Well, it took a while, but I finally got all four squares completed- yea! I mulched the first 2.5 squares before I ran out . It looks like I'll be making a trip to Lowe's! The onion bulbs I planted in the first square and the garlic bulbs planted in the second square back in January have come up and are growing nicely.  The have survived the 3 snow storms we've had since then- whew! I've also planted other seedlings that I started indoors in January, and even got the compost bin back up. Grass has been planted in the new walkways and it looks like everything is on it's way! Even the dog is excited! 4/6/10

My kids decided to get into the act this year, so we took  the extra landscape edging and made a new flower garden area around our tree in the backyard. They picked out the seeds and planted them, with a little help from Mommy. They chose two kinds of sunflowers, planted in a circle closest to the tree, lavender, in a larger circle, and marigolds at the outer edge. It will be gorgeous once everything starts growing!! They are so proud of their little garden, and I'm glad they're excited about it! 4/14/10

Here's a close-up the little sunflower seedlings starting to emerge: 4/14/10

Here are a few cute photos of the kids watering and having fun in the garden 4/6/10:

Transforming the garden for 2010!!

So, this year, I decided to change the garden from one long bed into four 4'x4' square gardens with small pathways inbetween each one, and really embrace the square foot gardening technique.  In this photo, I have the first square done, with a temporary grid in place. I have planted seeds and marked them.  1/21/10

My kids are helping me clear out the "old" : the dead tomato plants form last year and all the weeds. And then we'll be ready for the "new"! 1/18/10

Whew! The big gardening bed is finally cleared...
1/18/10

And the tomato cages are neatly stacked....

And here's my giant mess that needs cleaning up! Oooh, fun!

The vine garden- as it looked in January 2010. It's needing some TLC before the planting season!











Whew- the bed is all cleaned up and turned.










Next, I divided out the space. The shape and space for this area is awkward, but I think I divided it pretty well by basic "square foot gardening" principles. I "placed" each crop into a square on a plan drawn on paper. Seeing the whole garden laid out beforehand made it easier and faster to plant the seeds in the garden once it was ready.


The vine & lettuce garden planted with all the winter veggies: lettuces, broccoli, and peas- January 18, 2010. The kids had fun poking the little seeds into the ground. The planting goes MUCH faster when you have a plan in place!

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...