Gardening: Author, dead at 84, planted seeds for a new way of growing
Mel Bartholomew, author of “Square Foot Gardening,” died April 28 at the age of 84 in San Diego. He played a big role in popularizing the concept of raised bed gardening and planting vegetables in square foot blocks to save space, water, seeds and work. His book, first published in 1981 and updated in 2006, has sold 2.5 million copies worldwide making it the most popular gardening book ever.
A construction engineer by training, Bartholomew came up with his idea in the late 1970s after retiring at age 42 and finding his efforts to grow a garden had him spending more time weeding and watering than he cared to do. He realized that growing a single row of vegetables worked great on a farm where the farmer had to leave space between the rows for his equipment. This didn’t work for a small backyard garden that was usually maintained by hand and where the extra space between the rows served no useful purpose other than growing a huge crop of weeds.
Putting his engineering skills to work, he came up with the idea of building a 6-inch tall box and filling it with his own special soil mix; equal portions of coarse vermiculite, peat moss and compost. This mix retained water and nutrients and contained no weed seeds. His idea was that to grow really good vegetables at home you needed to start with really good soil.
One of his other concerns was how much seed was wasted in a single row planting scheme. Standard practice was to plant thickly and then thin out the extra seedlings. Bartholomew thought this was too much work and a waste of seed. So he condensed the planting area by creating a grid of lath made up of one foot squares and placed it on the top of the box. A 4-by-4-foot grid yielded 16 planting spaces.
He then developed a precise seeding plan that had a specific number of seeds planted in each square depending on the type of vegetable. The smaller the plants, the more seeds that were planted. This method used 20 percent of the space and 10 percent of the water of a conventional single row garden.
Bartholomew’s original book was widely adapted and his method was used around the world. In countries using the metric system, it became “Square Meter Gardening.” He and his sister Althea Mott established the Square Foot Gardening Foundation which helped to train instructors and start planting and nutrition education programs in community gardens, schools and nursing homes around the world. Check out the foundation’s website at: squarefoot gardening.org/.
Thanks to Bartholomew, raised bed gardening has revolutionized how home gardeners grow a bounty of vegetables, fruit and flowers in a small space. Thank you Mel.
A note to you all, I am taking next week off so the pages of the Voices can celebrate our local graduating high school seniors. Congratulations everyone!
Pat Munts is the co-author, with Susan Mulvihill, of the “Northwest Gardener’s Handbook.” Munts can be reached at pat@inlandnw gardening.com.