SF Gardening

This winter has been killing me. Daylight Savings Time finally ending was a salvation. I hate driving home in the dark and after months it's no longer a problem. This weekend it was even warm enough to call it maybe spring, or at least a nice prequel. When I first set up our vegetable garden 8 foot pieces of wood were the cheapest, so I made a 8 foot by 8 foot box. Quickly I decided it needed an aisle, or we were never going to be able to harvest the center. We lost about a foot in the middle. I then found The Square Foot Gardening book. I read it lightly a few years ago, and tried to follow the ideas with mixed results. Thanks to the economy this year I'm trying to get the most out of the garden, so went back to all the books I read previously. I found Square Foot Gardening again.

As I reread it one thing popped out at me. Something I'd ignored the first time. It only really works if you have the grid. If you don't have a grid you're out there trying to measure distance every time you plant something, and it never really works. I went and got some cheap 8 foot strips and then decided the grid didn't really work if you weren't using raised beds. I originally had set out with raised beds in mind, but gave up buying dirt and compost before it really got more than 2 inches high. With those two problems in mind this weekend I dug out one side of the garden and dropped it in the other side. Now I have one finished side with the grid, and one side we need to buy more dirt for. It's quite amazing though how much the grid helps with visualizing the amount of space you actually have. This year I even managed to set out the soaker hose, so won't be carting water like last year, at least not to that garden. The angle of the photo makes those squares look less even than they are in reality. I ended up buying the book when I noticed all the nice charts in the back with planting dated for various plants. I've found similar ones online, but not all next to each other, and I like encouraging helpful books.