The Addison Arbor Foundation enjoyed its biggest turnout for a program ever as Dallas County Master Gardener Billy Clark gave a talk on Square Foot Gardening on Saturday, Feb. 20. About 100 people registered at the Addison Athletic Club to hear Clark offer tips about making the most of your efforts, even when space is a limitation.
Billy Clark, Dallas County Master Gardener. (Photo: AddisonGreen.info)
Clark, who has worked for years with the kind of small footprint gardens more common in urban and suburban settings, provided ideas on how to create boxes, prepare soil, match compatible plants, and more. He referenced his own considerable experience while paying homage to Mel Bartholomew, who pioneered the square foot technique about 30 years ago in a Public Broadcasting System series and an accompanying book.
Essentially, square foot gardening is a system of laying out an attractive and productive garden based on a grid of squares, with single seeds or plants arranged in carefully managed spacings. The system helps conserve water and labor required to produce a maximum crop. A square foot garden takes up about 20 percent of the space and requires about 20 percent of the work of a conventional single-row garden.
The event kicked off the Foundation’s 2010 quarterly series of horticultural seminars, which will correspond with the seasonal calendar. For more information, visit the Foundation’s Web site.
Tags: Addison Arbor Foundation, Addison Athletic Club, Dallas County Master Gardener Billy Clark
