A New Zealand square foot garden

The garden as we first found it, winter 2008:


The bad old days of row gardening, our first summer (2008/2009):


Second summer (2009/2010): we know better!


Midsummer 2010:


It's now autumn and I'm starting to rip things out in preparation for the winter garden. I'll update as things progress!

WOW daisyhill What a difference!

Tell us what all you grew in your SFG's.

That is an absolutely beautiful garden. Pictures like that give me hope for my barren landscape of a back garden!

Thank you! We could hardly believe the difference between last summer and this summer. I'm never going back to row gardening.

This year we grew the following (* indicates that something did particularly well, ~ indicates that it did particularly badly):
~ tomatoes (about a dozen varieties)
* cucumbers
lettuce
basil
* strawberries
~ raspberries
* leeks
* red onions
~ white onions
* sweetcorn
pole beans
bush beans
pak choi
radishes
garlic
* gherkins
~ courgettes
~ pumpkins
~ butternut squash
* ordinary broccoli
~ purple sprouting broccoli
~ purple cabbage
* capsicums (bell peppers)
* sweet banana peppers
carrots
potatoes

As you can see, it was a year of highs and lows! The definite highlight of our harvest was the cucumbers: we picked about 18kg (40lb) of telegraph cucumbers from two plants, and there are lots more still growing out there. Our neighbours and friends have been benefitting

A cool wet summer meant that our squashes and pumpkins didn't take off early enough in the season. They're flowering now, but it won't be long before the first frost and I don't believe anything will be ready to eat before then. The tomatoes suffered for the same reason. Oh well.

G'day daisyhill,

That's a fantastic garden you must be wrapped! well done.
I had problems this summer with the squashes, pumpkins and corn like you. I've put it down to all the rain we had.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers, Peter.

Hi Daisyhill,
Just found your post with pictures of your garden, fantastic. The pictures that people post are often inspiring, interesting for what you are growing and new ideas. Your's certainly do all of that.
I am sure we all have things that don't grow for lots of reasons with the weather the main culprit. The plants in the pictures certainly look healthy.
I look forward to seeing more of your garden.
Cheers Ray

The difference is so noticable, its amazing more gardeners don't switch.
You did very well.
Our tomatoes here in Maine, New England USA mostly got late blight so the crops were bad. Rain last July was torrential and drowned many crops as well.
We're all hoping for a better year.
Your garden is inspiring.
Keep up the good work.

Wow - the difference is amazing, and SFG'ing looks so much more attractive, too!
You must be proud.....now that you had more time to sit and watch your garden grow!

Wonderful before and after pics. The before pic makes me want to not even think about veggie gardening, let alone do it!

If ever pictures told the story of the difference between SFG and traditional row gardening, yours do! Thanks for posting these and congratulations on the transformation.

Fabulous! Thank you so much for the pics.