I think the plan for year one is, kind of what I did, last year in planning each square, not thinking of the different seasons the veg needed, so I started to get gaps in the squares, and ended up playing catch up.
I don't know what zone you are in so this might not work, but I am zone 6
So and this is just me and my family of 4 with 2, 5 year olds, remember every if you love zuke ignore me :-) I am also only in my second year, so, i am sure those who are more experienced will have more advice.
First box
2 square spinach - 9 per sq
1 sq red onion - 12 per sq ( I think u=you can do 16 per Sq foot if not I have made a boob!)
1 sq yellow sweet onion - 12 per sq - again 16
4 sq yellow summer squash - 1 per sq
4 sq zuchinni - 1 per sq
4 yellow squash and 4 zuch, I would have been overwhelmed, I had 2 zucks and was getting at least 3 a day, which with other veg was too much, for us. so maybe if you half the amount? if you think you don't love it that much, and then plant some more later in case of disease and Bugs.
2 sq carrots (1 variety per sq) - 16 per sq - we get through about 10 a week as my kids eat them raw, so I personally would need more, but these can be succession sown for a longer harvest.
2 beans, bush - 9 per sq - not keen myself but I did these last year and they are productive.
Box 2
4 sq broccoli - 1 per sq -
4 sq cabbage - 1 per sq
This year I am trying to be clever and I am planting leaf lettuce, radish, turnip and spinach on the borders of the Sq foot of cabbage and broccoli, as I think they will be done before these get really big (I hope)
2 sq sugar snap peas - 8 per sq
4 sq cucumbers - 2 per sq (whole lot of cucumber, like the zuke I would plant half and then half later)
2 sq lettuce (one salad lettuce, one romaine) - 4 per sq - I have done the same with cos lettuce as it claims it can be used from 26-56 days, so I am doing 2 sq foot, at month intervals.
Box 3
3'x6' planter box:
3 sq watermelon (smaller ones) - 2 per sq ft (per package directions _ no idea
3 sq brussle sprouts - 1 per sq - brussles can be started in a Sq foot when a crop like lettuce, is done
12 sq ft pumpkins (jack o lanterns and smaller pie pumpkins) - 1 per every 2 sq ft -no idea

I planted about that my first year of beans and never really got enough with the bush variety to eat for a dinner and I am a family of 3 myself my husband and a 4 year old. You will have an abundant supply of zukes and squash with 4 squares each. If you have room for a trellis across the back of the box you can line a bunch of pole beans there and they really won't take up any room at all in the box. I don't even really count mine in the spacing and create a whole trellised wall of beans. The zukes and squash make sure you plant along the edges or in the corners so they can spill out of the box as they begin to get big and bully everything for space.
By July your spinach, lettuce, and peas will probably be done or just finishing so you will be able to either fill all those squares with the bush beans you wanted if you liked the way they performed or re sow the spinach, lettuce and peas for a fall crop.
That's about as much as I've learned so far and I am on my 4th year of sq ft.
Boy do I remember how I planned and agonized over my first go around! What zone are you in and what are your seed starting plans?

I'm on the boarder of zine 5 and 6, so I figured I'd stick with zone 5 instructions to be safe. ;P

Thank you for your responses so far. I think at the very least, I'm going to shrink my zuchinni and summer squash down to 1 sq each. I didn't realize how much they produce. For the cucumbers though, I'm hoping to get quite a bit from them. My husband is OBSESSED with my bread and butter pickles and wants me to can enough for all winter (and he goes through about a can a week). Maybe I will fill in the extra space with a few eggplant squares since we love it so much.

Think I'll up another square or two of carrots. We're not huge eaters ourselves, but my son loves baby carrots. I'm sure he'll love them move when he picks them from the ground.

Thank you as well for the tip on salad and lettuce. I haven't got that far in my planning yet to see what areas I can "plant twice." I think I'll just plant these areas again in June though, as we love fresh lettuce and spinich.

Brussle sprouts I think I'll take down to one square, maybe two since I can replant them. We've never had them before (weird, I know), but I found a couple recipes that looked good so thought we'd give them a go. Wanted enough for two or three meals.

The pole beans sound nice too. We aren't big beans eaters (my huband prefers DelMonte in the can....yuck!) I may give at least one square a try if I can find the seeds today at Lowes.

Probably the biggest thing I'm worried about right now is the pumpkins and the watermelons and what else needs trellised. I'm trying to figure out how to make trellises cheap since my husband thinks the whole thing is going to be a big waste of money.

As for starting seeds, I haven't really gotten to the point of what needs started when and what can be planted into the ground, but it's my project for tonight and plantings will start this weekend. I have the grow lights all set up in the basement and I have a few of the jiffy seed starter kits as well as planning on trying to start seeds in egg shells. Placing those inside a clear plastic bin to keep the temperature up. Crossing my fingers it works, but if not, I'll sneak a few already started plants from the nursery down the street. (Sneak by my husband that is...not steal, haha!)

The pumpkins, yellow squash, and zucchini spacings are gonna be a real problem for you. On the squash, a minimum of 2'x 2' would be recommended - although most people prefer more room.
The pumpkins will literally engulf everything else in a particular box, so i'd recommend planting it away from everything else.

EG

I may be misunderstanding your intentions, but one zucchini/squash plant can take over 9 sqft easily.

That, and I never could get good heads on broccoli or cabbage at 1/sqft. I checkerboard them now with great results.

Thank you all....I love these comments because no matter how many times I read the Sq Ft Gardening book, I'm not seeing these things.

As for the squash, I'm a little confused...why does the book say 1 plant per sq ft when it really needs about 9 sq ft? Isn't this where trellising or "growing up" comes into play? I think I'm totally confused on this...

When I planted my squash, it was crookneck, it bushed out so I could not trellis it (even though I tried and tried! lol). I am not sure why 9 sq feet is recommended, but I could have really used some more room. I planted 1 per square foot last year too and it really took over. It worked out because one was in a 2x7 box and it was on the end so it spilled out onto the ground and the other had okra around it so the okra didnt need the ground space.

The 9 sqft recommendation is for BUSH type squash. That really is the size that most zucchini plants actually will be at their full size.

If you've grown zukes in the past, you will recognize exactly how big (and tall - over 2 feet for me) it can get. Keep it to the north side edges of the bed, so that it can trail over the sides of the box, and not overgrow (or shade short plants) the surrounding plants.

If you are planting 1 plant per sqft, that is for a VINING type squash/pumpkin (and you need to trellis them, or allow them to run all over the ground elsewhere). They can get VERY LONG (20 feet plus, in some cases), so be prepared for that.

This will be my first year to try Square Foot Gardening as well . . . it is a little overwhelming because of all the "unknowns"! I just keep reminding myself that gardening, in general, is usually trial and error.

I wanted to recommend that you read the following link about staking yellow squash (the bush variety) that was suggested by a fellow gardenweb contributor to me. I just bought the fence posts this morning--fingers are crossed!!!

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/sqfoot/msg0310241914233.html

Thanks alouwomack! I'll have to think about giving that a try. I guess worse comes to worse, they just grow to big and kill each other and I'm out two squares with no produce. Our neighbors actually plant zuchinni, so we do get quite a bit of that already, and summer squash is always super cheap at the grocery store if worse comes to worse. I think just to be safe I might try growing them up, but still giving each plant four squares....a happy medium.

First of all, this is gardening. Nothing to freak out about. Gardening is anything but freaking out.

From here you have several things crammed in too tight - bush beans and peas for one. And 4 sf for zuke and bush squash will make you very unhappy, as so many have stated above. I hope you will be thinning your onions and carrots. You will get a max of 2 vines on a trellis for watermelon. Not sure what you are going to do with your pumpkins, but you'll see soon enough.

Just expect a lot of stuff and pick a lot from there, and figure out for next year what warm seasons you'll grow after your cool seasons are done.

Dan

Your squash still worries me. It will flat take over 9 squares. I usually plant 2 plants in the middle of a 3x4 square plot.

Now I'm going to recommend something that's going to sound bizarre -- but bear with me.

Plant 2 yellow squash in a 3x3 square plot. Around the edges of the 9 squares, plant a ring of your lettuce and carrots. Why? These are cold weather crops. They will be done fairly quickly, and when you pull them - voila - extra room for the squash just as it tries to take over the world.
As you've got 4 squares dedicated to lettuce & carrots, that's 4+4=8 squares you've got and you only need to come up with 1 extra square. And 2 squares is a lot of squash.

• - - - + - - - + - - - +
  :ccccccc:ccccccc:ccccccc:
  :ccc....:.......:....ccc:
  :cc.....:.......:.....cc: c = carrots
  :c......:.......:......c: l = lettuce
• - - - + - - - + - - - +
  :c......:.......:......c:
  :c......:.... 2 :......c:
  :l......: yellow:......l:
  :l......: squash:......l:
• - - - + - - - + - - - +
  :l......:.......:......l:
  :ll.....:.......:.....ll:
  :lll....:.......:....lll:
  :lllllll:lllllll:lllllll:
• - - - + - - - + - - - +

As for watermelon and pumpkin. I plant them in a a raised bed about 2x3 feet for 6 w-melons, but I train them out over the ground. My watermelon last year easily took over 100+ square feet. Pumpkin the same. If you aren't going to water every day (they need lots of water) you need more squares. You 'can' trellis mini melons like sugar babies, but it's so much easier to let them spread. I can't even imagine trying to trellis a large melon or pumpkin. I've trellised cantaloupe and honeydew too. That's about as big as you want to get.

Whatever you decide, good luck and have fun.

David

I'm jumping on the "don't plant the zuccs too close" bandwagon as well. You might be able to get away with the planting 2 zucchini (or other bush squash) in half a 4x4 bed but they will likely cause shading problem for whatever is in the next row of squares as they grow.

I think 9/sf of bush beans is fine.
The yellow sweet onions may be too close depending on the variety. Walla Walla like more space I think.

For a cheap trellis option, see if you can find a rickety wood stepladder someone wants to give away. That was my favorite trellis last year.

Click the link below for pics of the ladder trellis...

Here is a link that might be useful: Ladder Trellis: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

I am on the plant the zukes and yellow squash along the edges or in the corners bandwagon. Also, stake them ala Snibb style - don't let them go whereever they want. This will save you room in your squares for planting. Snibb swears he plants 1 per sf. Have seedlings ready to plant more because of Squash Vine Borer.

If your son really loves baby carrots, you can try planting on 2" spacing 36 per square. Anniesgranny even plants on almost 1" spacing and pulls every other one for baby carrots. She planted 336 in 4 square feet !!

Trellis the cukes for sure. Trellis the sugar snaps ? Check the package - are they 2.5 foot vines or 6 foot vines ?

Brussel sprouts keep producing until the plant is done, you don't pull & replace them. I have read to plan on 4-16 plants for 2 people, so dropping to only 1 might not give you enough all ready at one time for a meal.

A couple of places to help you plan when to start seedlings and when to transplant them ...
http://www.yougrowgirl.com/grow/ - click on The Lazy Gardener's Seed Starting Chart
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/cornucop/msg0321335626810.html

Thank you so much oasis_226! That is a wonderful idea!

I've looked at my plan and pretty much redone the entire thing and moved a lot out of the garden to containers as well. I'm running to lunch, but I will post my updated garden plans when I get back.

Quick question though....I've read that a lot of the herbs I planned to grow work well on the boarders of other plants. Companion planting I guess it's called. The only herbs I planned on planting that I cannot find a space for is basil and cilantro. Can anyone give me suggestions for what plants these can go by?

EDIT: apparently the boxes I "drew" out aren't going to work, and I can't get to photobucket from work, so I'll try my best to decribe.

First 4'x4' box:
1st 9x9 squares will be 2 zuchinni plants like suggested with carrots and lettuce as the border
Top right - garlic
2nd row, all the way to the right - more carrots
3rd row, all the way to right - eggplant (staked)
Bottom row (left to right) - pole beans, pole beans, bush beans, eggplant (there will be a trellis here on the north end of the bed)
*eggplant squares will be bordered with marigolds

Second 4'x4' bed:
1st row (left to right) - strawberries, strawberries (bordered with thyme), lettuce, lettuce
2nd row (L to R) - strawberries, strawberries, spinach, spinach
3rd row (L to R) - peas (bordered with marigolds), peas, cucumber, cucumber (bordered with dill)
TRELLIS RUNNING BETWEEN THIRD AND FOURTH ROWS
4th row (L to R) - peas (border = marigold), peas, cucumber, cucumber (border = dill)

Last box 3'x6'long:
1st row and second row (L to R) - broccoli (two squares checkboard), cabbage (two quares checkboard), cauliflower (two sqaures checkboard) - east side by broccoli is bordered by dill, west side by cauliflower is bordered by rosemary, and the south border by broccoli/cabbage/cauliflower is oregano
3rd row (L to R) - sweet onion, yellow onion, brussle sprouts, brussel sprouts, red onion, and garlic

Potatoes - I picked a few "bulbs" up at Lowes...decided I'd try them in an old plastic trash can we have lying around

Strawberries - also thought I'd try these in a bucket hanging by our deck...see which ones do the best.

Watermelon and pumpkin - going to try to grow along the back of our house. For some reason, things grow like crazy there without touching them (threw in some dying tomatoe plants and herbs there and they turned right around and flourished - who knows) - set up trellis along the brick and see what happens.

Zuchinni - our neighbors grow enough that I don't want to take up a 9 sq ft section in our garden, but I did buy the seeds. Figured I'd plant them in two large galvanized tubs we have or two large plastic tubs we have (probably 25-30 gallons in size) and set up a trellis for them on the side of the barn. They'll be on the east side of it. If it works fine, if not, no biggie.

My only two things I have left to find a spot for are the basil and cilantro (even though I know it probably won't grow well). I also need to figure out what spots will need to be planted twice (like lettuce), but as long as I can, I plan to plant the same crop again.

Hoping this is a little better at least. WDYT?

Finally worked out the "succession" planting part of the plan as well. From what I've read, looks like the early crops will include the lettuces (I have 3 or 4 different kinds), spinach, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and possibly the onions?

In the lettuce spots, I plan to replant lettuce again. In place of the cabbage, I plan to do kale (intersting to try something new), and the onions will be replaced with radish and collards. If the broccoli and cauliflower are indeed early harvested plants too (need to double check the seed packets), I'll be replanting those as well.

See any spots I'm missing?

If you put the zucchini in your containers, I wouldn't bother with a trellis for it. As long as there's room for "spillage", you should be fine. They won't vine (unless you found a vining variety), they just get big and flop over a little bit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tales of a Transplanted Gardener

A few other thoughts ...

Strawberries. I like putting them in a bed of their own. They are weeds with fruit, and will take over with their runners. These are an excellent choice for a pot/tub or their own bed simply to keep them contained. If you plant with other things (this is OK) you need to be ruthless about keeping them in their own squares. And you'll probably want a cover (say chicken wire) to keep the birds from eating them before you.

Garlic. A fall planter to harvest in the spring. You can plant peas/beans now and plant the garlic in the fall. You can do it spring, but it's all most too late already and the bulbs will be smaller. And I think the cold makes 'em taste better.

Cilantro. Believe it or not from Mexico and all it's a cooler weather crop, and will bolt to seed when it starts getting hot, causing it to get bitter. Harvest early before it bolts. In GA mine is gone by June. If you let it seed it will replant itself and you get a fall crop.

In your first bed, I'd consider all pole beans on the trellis (4 squares). One square of bush gets you maybe 1-2 pots, and only a handful at a time, while the pole beans produce till frost. For reference I like 'em so I plant 16 squares of pole and have some to share with friends, and I plant 12 squares of bush beans for early beans. The poles start to produce later, as the bush are finishing up.

I too am going to try Potatoes for the first time. Sinfonain has done them successfully in towers, and as I recall you need to make sure to use later season potatoes as the early ones only have one layer of potatoes. There's more potato info around here somewhere. Maybe he will chime in with some wisdom here. He also has a blog site.

One last thing, and it's heresy for lots of folks here and I don't want to start a war, but I use Safer pyrethrin spray on my squash. If used weekly you won't have a problem with Squash borers killing your plants.

Your plan sounds great. Enjoy,

David

I second the covering of the strawberries. The birds took mine until I fortified the bed.

That reminds me, I forgot I was going to build a wire covered lid for my berry bed... ah, another project...

I see that most of Ohio is either zone 5 or 6 and you are on the border so would prob use zone 5 as your zone (you can enter your gardening zone here to show up on your posts). This chart can give you some ideas on what can be planted as spring crops and fall crops, which is not the same as what I call "succession" planting. Some more experienced gardeners can tell me if I am using the terminology wrong.
http://www.veggieharvest.com/Vegetable-Planting-Calendar/zone-5/
http://www.veggieharvest.com/Vegetable-Planting-Calendar/zone-6/

I usually think of succession planting as spreading the crops out over a planting period so as not to have everything all ready at one time. For example, in our area, we can plant carrots in spring approx from 2/1-3/15. If I am going to have 4 squares of carrots with 36 carrots in each square, then I would succession plant 1 square every 2 weeks or even 1/2 square every week. On the other hand, if I wanted to can or freeze the carrots, then I would plant all 4 squares at one time, so I could do all of my processing on one day. Our fall crop of carrots can be planted starting about 8/1 with shade (or 9/1 without).

There are some plants that are once & done (like carrots), some produce for only a short time (like bush beans), and some that produce for the entire season (like pole beans, squash, etc). This will be my first year growing lettuce, but my mom has always just planted a few and cut leaves off them as they grew. She does not succession plant them. However, in our area, spring lettuces are done by about June 15 and can be planted again approx Sep 1 for a fall crop.

Thanks Angela for those links!

From what I've been reading online, I've seen succession planting used as the term for both, but then, I guess I shouldn't believe everything I read on the internet either, right? ;P

Anyway, I plan on doing both, planting based on the soonest they can go in the ground, like lettuce and peas going in the garden this past weekend, but also staggering them so they don't be ready all at once. I'm also just going to use this year as trial and error and keep notes and hopefully do better next year.

For exmaple, the lettuce. I did start planting the first row this weekend, a few different varieties. Then I'll keep notes to see when they came up and when they died, so I'll know for next year how to stagger them. I'm also not exactly sure which approach yet I'm going to take....just cut some leaves here and there, or pull the entire bunch of romaine lettuce out of the ground and keep it in the fridge in a salad spinner. I think I'll experiment with both and see what works best for us.

The only thing I plan on canning at this point is cucumbers (well bread and butter pickles). Maybe tomoato sauce depending on how much our neighbors plant.

This is the link I've been using for my planting schedule though. It's got dates a little earlier than the links you shared though (as the link has planting nothing until the first week of April, but several sources have said things like lettuce and peas can be directly planted into the garden now). http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/yellow/

This is trial & error year for me too ... last year was my first year gardening and I only started it by accident anyway. I love having another planting schedule link, thanks ! I'm orange. The last links I gave you are not the ones I use the most either. But I do like the visual they give. If you are in the yellow group, then you should be using the zone 6 or *almost* using the zone 7 calendar from that website, you actually fall kinda in between. I am using the ones I gave you on Mar 24 the most. I copied those 2 onto my computer and have "tweaked" them to suit my needs more and also to include columns on when to expect first harvest/last harvest, spacing needed, # plants needed for 2 people, etc. Also, the ag extension office of a county a few over from us has a great chart that I have been using.