Sfg Quotes

Plants like beer! Don’t just dump beer left in bottles after a party. Once it becomes flat—after a day or two—add the beer to your SFG bucket of sun-warmed water. The nutrients and salts in the beer will give your plants an added boost. Of course, if the dog seems a little dopey for no apparent reason, you’ll know you need to put a cover on that bucket!

Installing a Vertical Frame MATERIALS To construct a vertical frame, you need: two 5-foot electrical conduit pipes (1/2-inch diameter); one 4-foot conduit pipe (1/2-inch diameter); two 18-inch long rebar supports of 1/2-inch diameter; screwdriver; hammer; two elbow connectors; and trellis netting. ASSEMBLY Once you’ve attached the elbow connectors to your 4-foot conduit pipe, lay it against the north-facing board of your SFG. Next, hammer the rebar where the elbows are located. You’ll want to drive the rebar in about half its height. Slide the 5-foot conduit pipes over the rebar for a standard strength vertical frame. Or use a short steel fence post instead of the rebar for an extra-strong frame. Attach the top conduit to the legs and tighten the screws in the elbows.

Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large Think of these plants as if they were shirt sizes. Shirts come in all four sizes: small, medium, large, and extra large, and so do our plants. It’s that simple. The extra large, of course, are those that take up the entire square foot—plants like cabbages, peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, and geraniums. Next are the large plants—those that can be planted four to a square foot, which equals 6 inches apart. Large plants include leaf lettuce, dwarf marigolds, Swiss chard, and parsley. Several crops could be one per square foot if you let it grow to its full size or it can be planted four per square foot if you harvest the outer leaves throughout the season. This category includes parsley, basil, and even the larger heads of leaf lettuce and Swiss chard. Using the SFG method, you snip and constantly harvest the outer leaves of edible greens, so they don’t take up as much space as in a conventional garden. Medium plants come next. They fit nine to every square foot, which equals 4 inches apart. Medium plants include bush beans, beets, and large turnips. Another way to get the proper spacing and number per square foot is to be a little more scientific and do a little arithmetic as shown below. You can see that one, four, nine, or sixteen plants should be spaced an equivalent number of inches apart. This is the same distance the seed packet will say “thin to.” Of course we don’t have to “thin to” because we don’t plant a whole packet of seeds anymore. So if you’re planting seeds, or even putting in transplants that you purchased or grew from seed, just find the seed packet or planting directions to see what the distance is for thinning. This distance then determines whether you’re going to plant one, four, nine, or sixteen plants.

The second inexpensive material is wood lath, which is sold in home improvement centers. Believe it or not, they already come 4 feet long with square ends. Sometimes they’re a little crooked, filled with knots, or break easily, so sort through them. But they’re very, very inexpensive—less than a quarter each. Once you lay them out and drill holes at the 12-inch intersections, they’re very easy to connect together with a nut and bolt or some other type of fastener. Because the wood lath is rigid, it can span from one side of the box to the other side in case your Mel’s Mix is not level with the top of the box. Otherwise, it can just lie on top of the soil. If your grid spans across the box sides, keep the grid from moving about by drilling a hole in the ends of the two center slats and screwing them to your wooden box. Some people like to take the wood lath grid up for the winter so it doesn’t get wet and rot as easily. Unscrew the four screws, fold the grid, and hang it on the garage wall. Put the screws in a plastic bag and hang it up with the grid to keep the screws safe and dry over the winter. Attach Your SFG Grid JOINING Drill holes at the intersections of all the grid lath pieces. Next, insert a pin or bolt to hold the grid together. SECURING Drill holes at ends of each lath piece, into the sides of the box. Secure the lath strips to the box with screws driven through the holes. Once the grid is attached, your SFG is ready for planting.

One 4 × 4 Square Foot Garden box (16 square feet) will supply enough produce to make a salad for one adult every day of the growing season. Add a second 4 × 4 box and you’ll supply the daily supper vegetables for that person for each day of the growing season. Adding a third 4 × 4 box will supply that person with extra vegetables to be used for preserving, special crops, showing off, or giving away. So, each adult needs one, two, or three boxes with 16 squares each, depending on how much produce they can use. In other words, 16 square feet, 32 square feet, or 48 square feet. If you’re figuring a SFG for a child, remember that: One 3 × 3 Square Foot Garden box (9 square feet) will supply enough produce to make a salad for one child every day of the growing season. Adding a second 3 × 3 box will supply supper vegetables for that child every day. Just one more 3 × 3 box will supply the child with extra of everything for show-and-tell or science projects at school, special crops, showing off, or giving away. So, each child needs one, two, or three small boxes of 3 × 3, depending on how much they will eat. In square feet, that’s 9, 18, or 27 square feet of grid space.

Kettlebells are compact, inexpensive, virtually indestructible, and can be used anywhere. The unique nature of kettlebell lifts provides a powerful training effect with a relatively light weight, and you can replace an entire gym with a couple of kettlebells. Dan John, Master SFG[1] and a highly accomplished power athlete, famously quipped, “With this kettlebell in my bedroom I can prepare myself for the Nationals.