Square Foot Gardening

Whenever I pictured gardening, being the amateur I was, I pictured neat rows of plants with a hoe in hand. Okay maybe not the hoe, but I pictured this from
a)the various books like Peter Rabbit that I've read over the years and movies/ T.V shows.
b)From seeing conventional crops. That's different from a community garden because their crops are much bigger and are usually monocultures (1 type of crop). Also they use pesticides and fertilizers which help keep things tidy but in the long run are bad. Well, also in the short run.
   Anyway I was picturing this when my dad got a book from the library. All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.
  What is Square Foot Gardening? It is where you take 1 square foot of a bed and fill it with 1 type of vegetable. The number of plants per sq. foot depend on the plant size. For example you could have 16 carrots in 1 square foot, 1 squash in another. The number of plants per square foot could be 0.5,1,2,4,8,9,16. Square Foot Gardening works for all plants: fruits, vegetables, flowers, etc.
   The book provides more information on this plus many other facts and tips. The book is definitely something you should consider looking at. Another is What is Wrong with My Vegetable Garden? My family  thought we needed this before we even started. Talk about pessimists!  The book discussed the various pests and diseases and how to deal with it. It also had growing and regular facts about a lot of the common vegetables.
  Anyway getting back to Square Foot Gardening. There were some problems with this planting idea which I will mention in future blogs. The idea is a pretty good one though. It is supposed to be easier and give 5 times the harvest! That is because every part of the bed is used, unlike row gardening where there are walking paths in the rows. Though I was at first reluctant to the idea, my dad persuaded me to try it out. I've decided to do this more or less every year. In Square Foot Gardening you use raised beds: planks constructing a box with no top or bottom, which you then fill with dirt. Most of the people at the community garden used raised beds.