- No bleach would be present that might damage the seedlings
- The paper of the filters is less porous, not allowing the roots to grow through the paper
Alas, the day I started the germination project, I had no coffee filters in the house. I made due with what I had, paper towels.
4 April 2012 and I was ready to plant my seeds in the square foot plot. I began with the following supplies -
- a 10 qt /9.5 l bag of organic seed starting mix to use as a bed for the new seedlings
- a huge stock pot I found in the trash to use as a mixing vessel
- a 6" /15 cm shovel
- a supply of water
I dumped the starting mix into the stock pot.
added water to damped the starting mix
enough water that when the mix was compressed, it retained the shape of my hand.
The next step was to stake the garden. I brought out a bucket of stakes I used last year to create the 1' x 1' /30cm x 30 cm grid within the 4' x 4' /120 cm x 120 cm plot,
a heavy hammer, in this case a ball peen, and twine.
I beat the first stake into the corner of the plot and extended a tape measure to 4' /120 cm and placed four more stakes along the tape measure at each 1' /30 cm increment.
When driving stakes it is important to hold the stake far from the end, so as not to strike your hand rather than the stake. Another tip is not to hold the stake with an iron grip, so that if you do miss the stake and hit your hand it won't do as much damage or alarm the neighbors with all the yelling and swearing. Wearing a glove also has the advantage of keeping the blood and broken bones together in a neat package until you arrive at the emergency room.
Once the stakes were set on the first side of the plot, I repeated the same process on an adjacent side.
Again on the third side.
And finally the fourth side.
It was time to begin stringing the stakes. I tied the end of the string onto the stake with a clove hitch.
Then finish it off with a half hitch to keep the string from untying.
I went around the stakes until the string crated a grid of 1' / 30 cm squares. There by getting its name "Square Foot Garden"
Each square was ready to plant. Well almost. I smoothed the surface of each square, removing any large objects from the surface. In this case, I removed some of those roots I said didn't need to be removed from the soil when I mixed in the organic matter. I also removed all large leaves from the surface. They would smother the tiny seedlings.
I then formed three trenches and placed starting mix in each trench, tamping down the damp mix in each trench.
I tried carefully to remove each seedling from the paper towel in which it was entwined. Some seedlings didn't make it and broke. Those seedlings that were successfully freed from the towel were placed in the trenches leaving approximately 1" /25 mm between seedling.
I then covered the seedlings with starting mix and lightly tamped the mix atop the seedlings. It wasn't necessary to have the leaves of the seedlings above the mix surface, they would find their way to the surface on their own.
I continued from square to square, flattening, smoothing, trenching, filling, tamping, planting, covering and tamping.
I photographed each square with the type seedling planted, for later reference.
One of the squares has half one seedling and half another.
These are the pea squares before I covered them. I changed the direction of the trenches for no good reason except I liked the design.
Here is the plot fully planted, ready for water. I watered by hose with the spray head set on shower. I have a valve between the spray head and the hose. I find this valve is a much better regulator than the squeeze handle of the spray head itself. I watered until the plot was thoroughly moist.
My first planting of my square foot garden for 2012 was complete.
©Damyon T. Verbo - all rights reserved
Lowe's had these Bonnie tomato plants on sale 20 April. Besides being on sale, they were tomato varieties I wanted to plant. One thing about Bonnie plants I have learned over the last few years is that the variety you want may not be available if you wait to make your purchase later in the season. For those two reasons I purchased the following four tomato plants.
Each tomato plant got its own one foot square. I cut an X in the center of a square. I folded back each triangular flap to form a square. I then dug down to near the bottom of the raised bed, putting the displaced growing medium on the plastic mulch near the hole.
Using my thumbnail I removed branches about 6"/ 15cm up from the bottom of the stem. Why do this? Tomatoes sprout roots along the buried stem. The extra roots add support for the fruit. Plus, the tomato will access moisture deep in the soil that doesn't dry out as readily as soil near the surface.
Next I removed the label and pot from the growing medium and tomato roots.
If the roots are dense and growing in a circular pattern, 
they must be loosened, straightened, freed from that circular pattern. If you don't, the roots will continue to grow in that same circular pattern and not stretch out for support and access to more moisture.
Place the plant into the hole, roots first, of course. The bottom branches of the plant should not touch the plastic mulch when the plant is standing straight. If they do, remove those lower branches.
Return all of the displaced growing medium into the hole around the plant and firm it down a bit. Move on to the next plant and repeat. 
The four squares on the bottom row are each planted with four lettuce each. The two squares on the left side of the next row each has 16 carrots spaced equally.
