Adding the grid...

The next step was to add 12" squares, like a grid, in order to create the "square foot garden." You plant one type of vegetable in each square. The idea is that you can plant more in less space using this method. Since we only have a suburban yard, and no acreage for running long rows, this idea really appealed to me. (Maximum harvest, minimum space!) There are several ways to create the 12" squares: buy thin wood strips and nail them together like a lattice, use stakes and tie twine across them, etc. Since our garden is 4' wide, as suggested in the book, we chose to buy 4' long bamboo at Lowe's (you get 25 in the package- perfect for our garden!) and tie twine onto the stakes at every foot and space the stakes 1' apart, therefore creating the 12" grid. Sure, it look a while to do (about 1.5 hours), but it only cost about $6, so it was the cheapest method I could come up with!
This first photo shows the knotted twine on the bamboo. The second photo shows a section of the completed grid, and the third photo shows our entire garden, with it's 12" grid, finally making the completed base for our seedlings that have been growing inside for the last 4-6 weeks! Next, we plant the garden!!!

Creating the garden bed

I last left off with the green beans, and the planning of the rest of the garden. We layered dirt, cow manure, compost, grass clippings, other materials until the bedding area was about 8 inches deep. Here is a photo of the layering in progress. We had just dumped on all the grass clippings from our grass after my husband cut the lawn. We had one bag of compost left, and that went on top of the grass clippings for a total height of about 10-12". Originally, I had the garden come right up to the patio, but decided that I didn't like the idea of dirt washing onto the patio, so I bought three paver blocks at Lowe's and added them to the garden. Not only does it help with the dirt, but it also gives an nice entrance into the garden. I really like how it looks. Here's a close up of of the layering process, at the edge of the patio. Under the layers is a base layer of newspaper & cardboard. It WAS much easier than digging up the sod & I'm glad I learned about this method! The photo above shows the finished garden bed. Next, we will add the "squares" that will divide the garden for planting.

Catching up...

First, to anyone who might have read my blog: I am SO sorry for leaving it for so long. Life just got crazy for a while & I didn't have the time or energy to keep up the blog. But, now that we're through the first growing season, I will try to catch up on the blogging to show you some of our exciting results! Here we go...