The perfect mix

I'm a book addict; I confess.  I'd walked past Mel Bartholomew's book All New Square Foot Gardening a hundred times before I finally picked it up.  The book is easy-to-read, devoid of fru-fru, generally, but spends a lot of time debunking the "conventional wisdom" of the row-crop-crowd.  Basically, it's container gardening with a purchased growing mix:  vermiculite, peat moss, and mixed compost inside 4' x 4' x 6" frames.

Bartholomew goes into great detail about how to prepare the frame, then the foot-square grid which forms the basis of the "Square Foot" rationale.  Bartholomew recommends close planting (16 per square foot for radishes, 1 per square foot for cabbage) and planting different choices in every square for variety.  As soon as each square makes its crop, a new and different plant is started in that square.  Square Foot Gardening is designed to provide a continuous produce over the course of a growing season, but not really to provide extra.  To expand production, just make more frames.

Bartholomew also describes how to extend the growing season by constructing fitted cages, "hoop" houses, and row covers to protect from animals, extreme weather, and pests.  Planting charts at the end make this a one-stop reference for the novice gardener.  The method benefits from a small footprint and would be suitable for patios and small yards.

Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest has a similar goal, but goes about it differently.  While Bartholomew advocates bypassing the natural system and inserting a closed-system garden, Coleman takes a far more holistic approach.  While Bartholomew recommends the use of nominally-organic soil amendments (vermiculite and peat--while organic, are not sustainable), Coleman advocates extensive organic soil amendments within a sheltered garden house (he lives in Maine).  He takes a strictly organic approach to cultivation and pest control.  Coleman's method doesn't seek to circumvent the natural growing environment; it seeks to maximize it.  Coleman encourages the gardener to learn, to work, to grow.  Rather than being concise and direct, Coleman takes the reader on a wonderful journey through the winter gardens of France and into his own winter garden.  His methods are time-consuming, but are investments which will reap recurring dividends for the larder and the mind.

Last year's garden strip

Which is better?  I think the better question would be:  why choose?  Until I'm able to build a hoop house, I'm considering making a cold frame on the order of the "Square Foot" design.  I've not given up on my garden, though.  I'll be planting in strips, as Coleman recommends, and planting closely, as Bartholomew promotes.  Every little bit of information helps!

What about you?  Have you used either?  How does your garden grow?

Nancy