Gardening tips - all about size and shapes

Now some tips for your home gardening. The original square foot unit is 4x4ft, 16 sq ft, which can supply one person with vegetables and salads. But many gardeners have found this square block unwieldy. Some people use 3x3ft blocks instead, and this seems to have become a standard size for school gardens using the square foot system.

We've found 3ft-wide beds are too wide, 30" is about the maximum for easy access, though if they're only 3ft long as well, there's access all round.

We adapted the square foot principle to the space we had, as many do, and ended up with two long adjacent beds and several other smaller ones.

We prefer long beds in general (like the traditional Chinese farmers in the local villages), and this is what we recommend: units consisting of two adjacent beds, each 2ft wide and 8ft long, with a 15"-wide path between and around them. This is enough for two people, or if you want more or there are three of you, make two units with 6ft-long beds instead of 8ft, or two units with 8ft-long beds, and so on. Paths should normally be wider, wide enough for a wheelbarrow, but these beds are short, so save space and use buckets if you need to.

Square foot beds face the sun, so there's a front and a back. At the back there's a trellis for climbers (see below), so if you want to make ranks of units, one behind another, they'll have to be quite far apart to allow the sun to reach the rear ones over the trellises in front. You'll have to figure it out. Otherwise have them in line. Or both. Or scatter them about wherever you can fit them in.