Just got a new book: "All New Square Foot Gardening" by Mel Bartholomew.
He dismisses conventional row gardening and promotes a different model. His garden consists of, for example, a 4x6 foot 6" tall framed area with a special mix of soil. Into this arrangement, he plants stuff within each square foot (16 radishes or 1 lettuce). His garden is easier to tend, free of weeds, and produces more vegetables than the standard model.
His "Mel's Mix" of soil consists of equal parts of three ingredients:
1/3 Vermiculite 1/3 Peat Moss 1/3 Manure/compostHe urges that the manure be made up of at least five different sources. That way you get cow manure, mushroom compost, compost made from fast-food scraps, etc., rather than just one source.
His book also give you recommended planting density (in parens below) by categorizing plants based on their size. Extra Large- (1) - Broccoli, cabbage, Pepper Large (4) - Leaf lettuce, chard, Marigold Medium (9) - Bush bean, Spinach, beet Small - (16) - Carrot, radish, onion
That is, you can plant 16 radishes in one square foot.
By the way, he does not support this "throw in a lot of seeds, then thin" business. For him, it's one seed = one plant.
Anyway, I got my 3x6 foot bed built and filled with Mel Mix soil. Tomorrow I'll plant.
Watch this space for future updates.