Planing a Sq ft garden 4x20 and 8 beds

[rty007]

Hi there

I was just sitting in front of a notepad that I jot down things while doing research for things connected to SS, cheese making (I have a great book, called "praktyczne serowarstwo" which translates to "practical cheese making" I have it in Pdf in polish, but I can send it, if you want. Maybe you can translate it somehow. it is 3.3mb in file size and 400+ pages, a lot of reading, good reading too) and other topics. ANYWAY I was looking at the checked page of the notepad and I was thinking, whether any of you have ready "patterns" so to speak for your square foot raised beds, that you just rotate every year for a different bed, or is more of a happy creation, planning as you go? I was thinking.. that if you had such pre planned patterns, one would be able to get quite consistent yields every year, since the planting patterns wouldn't change just the place it is planted. Making such pre planned patterns has a lot of advantages, for one you could incorporate companion planting, check out beneficial neighbours, make plans for rotation so that same plants are not planted in one spot year after year. Generally it would make the planning easier

 

[framing fowl]

This was my first year sf gardening and I was all ready to go with maps and diagrams and companion plants all grided out. Well, I still have my maps but somehow not everything turned out as planned! I also learned a lot such as in reality, my tomatoes need a little more than a sf so I can actually harvest in between them. Some areas of my garden are a jungle!

I think it's a great idea to have a rotation and keep records and I see what you're thinking as far as yields and such. However, I think gardening needs to be a little bit more flexible. Something dies, you tuck something else in it's place. This year all my zucchini and cuke's wilted so I yanked the vines and I'll put in fall crops later this week. Next year my zucchini and cukes might do great and something else might go wrong.

So all of that to say, it is essential to have a goal and a plan with gardening, but you have to be prepared along the way to adapt to changing conditions and make the best of whatever happens.