I purchased the book “All New Square Foot Gardening”. This is a brand new way to me about gardening. I borrowed the older version from library and read through. Very impressive. The main advantge, as stated by author Mel Bartholomew: “Square Foot Gardening is a uniquely simplified method of gardening that produces 100% of the harvest in only 20% of the space — AND — without all the hard work and drudgery of single row gardening.” So I decided to convert part of my row garden into SFG. Here are my steps to build a 4’x4′ garden block:

Cut 4 boards of length 48″. I use 2×8 spruce but you can use 2×10 or 2×6. Try to avoid pressure treated lumber because of the harmful chemicals.
Sonia is helping me to paint a natural preservative. It is called LifeTime Wood Treatment. You can get it from HomeHardware here in Canada.
Line up the boards into a square and pre-drilled 2 holes at the intersection. This is important because without pre-drilling the holes, the wood splits while you drive the screws into it.
This is what the finished block looks like. I use #8 – 2 1/2″ deck screw for the job.
Now setup the grid. Space them 1″ apart to make 16 x 1 square foot planting area. You can use wood lath or plastic strip. I took apart an old vinyl blind and reused those vinyl strips, cheap!
Put the block into your garden. Add some good soil and compost. So far, I have built 6 of these blocks. Don’t they look nice? Notice I use straw to cover the pathway.

Additional Resources: BackYard54