Can You Grow Barley in a Square Foot Garden?

Garden Bed

• Build a 10-by-10 foot raised garden bed to produce 5 to 15 pounds of grain. This is enough grain to use for brewing beer at home. A smaller bed works for planting barley, but you will need several planting beds if you want an adequate quantity of grain. Build the bed in the fall, to give you to make amendments and let the soil rest before planting in spring. Test the soil pH after filling the garden bed to verify it is above 6.0 for best results with growing barley. Amend the soil with limestone to raise the pH, if needed.

Planting

• Sow barley so there is about 3/4 lb. of seeds for each 10-by-10 foot raised bed. This equates to about 24 plants for each square-foot, if you are planting a smaller quantity. The soil in a raised garden warms sooner then the ground, so you can plant about two weeks earlier than the desired spring planting date for your geographical location. The best method of sowing barley is sprinkling the seed onto the surface of the soil, and then covering it with about 1/4 inch of soil.

Maintenance

• Work organic compost or well-rotted manure into the soil each fall to keep the nutrient value high in the square foot garden. It is important to remove weeds as they appear in the square-foot garden. This prevents the weeds going to seed and mixing into the harvested barley. Provide water to the seeds after sowing to stimulate germination. Barley tends to grow well without irrigation, but you may want to water the soil during periods of drought to prevent a delay in harvest.

Considerations

• String twine across the square foot garden at a distance of 1 foot apart, and secure the ends with nails. Use the squares to plant the appropriate number of seed into the garden, if you are not planting the entire bed with just barley. Place bird netting over the square foot garden if bird damage becomes a problem. You may want to raise the netting by securing PVC poles into the corner and center of the raised bed.