How to Start a Square Foot Garden

I've seen lots of articles lately on square foot gardening. It's exciting, all the interest in gardening there seems to be in the media these days, from potato boxes to roof gardens to hanging tomato planters. But one of the things I love about gardening is basic...good soil! So make sure you start with that. If you're fortunate enough to have decent soil in a yard, you can start with that. If you lack decent starter soil, you'll need to purchase vermiculite and top soil from your local garden center or hardware store. To your soil, add organic compost, about 1/2 compost, and 1/4 vermiculite, 1/4 top soil. Please make the compost yourself with your kitchen scraps, cardboard, shredded newspaper, coffee grounds, grass clippings, etc. The easiest way is in a tumbling composter, but you can also put toether a bin with fencing, cinderblock, an old barrel or anything that will provide plenty of air circulation! Be prepared for pests if your compost is not enclosed, though.
Next visit your local hardware store (again) for lumber to make each of the however many you want to build 4-foot-square boxes that will hold the garden. If using multiples, make sure to leave room in between them for walkways.
Once you've filled the box(es) with your good soil mixture, place a grid on top of each box to make 1-foot-square sections. You can use string for this, or dowel rods...you get the idea.
Next, the planting. Plant each 1-foot-square section with one variety of plant, like 1 tomato plant, or 9 spinach plants, 1 squash. Once each plant is harvested, you can add more compost and plant another kind of plant in their place for another harvest. Yum!
Happy Composting!