Square Foot Gardening

Square foot gardening seems like the way to grow veges and with prices of food skyrocketing, along with the gas prices, I decided it was time to get growing.

So last week Chris and I built the frames and last weekend I put it all together. The hardest part was mixing up the growing medium, and I had to fudge it a bit as the vermiculite was sooo expensive and the nursery hardly had any. The lady at the nursery said that with our soggy weather, it really wasn't that important, so I went with very good compost ( bat guano, worm casings, chicken manure etc!) and peat moss with some vermiculite for good measure.

I pour the bags out in batches, onto a tarp and layered the stuff and then turned and turned it. Of course, we were actually having a heat wave (90F) so it was hard work. But I got it done and shoveled it into the boxes. (If you are wondering why Chris didn't help, he was sailing the NOOD regatta in Seattle.) By the end of the day I was pooped!

Saturday was a fun day. I went to the nursery to pick out the plants. It seemed like everyone and his brother was there! Amazing what happens around here when the sun comes out! I had mapped out my gardens so pretty much knew what I was getting but ended up with some different plants. I also bought the dividers (see the pix) to make the squares.

So home I went and started planting. Oh and I forgot, I put bird netting over the mix so the kitties didn't decide to make it their own. I cut holes in the netting and dug into the very friable mix and got a lot of the veges planted, plus some additional seeds.

Sunday I finished the planting, leaving some open spaces so that when my seeds are up, I can thin them out and have additional space for them.

I planted, peppers, eggplant (aubergine) basil, lettuce (several varieties) celery, cauliflower, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, spinach, swiss chard, walla walla sweet onions, red onions, chives, carrots, beans and peas. Whew.