I've found that certain types of especially vigorous vegetables were best grown OUTSIDE the SFG, reserving the compact and carefully managed SFG space for smaller plants.

In particular, indeterminate tomato plants grow into absolute monsters if they have favorable conditions. I prefer to grow them in a separate area supported by home fashioned reinforcing wire tomato cages. There they are free to turn into a jungle of tomato and drop any fruit that I've missed without making my SFG impassable!

I also tend to grow the summer squash away from the SFG, since they can tend to trail a bit. Even if you try to direct them away from the other squares, having it sprawling into your footpaths makes passage a bit more challenging.

And parsley I decided was preferable to grow in its own dedicated area. I always want to have enough to share with the black swallowtail caterpillars, and trying to germinate those parsley seeds that can take two weeks or more, with seeds that are not viable very long and then fiddle with the transplants was a bit of a pain.

So now I simply let parsley plants go to seed in their dedicated areas, and in the spring I have more than enough parsley seedlings for me, the swallowtails, and a few friends that want a transplant. I love it when plants take care of their own seeding! :)

i started m my first real garden after we bought our house(govt housing isnt real conducive to gardening). initially we jsut dug up a small patch where an old shed once stood, and planted some green beans, tomatoes, and pumpkins(more on that in a minute)
things went well, i had grown enough green beans for one meal, so many tomatoes we couldnt eat them, and pumpkins. everywhere. the neighbors yard, the driveway. everywhere. oh yeah, and all of them in august.
it all looked beautiful from afar though.

got the book from my grandmas library after grandfather died. read it and decided id try it.

first attempt was built from a 2x10 id found and made my sfg. planted the standard stuff in it, it worked mostly. i didnt use the mix exactly, mine was more garden soil, compost, less peat and vermiculite. but it worked.
2 years later went to add in compost and such and noticed the inside of the wood was being ravaged by beetle larva. out it went, and trex was used to rebuild. 4x4 box trex, looked nice. we built a bench/trellis/planter box thing around it as a sitting area and the wife was happy. i out grew the 4x4, wife said "no more" i said "more" we compromised and i built a 5x4 out of trex. and a small corner garden that was meant for my corn(later we put a pond there as the rats and squirrels found the corn far too convenient and moved the corn behind my garage). that was a few years ago, and id still add another 2 ft if i could talk her into it, but this year was a greenhouse and seed starting apparatus, so maybe next year.

so now that ive completely bored you heres what id say

if you think youre going to be into it, like really into it long term, go trex(or something like it) and go at least 6ft. make it a part of your landscape, design around it. if youre new and notoriously impulsive like me, start small and cheap. that way if you dont like it you can burn the wood, and spread the soil around the lawn.

as far as plants go. ill tell you, but know full well that you wont listen(nobody does at first), or you wont remember. LEARN WHAT GROWS THERE AND WHEN! haha. cool season, warm season, sun, part shade, etc. that said, that really is the best part to me, experimenting. trying new stuff. another thing youll likely ignore(i do still) just because the book says you can grow it there, doesnt mean it really works. corn may work, as mentioned earlier tomatoes do awesome, but at the expense of other plants, issues. i still grow indeterminate tomatoes in mine, but every year late summer as im tying/wiring/bracing them i regret the decision. they just get too unruly.
another thing to think about, this is not going to replace your grocery store. not on a small 4x4-4x6 scale. i grew year round this year, and it was MAYBE 3-5% of my yearly grocery. probably 1-2 meals a week have something from my garden in them. side salad, green beans, carrots in a salad, broccoli in an alfredo dish, you get the idea.(i recently adopted the "1% at a time" motto. i figure at this rate ill be self sufficient around age 134). only reason i mention it is when i started i had grand visions of literally ignoring the produce section of the grocery store. it just didnt happen.

also, id avoid anything that seeds itself in it. unless its going to be devoted to that. like an herb garden. seeds LOVE this thing, everything seeds here. so if youre going to plant basil, watch it or commit to basil every year. if you plant potatoes in it,(reds work pretty good) commit to potatoes every year,(in my area, twice a year) and rarely in the same place i planted them.

if youve read this far, you may need a hobby. lol. seriously though, this idea, this method HAS its place, and does well at a lot of things, but its not stand alone if youre really trying to grow a bunch of different stuff.

im sure others will have other tips. i hope so. so i can read them too.

i found that if you read books thing turn out better. those who just skim the book seem to do worse.

My vegetable garden was much more productive after reading the book and following directions. The worst mistake I made was to put in my raised bed in the summer, not realizing the space would be shaded by the house from October through March. I added another box later after observing the shadows at different times of year.

Sprawling plants like zuccini and melons can be planted near the edge of the box and allowed to trail outside.

Here is a link that might be useful: What's Growing On?

I agree about the indeterminate tomatoes. I had 1 each of 4 kinds and they grew well, but I ended up having to tie all the cages together and to tie them also to the fence to keep them upright. They bent the cages! One big windstorm knocked a caged tomato onto my peppers and broke two off at the ground and they never really recovered. I had other plants that got shaded out by the tomatoes too, such as cucumber, pumpkin, and zucchini. I had a 6x4 new mini bed to start last year, so this year I will choose different plants and use different locations, as well as containerized some veggies this year. Oh well it was a good learning experience last year !

best part of it, learning. cant recall how many times id go to the nursery and say "ooooohhh, thats why my (insert plant/vegetable here) arent doing anything...theyre more of a cool/warm season plant."

with the tomatoes, i vowed last year to keep them out of the SFG, especially here in va beach, by the time theyre 8ft tall, storm season is on us and i have to get creative. unfortunately i find myself this very moment thinking about putting them in there again. purely as a back up plan though...

i also started last year to really think outside the box(pun absolutely intended) and try different things in containers, different areas of the yard, etc.

i guess in the end weve all been there. overzealous and ignorant.

i keep trying to talk the wife into pumpkins again, i just really loved the way they grew, almost an organized chaos. maybe ill sneak a few in somewhere without her knowing...

so best advice you will probably not follow to the tee
read, research, ask around. grow what YOU want, but remember it wont always work in your situation(try anyways though, you never know. see, i dont follow it still)

another thing, keep it as simple as possible. its extremely easy to get wrapped around the axle on soil science, and nutrient levels in various fertilizers. youll be overwhelmed and likely lose focus on what youre really trying to do- grow something to eat.

parting advice that always fits "if you have an hour to cut down a tree, spend at least half of it sharpening the ax"

Its been killer since year one. Never had a problem with anything but an occasional brussel sprout plant. Crop rotation is automatic and works great, no need for fertilzer if you do it right, and you can save a whole bunch of money...some pictures on my site and getting bigger...good luck with yours

Thanks! This is the kind of information I was hoping to get.

One other question: I have lots of squirrels, chipmunks and cats that wander the area and tend to dig in my pots. I'm sure a raised bed full of soft soil would be a draw for them. Anyone have a good way of dealing with this problem? A dog is out of the question because of allergies. Thanks.

My sfg beds are 12 feet in length and 4 feet wide. I followed Mel Batholomew's planting guide and everything pretty much worked out well in a tight space. The champions of my beds were indeterminate tomatoes using a Florida weave support and light pruning, kale, swiss chard (Fordhook and Bright Lights), various lettuce, okra, sweet peppers, bush beans.
I have tried and would not plant these in square foot beds:
squash, cucumbers. pole beans, strawberries.
I did plant asparagus in my beds but I think they would have been better off in their own established area out of the beds. I did remove my strawberry plants from the sf beds and into vertical gardening spaces. I am growing a self-supporting pea variety in beds, then will turn over the plants into the soil.
I used jute string to section off my squares when planting and the entire bed area looked very neat and planned out. I also have raised posts on the four corners of my beds for solar lights and to support floating row covers.
Make a garden plan, keep notes, and learn from mistakes.

The animals can be tricky. I had two SFG, one covered with a cage and the other one open. Nothing could get into the cage, which was great, but I also couldn't grow any tall plants there. In the open one, the groundhog ate all my peas so I was forced to put a fence up around it. That kept out the groundhog.

Make sure you put chicken wire beneath the weed cloth of your SFG. MANY animals tried to dig under, as evident by all the holes around the edging of my beds.

I would say put up a fence, that may at least keep out the cats. But the squirrels and chipmunks will find their way in unless it's covered with a cage, and they will dig in the fresh soil. Mine never caused too much damage, though.

About halfway through the summer a hawk moved into our neighborhood and that scared off the chipmunks at least! ;-)

This will be my third year with square foot gardening after a lifetime of conventional gardening.

I have cucumbers on two corners and use tomato supports to grow them on. They have done terrific for two years.

My only other advice is to water well in the heat of the summer. I've been amazed at how well plants have done even in our blistering Texas heat.

I'm so convinced of square foot gardening's benefits, we are making two more 4x8 boxes today.

Happy Gardening...

Like everyone else here Ive had good results with certain veggies,but not all types do really well.

Tomatoes have to be caged or staked and require at least 4 squares per plant(thats a lot of room in a sfg).I built small trellises on the back of 2 of my 4x8 beds (I have 4 this size),and can grow anything that climbs.

I use nylon string to train all my climbing plants(pole beans,cucumbers,melons even yellow crookneck squash do pretty well on the string) the trick is to get them to the top of the structure where they can get a good grip around the top of the trellis frame, once established they're easier to maintain. It's also pretty neat as they grow together into one sort of colorful mass.Also be careful not to let pole beans choke out othr veggies.

Peppers are easy to grow, so I plant several types hot and mild. Serranos and cayennes are favorites.

I've had good luck with square foot gardens. This will be my sixth season to plant this way and I love the method.

There are plants that are better suited to conventional row gardening though such as: corn, zuchini squash, bean, peas, okra and a few others, mostly because these plants need a large space to really produce. I tried zuchini one year and the thing grew as large as a car hood took over the whole garden, tried corn 2 per square thats should have been at least 64 ears in a 4x8 bed never got but one or two ears. Okra did ok , I planted half a bed at one per square so I got about 16 pieces every picking( not much okra for a family of four),and peas can easily swallow an entire bed.

So all said its just trial and error

Just have fun with it.

I've done SFG in one form or another for 15 years. This is my personal opinion. YMMV

Indeterminate tomatoes do well if pruned. Definitely need to be caged/trellised. I cage all tomatoes, even determinate varieties. I give them 2x2 for each tomato because I have the room.

There are two type of squash to consider. The first is the vining/trailing kind (butternut, spaghetti, etc). I grow these vertically and have had terrific success. I put them on the North edge of the bed. I have T-posts spaced 4 ft and wire cement mesh attached to the posts for the trellis. I have to gently convince them to stay on the trellis while they are growing by moving their tendrils toward the mesh every so often and I pinch them back when they start getting out of control. I've never had to support the fruit with hammocks or whatever. The stems grow to support the weight of the fruit just fine (and I've picked some pretty big spaghetti squash off the trellis). The second type of squash is the bushy variety (zucchini, crookneck). I used to give them a 4x4 space and let them sprawl. Two years ago I tried staking them. This worked very well and I tried a modified version of it last year. I put them near the edge of the raised bed, gave them 2x2 squares and put an inverted tomato cage over each plant. I'm converted! I will follow this method from now on. It helped to keep them upright without too much convincing and made it easier to see when the fruit was ready.

I grow cucumbers and pole beans the same as trailing squash. One cucumber per square. Pole beans I plant 9 per square but I only plant them half a square wide along the trellis. This works really well but, again, you have to do some convincing especially early on to get them trained.

Other things I've grown SFG method are beets, carrots, peas, snap peas, peppers, spinach, radishes, watermelon, and cantaloup. I've tried corn (an early, space saving variety I can't remember the name of right now) but it was not cost efficient for me. We have a farmer down the street that sells it $2 a dozen. Can't beat that. I tried pumpkins one year. I wasn't very disciplined at training them so they went wild all over the walkways, over the fence into the neighbor's, and out into the lawn. It was my own fault but I still probably won't grow them SFG again.

I have strawberries in a dedicated bed; I wouldn't recommend them if you plan on sharing the bed with annual veggies.

If you think you'd like to grow it, and it will normally grow in your area, then try it. What have you got to lose? Maybe you can try one new veggie each year just to see what they will do. If you you have the space to do it and it won't compromise the space for the crops you really want/need, then why not try it. If it doesn't work don't plant it again. Simple. Gardening is a big fun experiment anyway, right?

what on earth is YMMV?

Your mileage may vary

I would never have figure that one out

all you would had to do is type the acronym into google.