Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Square Foot Gardening as a model is great, and this book is a great intro to the general concept. For what it's worth, I'm not sure there's anything in here you can't find for free online. But, if you like to have a book like I do, this is an okay option. But, what they fail to discuss about some things and some of their specific recommendations are irresponsible. There are many reviews about why the gardening method is overall good, so I won't rehash those--generally, I agree and find that it works well. THE NEGATIVES: if you are going to write the bible on every step of making a SFG, then you should do your research about the materials. -PEAT: Don't use it. Other reviewers have pointed out that peat is an environmentally awful product. You can't make your mission to be feed the world and be green while leaving out the huge environmental toll of using a 1/3 peat fill for garden beds-- I don't think it's necessary or justifiable, but at a minimum the book should explain the downsides of it and make the case for still using it if the book's author's stand by "mel's mix" and continue to proselytize it. **peat/ "mel's mix" is such a big part of Mel's SFG model. If you do the right thing and avoid peat, you will find yourself spending a lot of time researching a different mix to use in your raised bed. So, beyond just being a terrible practice, by not presenting a sustainable alternative, the value of this book is significantly diminished by the fact that a key tenet of it's model is so bad. - BUILDING MATERIALS: I truly don't understand how they could spend multiple sentences on treated lumber, but not detail what it is (modern PT is post 2004 in the US) It used to contain arsenic, which is readily understood to be bad, but modern PT does not. (*the worst part of using arsenic PT lumber would be leaning on the box or touching it, not your veggies, in all likelihood. but again, that's not a risk anymore). Modern PT lumber is considered safe. The book tells you it's best to just not risk it-- that's fine advice/ it's fine to adopt the general principle of not taking risks instead of taking on researching each chemical and plant, but this book does not actually apply that principle in any other context or material! To me, it's worse that they give the impression of being risk-averse because you might be inclined to trust that the other materials they suggest you could use for your box present no risks. The other materials are readily known to be much worse than modern PT lumber (which, again, is not known to leach into fruit. the modern chemicals, mostly copper, would likely kill a tomato if they got into it at a concentration that could end up in a tomato eater). A few pages later, they tell you to upcycle old deck lumber-- this is a very good way to find yourself some arsenic treated wood, which is actually terrible to use. DO NOT USE TIRES, OLD "FREE" LUMBER you don't know the type/use of, or RANDOM CONCRETE for your garden. Maybe it just seems more intuitive that PT wood, which feels wet, could leach, but not intuitive that concrete could? If you mix concrete, you probably appreciate that it's not just natural rocks. There are different types, you should know what you are using. Some are definitely toxic, others might be safer...do your own research if this is your preference. At a minimum, concrete leaching will affect the PH of your soil, so you'll have to deal with that. Tires are fully toxic. Not to mention used tires. Do not use tires. Do not use railroad ties (if you thought PT lumber, old or new, was toxic, you would definitely not use random old scrap lumber like railroad ties that are common in landscaping). If you're so concerned about chemicals as to avoid modern PT, don't use any kind of paint or stain/ old chips on old wood. Lead is certainly not the only issue with paint, paint is not safe to ingest. I do not know what different plants do or do not leach chemicals in paint, but get a better resource that does it's research before choosing. Do not go to a construction site and ask for wood, least of all for them to cut it for you...while letting them know you only want cedar or other expensive stock..."chances are they will be throwing out just what you need" seems like a highly unrealistic statement (it seems wild that anyone would even try do this, but apparently SFG thinks it's chill...I'd be confused and incredulous if you came up to me with this ask).