Square-foot gardening is alive and well in Tucson.
Ray Walberg, who turned 85 four days ago, is one of the reasons why.
He leads the 50-member square-foot gardening club in Tucson Estates and makes presentations to groups around town.
He'll talk about the compact gardening method to the Tucson Garden Club on Wednesday. The meeting is open to members and non-members interested in joining.
Author and gardener Mel Bartholomew popularized the idea of intensive gardening about 31 years ago with his book "Square Foot Gardening."
Walberg adopted this gardening method as a way to create compact beds at a Washington public garden where he volunteered.
He brought it to the Tucson mobile home that he shares with his wife, Pat.
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He found the method particularly helpful in the Sonoran Desert, where the couple bought a home in 2000, because of the poor veggie-growing soil. "This square-foot gardening would be something to do," Walberg recalls thinking at the time.
He built four 4-by-4-foot contained wooden boxes, plus one for Pat's flowers. They have legs so they sit at table height on the couple's brick patio.
They're filled 6 inches deep with a mixture of equal parts of peat moss, vermiculite and compost.
The beds are divided into 1-square-foot sections marked by strings.
In each section Ray Walberg plants seeds in numbers specified in the book: four lettuce in one section, for instance; 16 onions in another; six beets in another.
He'll plant one section with lettuce, then wait a few weeks and plant a second section with the same crop. This allows him to get a continuous crop that the couple harvest right when they need the produce.
Walberg installed drip lines through the boxes for automatic watering and netting to deter critters. He also added warming lamps and retractable shades. A couple of beds have structures for vines.
This type of intensive gardening has many benefits over planting in rows, Walberg says.
• It takes up much less space. Even with all the gardening that occurs, the couple has plenty of patio space for social events and meetings involving dozens of people.
• "You can control the climate to a certain extent," says Walberg. He can easily and quickly cover beds against the elements. One lamp can warm a whole bed.
• Crops crowd out invasive weeds.
• Soil is easier to control because it's contained.
• You need only hand tools to tend to plants.
Walberg adds that the beds allow flexibility in locating the garden. "You can do it anywhere you've got sun," he says.
If you go
Square Foot Gardening
• What: Ray Walberg talks to the Tucson Garden Club.
• Where: Tucson Botanical Gardens, 2150 N. Alvernon Way.
• When: 11 a.m Wednesday.
• Reservations: Required for nonmembers; call 297-8301.
Contact local freelance writer Elena Acoba at acoba@dakotacom.net