Who is the man behind square-foot gardening? Who is the author of a million-seller gardening book?
With Mel Bartholomew's long list of credits, including world traveler, television star, consulting engineer and best-selling author, you might wonder why he now makes his home in Eden. I spoke to him recently and he shared his story.
"After I retired from my consulting engineering business, I decided to take up gardening as a hobby," Bartholomew said. "I followed the advice of everyone on single-row planting, but my engineering background told me that this was too much work and took too much space.
"I then proceeded to interview garden experts around the country and asked them these questions. 'Why do we space rows of vegetables 3 feet apart? Why do we Rototill our gardens and loosen the soil and then pack it down by walking all over it? Why do we pour out a whole packet of seed and then go back and thin out the plants back down to what the spacing was supposed to be in the first place?'
"All this seemed so wasteful to me, but I got the same answers from experts from Maine to California. The answer they all gave was that, 'We have always done it that way.' I took everything that seemed wasteful in the row system of gardening and tried to make it as efficient as possible."
What followed was a new and exciting career that including his book, "Square Foot Gardening," and a PBS TV series from 1982-86. This led to many more teaching and media opportunities throughout the country and eventually brought him to Utah.
"We ended up in Utah because of the school program. We came up with a program of A Square Yard for the School Yard and placed a garden in every school in the state," he said.
After establishing demonstration gardens at Thanksgiving Point and teaching thousands of people about square-foot gardening Bartholomew continues his quest to support his ideas and his humanitarian foundation. His long days include humanitarian work in India, Africa, Malaysia and many other countries.
"Everything pretty well revolves around my mission," Bartholomew said. "I want to take square-foot gardening around the world."
Grab your tape measure and get started. You might find an entire new way to grow food in your own back yard.