A Good Weed? Square Metre Gardening by Mel Bartholomew

There came a point, as I read Square Metre Gardening, when everything fell into place. On page 35, author Mel Bartholomew reveals he was once an army officer. Aha!

Vegetables, Raised Beds, for the growing of,

Build unit. (‘Shun!) Recruit more units (Line up! Line up!). Grow veg (Squo-ad, fall in!)

I’m being a bit unfair. Follow Mel's methods to the letter and you'll have very logical system, spelt out step by step, with a range of equipment at the ready. But there's one thing I don't feel easy about...

First, though, let's make something clear. Square Metre Gardening (SMG) is not Square Foot Gardening writ large (as I originally thought). This is a revamp for a metric market. It works quite neatly (a metre, being 3ft 3inches, divides nicely into one-foot squares with an inch-wide divider between each) but it's still Square Foot Gardening.

Most people know the principle (divide bed into squares, plant one crop per square at a closer spacing than normal), but Mel's honed the practice over many years. His aim is to reduce work to an absolute minimum, get maximum results, and restore faith in those veg gardeners who have previously failed with conventional methods.

If you've already tried SMG without Mel's guidance, chances are that you've set up square-foot beds along the lines of those pictured on Vegetable Garden Direct's blog. Nip over and have a quick look because, with apologies to “novice square-footer” Sarah Smith, they provide an ideal opportunity to examine the refinements Mel brings to the system.

Spacing

Squares any size other than a foot mean you have to think for yourself. Adhere to Mel's measurements and you'll always sow or plant one, four, nine or sixteen of something in a square: one cauliflower, for example; four lettuce or kale; nine spinach; sixteen radish.  The book includes an At a Glance chapter that makes it easy to find this information on all the veg a beginner is likely to grow.

Spacing veg correctly, and sowing only the same number of seeds as you want plants to grow puts an end to thinning and to wondering if that sprout growing in the wrong position is a weed or not.

Dividers

Without a grid, it's not an SMG. And string and nails don’t count. "When you have no grid, your garden has no character," says Mel. He’s also playing with your mind. Mel explains: "If you had to clean all the windows in your house, that would be a huge chore and you may keep putting it off... But if you adopt the attitude of, 'All I’m going to do is one window,” get out the supplies, and in 5 to 10 minutes it’s done." 

Large, upwardly mobile plants

Courgettes, too big for a square foot, might be allotted two squares and a netted frame to train them upwards. Other veg require our throwing in the trowel and allotting one square-metre bed to one plant (squash, perhaps) or a whole crop (sweetcorn or asparagus).

Soil

While the soil in Sarah's beds looks perfectly good, Mel would surely despair. He really doesn’t want you to bother with garden soil. It might not be free-draining, it might not be the right pH, it might be too heavy... Chances are, he feels, you've tried your own soil and the crop failed.

The answer is Mel’s Mix - a loose, moisture-retaining, free-draining, nutrient-rich soil that is weed-free. It also needs to be bought in. While he gives quite a bit of detail on making compost (one component of M’s M), you also need vermiculite and peat moss (or a peat-free equivalent) and, as you’ll need quite a bit of compost to help fill the beds, probably commercially produced compost as well. (Though, Mel comments that the Mix lasts a long time and after the initial outlay you’re mostly adding small amounts of garden compost.)

What you’ll find in the book

This repudiation of soil is why SMG, at least the way Mel prescribes it, makes me uneasy. There’s no reference to improving soil, no reference to the rest of the garden, just a prescription for a purchased growing matrix that replaces an abundant resource. In the long term, I believe in improving the soil you've got.

However, there are plenty of nuggets for gardeners who don’t want to SMG just  like Mel. He suggests calculating exactly what you're likely to eat, which saves over-planting (what is Claire going to do with 50 cabbages?!). Harvesting from individual squares makes successional planting easier to plan.

Useful planting charts make clear what to grow when, helping you through the seasons, and ending with a planting schedule for autumn harvests or overwintering.

Mel draws attention to vegetable families. His assertion that "your plants are just like your children and should be treated as such" is a bit whimsical, but getting to know what is related to which is not. Celery and carrot? Same family; both are attacked by carrot root fly. It's another instance of that reductionist army thinking - "If you become familiar with the plant families, you won't have to learn and digest as much information about individual crops...Each family member usually has the same frost resistance and pretty much the same type of care."

If you’re thinking of SMGing, with or without Mel’s Mix, this is definitely worth buying. If you’re not, he still provides food for thought (in this case, I’d recommend getting it out of a library), though you’ll probably find his condemnation of “normal” gardening a touch irritating.

He provides an answer for those who have failed to the point of giving up, or whose only growing space is on concrete.  I’d even venture that this is a book aimed squarely (oops, sorry) at making veg growing really easy for those who don’t want to garden.

This book was provided for review by Frances Lincoln, publisher.

For a useful review of Square Metre Gardening with a different approach, see Emma Cooper's Book Review: One Magic Square

Visit Dreaming of Roses for more links to gardening book reviews this month.

Comments

[Holleygarden]

What an enjoyable review! I have Mels' square foot gardening book, but I didn't know that he also had one for square metre gardening! How wonderfu! I do like his way of planting plants in little squares, although I used just regular dirt (don't tell Mel!). To me, it made vegetable gardening easier and scaled it down to a manageable size. Thanks so much for a fun review, and for joining in!

[Helen]

Thank you! I agree, the system does break down veg gardening into something that is easier to control. I'm going to concentrate on bringing the same sort of thinking to my raised beds, even though I grow in rows.

[Dorothy]

I tried my version of square foot gardening a couple of years ago, after reading his book Square Foot Gardening. I used my own soil and compost. Everything looked neat and tidy, and I had some success, but the only place I had for the raised beds was in an area with a little too much shade. I enjoyed reading your review. Now I'm going to have a look at Vegetable Garden Direct's blog!

[VP]

I have some 1 metre raised beds on the allotment which I've installed this year and I'm using my own home-made compost and nary a grid in sight!

Even though I'm doing it wrong according to Mel, my plants are thriving ;)