Square Foot Garden 2012

This year we decided to try square foot gardening. The method entails building raised garden beds, filling them with a specific mix of soil, physically dividing the area into square foots, and planting. It is labor intensive the first year, but after all the beds are built and filled with soil, there should be minimal work in successive years. Did I mention it was labor intensive?

We agreed Neil would build the beds and I would fill them with the soil. Neil got the better deal. The soil is a mixture of manure, vermiculite, and peat moss. I had to place each item on a tarp and mix it together by folding and refolding the tarp and stirring the mixture. I then had to shovel it into a garden bed and repeat....about 10 times (the planted garden in the background belongs to some friends who have no yard space for a garden; we had plenty to spare).

The girls did their best to help me. They mostly just like talking about poop (the manure).

Here is what the beds looked like when they were filled with the soil.

Here they are 3 1/2 weeks later. All the seeds that were planted directly into the garden have been growing like champs. The seeds started in the house have not been so lucky.

This year we have planted tomatoes, cilantro, basil, peppers, eggplants, corn, pole beans, snap peas, lettuce, spinach, carrots, onions, radishes, cucumbers, squash, rosemary, and pumpkins. We have already lost the broccoli, hot peppers, a basil plant, 8 tomato plants (we replaced four of them; I will not be starting them indoors again), and I don't think the strawberries are going to make it due to the ant situation. This was/is an experiment in gardening. I am definitely learning a lot.