If space is an issue, but you still want to grow plants, then the square foot garden might be the answer for you.

Aberfeldy Nurseries has an example of a square foot garden and manager Trent Smith filled The Royal Gazette <$>in on how easy it was to create.

“This is one sheet of plywood, which is four by eight feet and you cut it in the middle and drill one inch holes in the bottom for drainage,” explained Mr. Smith.

“The four foot part that is left should be cut into one foot sections and screwed on. Then take a trellis and screw that onto the back of the box for cucumbers and tomatoes, and even cantaloupes can hang on the trellis.”

Asked how long it would take to grow a watermelon, he said: “It would take about 90 days for watermelons and cantaloupes.

“They grow pretty fast.”

Explaining the growth spurts of zucchinis, Mr. Smith added that also they grow quickly.

“They grow overnight, right now these are about three, four or five inches — in another week they will be almost a foot or 18 inches.

“Sometimes they get about five inches in diameter, but they are nice when they are about ten inches, they are nice fruit and you don’t want them to get too big. You can steam them or make breaded zucchini sticks in flour batter.”

The square foot garden also had a host of other summer crops.

“We have your peppers, tomatoes, squashes, peppers, egg plants, pumpkin as well,” he said. “Right now we are on the tail end of the season, May or July is the best time for your summer crop. Coming into July a lot of stuff has finished, although you see a lot of corn around now.”

When telling a tale about the chili peppers in my six inch by six inch garden, Mr. Smith explained how to start them.

“Just take the seeds and put them in the soil about a quarter of an inch deep and slightly cover them, and in about a week to ten days you will begin to see something.

“Keep the seeds moist, but not to much because sometimes water can be a hindrance.”

Another issue that many people face in their square foot gardens is powdery mildew, which he comes from watering plants at night.

“What you get is powdery mildew and it looks like powder,” Mr. Smith pointed out on the zucchini and watermelon leaves. “You have fungicides, but a lot of it comes from leaving the leaves wet at night, because fungus spores just blow in the air.

“Match-me-if-you-can hedges are host plants and the wind just blows them away.”

Asked how to get rid of it, he replied: “You can use copper fungicides and there are various other fungicides that you can use to control fungi.”

On the creepy crawly front, Mr. Smith explained that on peppers people might see the defoliation of a garden pest.

“Hornworms love peppers and tomatoes and some people very health conscious and want to be totally organic and they don’t want to spray any harsh chemicals, so Neem is a deterrent and you can get various types of pepper sprays mixed with garlic and soaps.

“We are the top of the food chain, so whatever you spray on it, you will eventually eat it. Other than being vigilant and coming out and looking two to three times a week, most bugs are not stupid, so they are not going to come up to you, they are hiding underneath the leaves.

“So it is an ongoing process. You have to be checking and dusting and Thuricide is a nice one. It is a bacteria thuringiensis and once the caterpillar eats part of that leaf, it freezes up their stomach.”

He explained that this would do no harm to the environment.

“If a bird came and ate that caterpillar, it would still be fine, whereas some of the other chemicals are a little bit harsher.”

Another garden pest are slugs and he suggested that they needed to be controlled, as they could eat lots within a night’s feed.

“This is a good season for slugs and snails right now and Sluggo is a slug and snail killer,” he said.

“When you come out the next morning your plants will be gone because slugs have a big appetite. After the slugs eat the poison, they die and can be found the next morning right there.

“You put it around the plant and around the base of the pot. Sometimes they hide in old Bermuda stone walls, block or boards, or heavy leaf droppings because they don’t like the sun and they prefer humid and damp areas. They sleep during the day and they come out at night and believe me a slug can do some damage, as they are big eaters.

“This stuff is also good because it remains effective after it rains.”

On the tour around the square foot garden, Mr. Smith went to seedlings of tomatoes, eggplants, watermelons and other plants.

“These tomatoes will be flowering in about two weeks and they take about 72 days,” he said.

“Gardeners are some of the most patient people, because you plant a crop and you won’t get it overnight.”

Whilst looking at sugar baby watermelons, he said: “These are really sweet and they are a nice round watermelon.

All of the plants are started at the nursery in Somerset and they are then spot them individually into cell pots.

If you wanted to begin planting a summer crop at this time of year, he suggest that people come in and purchase seedlings. They have tomato, zucchini, yellow squash and cucumbers to name a few.

For the winter’s harvest, he said there were numerous vegetables that could be planted from September.

“It is a good time for broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, lettuce, string beans, all your greens, Swiss chard, kale, spinach, collard greens,” he said.

“You also get your herbs, parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, chives.”

Also as the season cools off, they have herb baskets with six different herbs.