mix - Mel's Mix - consisting of peat moss, compost and coarse vermiculite. However, in parts of the world where these ingredients aren't available, we use straight compost as the growing medium. So the first step in a SFG project is to start a compost operation! It is important that the compost be made up of many different ingredients so that all the nutrients are present for healthy plant growth. Finding various ingredients to go into a compost pile helps clean up the surrounding environment and there is no cost involved. If possible, send information through e-mail correspondence to get a compost operation started immediately. Dont fall temptation to mixing a little compost with existing soil because invariably the garden project will fail. It is much better to be patient and get some good compost made to use. This compost may need to be strained to get any big pieces out. Then as more compost is ready, more boxes can be added expanding the garden.
Produces well in a small space. SFG boxes produce the same amount in only 20% of the space as compared to a traditional single-row garden. This makes it ideal when space is scarce. Almost everyone has enough room for one 4x4 or 3x3 box. We've even seen them done on rooftops, balconies and patios.
Saves on water. We suggest watering a SFG by hand with sun-warmed water. This conserves on water as it can be directed right to the base of the plant. And, because a SFG uses on 20% of the space, water use is greatly reduced. There are no aisles between rows to be watered. "Grey" water from washing can be used in the garden and the small amount of soap actually acts as a natural bug repellent.
Saves on work. Done properly, and after the boxes are built, there is very little weeding or care of a SFG except for planting, watering and harvesting.
Saves on seeds. Seeds are planted according to the amount of harvest desired. This eliminates the need to thin the plants and waste seeds.
Continual harvest. As soon as one square is harvested, compost is added to replenish the nutrients and the square is replanted with a different crop. Automatic crop rotation occurs and there is always something to harvest.
Educational aspect of SFG. Not only does SFG provide food for the body, it provides food for the mind. Mel has written a Teacher's Lesson Plan full of learning activities that all center around a Square Foot Garden. Garden boxes at schools not only supplement lunch, but provide educational opportunities. We have found that every subject can be taught - even drama as we saw one second grade class write and put on a play about SFG.
A Garden for Everyone. We've found that people of all abilities can garden using the SFG method. Those who can't bend or kneel can have a raised SFG where they can sit or stand to garden. We've had people garden from wheelchairs and we've had the blind garden by using the grid as a guide.
We don't try to compete with the farmers and, in fact, suggest people grow something different than what is readily grown and available in their area. We encourage them to grow and eat a variety of foods to add more nutrition to their diet.
After the nutritional needs of the individual or family is met, excess produce can be grown in a small space which can then be sold at market, bringing in additional income.
So, there you have it - a rather lengthy overview of how Square Foot Gardening can make a difference in the lives of people throughout the world. We'd be happy to talk with you further if you would like.
(NOTE: When people ask for complimentary items, try to stay away from free postage and free items. Offer a humanitarian discount of 10-50% off. Ask for a description, picture, number of people involved. Consider believability, similar to our goals, and what the value would be to the Foundation.)
Q: We serve as LDS Area Welfare Agents for South America West (Peru and Bolivia). One of our unmet goals of the past year and a new goal for the coming year, is to help the people develop home gardens. We need any of your materials in Spanish. We would especially like to purchase copies of your book. Thank you for your great work.
Spanish Video is Available! HERE
A: Your goals sound exciting and we would be honored to help you in any way we can. Yes there is much information available in Spanish that our foundation has prepared over the last few years. We would be pleased to share it with you. We emphasize a small garden, one (1) meter by one (1) meter to start with for each household. This allows the individual to start small, but add to later after they gain confidence and success. The book is still only available in English but we now have the video available in Spanish and soon in Portuguese. Good luck with your project, we all admire what you are doing.
Q: Im going to Ethiopia on a humanitarian project and thought it would be a good idea to teach Square Foot Gardening. What should I take with me? Is the book enough?
Here's what you Need to Teach
A:Sounds exciting and yes - take the book, but even more important, take our new video Introduction to SFG. It explains all the basics much easier to any audience, and in pictures. Depending on when youre going overseas, build and start a small 3' x 3' Square Foot Garden right now. Even if its out of season, do it just to get the practical experience of how its done. Good luck with your trip and do keep in touch.
Hi Mel,
I thought you might like to see this project that has used your ideas to help poor people in Mexico:
www.bgct.org/river_ministry/agriculturemissions.pdf
Blessings, Katherine
SFG CAN HELP THE POOR EVERYWHERE
A: Dear Katherine, Thank you for the reference, I looked at the site and they have many good ideas. I am going to write them a letter complimenting them on their excellent choice of gardening methods to teach, as well as offering suggestions on some ideas for improvements. Thank you for the reference, and I will send you a copy of my letter to them. I am also wondering how you came across this reference or knowledge ?
Best wishes,
Mel B.
Mel's letter to the Baptist Ministry River Project:
Dear Mr. Shores,
Recently one of our SFG supporters guided me to your website and your wonderful work concerning gardening. We are a non-profit foundation based in Utah but work with other organizations worldwide. My question to you is: How can we help you ?
SFG IN SPANISH
In our work with the LDS Church we have been able to get our introductory video and my second book "Cash and Abundant Harvest" from SFG translated into Spanish. We also have some other handout material translated, and you can see from our website you can see that we have had our home page translated into several different languages. The Spanish version was done by a volunteer in Argentina and I am wondering how well it works for the Mexican language. Could you give me any thoughts on that ?
GRIDS AND SQUARE FOOT PLANTING SPACES
I couldn't quite tell from your website how you describe planting spaces, but I would encourage you to try laying down a visible 12" by 12" grid and using the standard SFG 1-4-9-16 planting spaces. All is shown on our website and in the book. Most people are willing to try something new and different and we have found that once they try this method they will become successful and stick to it. One of the big advantages of SFG is that you only plant one square foot at a time with a different crop. That makes it quick and easy and very simple to teach.
BOOK AND VIDEOS AVAILABLE
Going back to my original comment if we were to donate to your organization a master copy in the form of a DVD of the Spanish translated Book and or Video do you have the facilities and means to print copies of either for distribution to your clients and use in your teaching ? In addition, if we decided to collaborate on this project are there other locations and branches of your organization that could also make use of this material ?
I will be anxious to hear from you to see how we may help in your mission and goals. Yours truly, Mel Bartholomew
P.S. to any reader: Do you belong to any other organization we can help ?
Saving Seeds - Part 1
Except for a kid's project, I think growing plants in order to save the seed is usually not worthwhile.
FIRST REASON
The first reason is because (and this applies both in this country and for anywhere around the world, especially those third-world countries where we are taking our humanitarian projects) it is taking up valuable space in your garden in order to let the plant mature and go to seed. This usually takes quite a bit longer than just growing crops for the produce you would have picked. Now, of course, this doesn't apply to fruit that has the seeds inside like tomatoes, melons and squash. In that case, you obviously have to wait until the fruit ripens before harvesting and once it is ripe, then usually the seeds are fairly ripe, but not always. Some fruit has to over-ripen beyond the point of eating in order to become soft and mushy for those seeds to fully mature before they can be cleaned, dried and stored. But I'm thinking more about things like lettuce or radishes or cabbage. All of those crops have to be left in the ground well beyond the point of harvesting them. In fact, in the case of cabbage and lettuce, you have to let them continue growing until the actual cabbage head splits in half and a stalk comes out of the center. That's the seed stalk. Then, you have to wait for that to blossom, become pollinated and then turn into the seed pods. That has to continue to stay in the ground until the seed pods are fully mature, ripe and ready to harvest. That takes a long time and aside from using your valuable garden space, you have to continue to water and take care of that plant during its entire period.
DOLLARS PER SQUARE FOOT
Another way to analyze that is if you were growing for market and you had sixteen radishes growing in one square foot, they would be ready to harvest in just four weeks. Let's say that they brought a nickel a piece in the market, so that's 16 X 5 or $.80 per square foot for less than one month's time. To leave that plant in the ground so that it goes to seed, you might, at the end of close to three months, be able to harvest perhaps $.50 worth of seed, so the economical advantage is not there.
NOT TRUE STRAIN
In addition to the time and care and costs to produce seed from your own garden, unless you are a real expert and have lots of room and can separate all your different plants, you can never be sure that they have been pollinated correctly and that their seeds will turn out true to that particular strain and variety. This is particularly true with the newer varieties of flowers and vegetables, those that have been especially cross-bred to produce certain favorable qualities. When they are pollinated by nature in an open field, they are actually called "open-pollinated" and that bee or insect that carries pollen from one flower to another may or may not visit some varieties that would cause an open pollination between two different varieties.
CROSS POLLINATION
In the case of squash and melons, it is usually believed that they will cross-pollinate and the resulting seeds will never be true to the original varieties. It is my understanding that you don't have to worry about cross-pollinating various varieties in your garden the first year. In other words, when you are harvesting the fruit to eat it is not a problem, but it is only a problem when you are trying to save seeds from that fruit for the next year that you will run into trouble trying to get the same variety. Of course, if you are trying to create odd and unusual and new strains or new varieties, then that's the way to go.
SEEDS ARE CHEAP
The second major reason that I feel trying to save your seed is not worth your time and effort, is because seeds are really very cheap, despite the high price tag you may see in the spring on some seed packets, upwards of one or two dollars a packet. Those are usually for the unusual newer varieties and when you are thinking about sending seeds for overseas humanitarian projects, those are not the seeds you would pick in any case. You want the standard, everyday, tried and proven varieties that everyone has grown for many years and can depend upon. Those packets are not usually as expensive and you have to realize that quite often those packets are on sale at a deep discount. In fact, there are many seed packets that stores offer as an attraction. I know my local hardware store always had ten cents a packet seeds at the beginning of the season. You may not recognize the brand name, but from my past studies, I have found that very often the same seeds were packaged in different company's packages. Each had their own advertising and promotion programs and quite often those same seed packets had different price tags on them, yet they were the same seeds inside. It is my understanding that this also happens in many food items. Quite often you are paying a premium for the brand names because they have to advertise more and it costs them more to put that product out.
INEFFICIENT SINGLE ROW GARDENING
The third and actually the main reason that I feel that trying to save your own seeds is not worthwhile is because the seed packets and the entire seed industry is all based upon old-fashioned, inefficient single-row gardening. You know the kind of gardening where you dig a long furrow from here to there by stretching a string and then taking a hoe and opening the soil along this long furrow underneath the string. Then, you tear off the top of the seed packet and start pouring the seeds out along that furrow, hoping you will have enough seeds until you get to the end. Then, you find a stick and poke it through the seed packet and stick it in the ground so you know what seeds and what varieties you have planted there. That was one of the revelations that caused me to say, "There is something wrong with this method" and that's when I invented the Square Foot Gardening System.
WHY PLANT ALL THOSE SEEDS
After asking the question, "Why are we planting all these seeds and then we have to come back, according to the directions, and thin them all out to only 3 or 6 or 12 inches apart ?" "Why not just plant them at 3, 6 or 12 inches apart, just a pinch of seeds ?" And, that's how I started my experiments many years ago. Then, I thought, "Let's count the number of seeds." And, when I found that a packet of, let's say, lettuce seeds contain over 1,000 seeds, I thought, "This truly is ridiculous and terribly wasteful to plant all these seeds when I only want 10 or 15 or 20 heads of this lettuce. I want other varieties too and maybe at different times." So, it was not only a terrible waste of seeds, but think of all the work involved in preparing all that soil and fertilizing and amending the soil and loosening it up with a rototiller and all those different things from conventional single-row gardening. - See SAVING SEEDS - PART 2 !
Saving Seeds - Part 2
WASTEFUL SINGLE ROW GARDENING
SAVING SEEDS - PART 1 described all the reasons why I think it's not worth while to grow plants in order to save their seeds. Another thing wrong with old-fashioned, inefficient, single row gardening, which most people don't realize until it is too late, is that when you plant all those seeds at the same time in one long single row they all come to harvest at the same time. Wonder of wonders - I wonder if anyone ever thought of that as something home gardeners don't want. Farmers, yes, home gardeners, no. But no one ever told us that's what we would get. Who wants 20 heads of lettuce all within one week ? As it turns out, everything that we have been taught all our lives about single-row gardening, I began to think, was terribly wasteful and almost to the point of being really dumb. Why do we plant everything in a row and then space the row three feet apart ? Why do we plant a whole packet of seeds and then thin 95% of them out ?
Why do we plant so much all at once and then it all comes to harvest all at once, when for a home garden we just want a little bit but continually through the whole garden season? Why do we roto-till and fertilize and amend the soil over the entire garden area when most of it was in 3-foot wide aisles which grew nothing but a tremendous crop of weeds, especially when we watered the entire garden area ?
How dumb is that ?
STOP SENDING SEEDS
In our humanitarian projects and in working with other nonprofit organizations, we found the first request from both the recipients overseas and the giving organization in this country was, We need seeds, we need lots of seeds. Everyone wants seeds and I've seen huge boxes of seeds being sent overseas and I know they are all going to be wasted by being poured out in a single-row system. I thought, What a terrible waste and what a terrible disappointment. It stands to reason that if they use all their seeds at once, then they are going to just want more and if the donating organization can't keep shipping pounds and pounds of seeds to them, their program isn't going to be successful.
STOP TEACHING SINGLE ROW GARDENING
Now, at first, you might say, Well, that's a very good reason then, for them to start growing their own seed. But, I say NO , go back to reasons one and two why I think it is a waste of time. It is much better to teach them an efficient, condensed planting system like Square Foot Gardening that teaches conservation, rather than stick to an antiquated, inefficient system that merely promotes and breeds more inefficiency and waste in every single step of the way.
START USING SQUARE FOOT METHOD
Since Square Foot Gardening takes only 20% of the space of a conventional garden, it also takes less than 5% of the seeds and that is because we don't waste seeds or plant too many, only to have to thin them out. If you recall the SFG planting directions, you will remember that we just put a pinch of seeds. See Rule No. 8 of the SFG Ten Basics and that is plant only a pinch (2 or 3 seeds) in each hole or each space. Now if you start with a packet of 1,000 lettuce seeds and there are four plants per square foot and you put in 2-3 seeds in each hole, you've only planted 10 seeds for each square foot of lettuce. Divide 1,000 by 10 and you have enough seeds in that one packet for 100 people. And that is just one slender thin packet of seeds. Compare that with the 100 people each planting an entire packet of seeds - 100 packets vs. 1 packet - that's efficiency. That's Square Foot Gardening !
ELIMINATE THINNING
Remember also that when the seeds do sprout, rather than conventional single-row thinning, which actually disturbs the one plant you want to save, we take a pair of scissors and snip off the extra one or two sprouts leaving one plant per space. That also reduces the risk of the gardener wanting to transplant the extras and put one here and one there and pretty soon they are too crowded. Square Foot Gardening allows every plant to be in the exact perfect spacing for that variety.
TRY CONSERVATION
In summary then, I would say in order to conserve your seeds, plant wisely and efficiently and there will be enough seeds for every garden, rather than trying to spend extra time, space, energy, water, etc., to allow the plants to go to seed and try to save those seeds for next year's garden. It's a lot easier to store the left over packet of unused seeds, than to grow even more.
STORE FOR NEXT YEAR
The other thing that SFG teaches is to store your left over packets for the next planting, even if it's next year. Stored cool and dry, your seeds will last for many years. That's not easy in tropical, developing countries, but storage in a Ziploc or plastic bag in the coolest, driest spot in the house is well worthwhile.
REPACKAGING MAKES SENSE
One of the procedures we use at the Square Foot Gardening Foundation, is to repackage seeds into small zip-lock plastic bags and put just enough for that variety in one square foot, or maybe two plantings when using a pinch of seeds times the spacing. This may seem like a lot of work, but it allows everyone to receive and to realize that conservation of seeds is the primary first step in gardening. I again repeat - seeds are very inexpensive. Why do you think there are so many seeds in a $1.49 packet of lettuce seeds ? It is because the packaging and the marketing of those seeds cost a zillion times more than the actual seeds do. I would venture to say that in one $1.49 packet, even when you get 1,000 seeds, those actual seeds are worth probably less than 10 cents. It is all the other things that go with running a business and getting the product out to the public that is so expensive. Just the transportation alone is probably much more costly than the seeds themselves.
RARE AND REMOTE
There may be exceptions to the above advice about not trying to grow your own seeds, but it would have to involve very rare and difficult-to-find seeds or if you are in a location that is so remote no one can get another packet of seeds to you for the next five years. Let's teach conservation and efficiency so all of our gardening aid programs can be more successful.
Enhancing your Community
1. SFG for Habitat Houses
2. Eagle Scout Projects
3. Community Gardens
A pick ax! Who said you never need big tools or heavy digging for Square Foot Gardening? Well you do if youre in Maine where the backyards are nothing but rock. Actually in those kinds of conditions, a Square Foot Garden is ideal because you build up rather than dig down. Keep in mind no matter where you are in the country, in fact in the world, the worse your existing soil is the more adaptable Square Foot Gardening is.
Only at the start is a little hard work required in order to get your boxes level (hence the pick ax in the picture). This was a Habitat project in Bath, Maine my church was involved in. Doesn't it seem like such a natural combination to add a Square Foot Garden to every house built by Habitat? When you think about it, most of the new owners have children and wanted to become self-sufficient by growing their own. In addition, there was always plenty of leftover lumber, skilled volunteers were everywhere, landscaping services and supplies were usually part of the project so why not build a Square Foot Garden to go with every Habitat house?
As part of the dedication ceremonies , I gave a talk and demonstration to everyone (note the flashcards) and then involved everyone in mixing the special soil mix (see our How To page for the Mels Mix formula), filling the boxes and planting flowers, vegetables in herbs in all the squares. As part of this project, we asked the local garden club to donate many mature plants from their gardens as well as some of the other supplies (just another way to get more neighborhood involvement and following the old tradition of bringing the new neighbors something from the kitchen
or the garden).
In this next picture, notice how enthusiastic and active all the kids are. They love to garden. Once everything is cleaned up and the new transplants take hold (a few wilted at first), the new home has an instant garden. Can you think of a more worthwhile project? Are you, your church or company involved in a Habitat project? Nows the time to speak up and volunteer to coordinate a Square Foot Garden for every house built and theyre being put up all over the world. If you dont have a specific project going on, why not create one yourself in your neighborhood. Find some neighbor who would like to start gardening, give them a short class or demonstration, help them build a new garden and get them started. Remember to start small just one 4 x 4 box for adults, one 3 x 3 box for the children. If you cant find a neighbor, turn towards your family. Think about your grown children or even grandchildren or vice versa help your parents or grandparents to start a Square Foot Garden.
There can be no stronger bond than to teach a child a lifetime hobby. Working together in the garden, outdoors in all the splendor of nature, noticing the miracles of birth as seeds sprout, flowers bloom then turn into maturing fruit or seed pods which start the cycle of reproduction all over again.
When I grew up, all I remember was the drudgery and hard work of keeping my Mothers single row garden weeded and in control. But now with Square Foot Gardening all that is eliminated so only the joy and fun of gardening is present. Think of someone in your family or neighborhood you can interest or teach gardening to. Its especially fun if they or you dont live nearby but visit often. Then the visitor notices the changes much more and the excitement of what to show and tell on the next visit becomes even more meaningful .
Eagle Scout Projects
Square Foot Gardening (SFG) now makes gardening so simple and easy that it has become suitable for many new situations and scouting projects. It is adaptable for all ages from very young children, right up to older generations, and SFG is especially adaptable for the handicapped and elderly who no longer have the strength or facilities for conventional gardening.
SFG is also very suitable at home and in any school, church, or neighborhood location. It can be done for a display, teaching or a community garden.
Compost is used as the main soil ingredient in SFG, which opens a whole new opportunity for projects involving environmental concerns.
All of the suggested Scout projects are simple, easy to plan, construct, and operate, yet will bring impressive results to all those involved.
