What Is Square Foot Gardening?

By dividing your garden into neat 30x30cm blocks, you can make the most of every corner. It’s not how we grow most of our food now, but it’s still one of the smartest ways to get a lot from a little — especially in a backyard, courtyard, or even a raised bed.

Sometimes, a few well-planned squares can feed a family more than a full row ever could.

How We Created Our “Square” Beds at Home

You don’t need anything fancy — just a little structure and some good soil.

We started by:

1. Building a raised bed — 1.2m x 1.2m is a great size. You can use timber, bricks, old crates, or even repurpose something like a sandpit or an old bathtub.
2. Filling it with healthy, living soil — we use a mix of compost, coconut coir, kraal manure, and a sprinkle of vermicompost or worm tea.
3. Dividing it into 30x30cm sections — you can use string, twigs, bamboo skewers, or thin wood offcuts. You’ll end up with 16 squares in a 1.2m x 1.2m bed.

And just like that — your blank garden canvas becomes a productive, organised patch where every plant has a purpose.

What I Plant in Each Square

Here’s what grows beautifully in those garden squares — especially in our local climate zones:

I always plant marigolds, basil, or garlic chives between my crops to help with natural pest control. It’s a game-changer!

Why This System Works So Well

Growing in squares is perfect for our climate:

• Less weeding — you’re only working with small sections, not rows

• Better water control — water deeply into each square, and mulch to retain moisture (especially important during load shedding and dry spells!)

• Easier to rotate crops — you can swap out a square when one harvest ends, instead of waiting for an entire bed to finish

• Perfect for small gardens, containers, and raised beds — which many of us are working with!

Whether you live in the Western Cape with winter rain, or Gauteng’s highveld with hot summers and hail risks, you can adapt this layout to your space and season.

How We Do It at VanZylStead

We’ve used this layout in:

• Our repurposed swimming pool garden

• Crate towers made from recycled packing crates

• Grow bags grouped together with sticks dividing them

• Even old sandpits and bathtubs turned into veggie beds!

Each square gets its own crop, and we keep track of what’s growing where using wooden markers (and sometimes the kids’ painted rocks!).

It’s neat, productive, and genuinely joyful. It feels like a living, changing puzzle — every square doing its bit to feed our family.

Want Help Setting Up Your Own?

Our Container Gardening eBook includes, tips on building soil in small spaces, sample square layouts, natural pest control ideas, companion planting that works for containers and raised beds. Get your copy here

So whether you’re working with one crate, a raised bed, or a repurposed bathtub — you can grow a lot in a little space. Just plan one square at a time. And before you know it, you’ll be harvesting fresh meals from your patch every week.

Let your garden grow smarter — not bigger.

With love and leafy greens,

Tash & Family