Mel Bartholomew, the man who popularized square foot gardening, passes away
Mr. Bartholomew turned to gardening after retiring at 42 from his engineering and construction firm — a New Jersey concern that had worked on several State University of New York campuses — and moving his family to Long Island.
Mel Bartholomew in his square foot garden in Old Field on Long Island. Photo Credit Roger Thurber.
There, frustrated with weeding and watering rows of vegetables in his backyard, he applied his engineering expertise to conceive a densely packed, 12-foot-by-12-foot subdivided plot. It soon captured the imagination of aspiring horticulturists, introduced a bountiful harvest of vegetables into diets around the world, and inspired a public television program and a book that sold an estimated 2.5 million copies.
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