Farmer Char

I've been a little slack in my blogging lately but with good reason.   I built 8 square foot garden boxes and planted a garden.  A good friend of mine, Christy Jarvis, told me a few years ago about Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening technique.  I knew that when I was ready to plant my veggie garden one day that I would use this method. 


Most gardens are planted in long rows separated by three foot aisles.  This means that 80% of your garden that you water, weed and fertilize grows nothing.  You just walk on it.  The square foot method eliminates 80% of your garden that you don't use by planting blocks.

So, because my husband has the skills and tools I asked him to build eight 4' x 4' boxes for me.  I'm no dummy -- a nice breakfast was included in this deal.  

The next thing was to lay them out in the old garden spot out behind our shop.  This is the same spot that I cleaned out a month ago.  My husband had a smart idea (he gets those every now and then) that I could save time by tilling only the ground inside the boxes instead of the entire garden plot.  Sounds good, right? I looked at him and said, "You mean you can't just throw some good top soil in each box?".  Duh....no!  Okay so I guess I'm going to have to get to work.

I was imagining a lot of hoeing but then my smart husband had even a better idea yet (he was on a role).  He said, "Use the Claw".   The Garden Claw is a blue, one-piece tool that's light and stands about 39" tall.  It is looks like handlebars on a pole with a metal clawed on the other end. There are four 6" long steel tines and two little short 3" ones that make up the clawed end.  If the ground is moist (we've had a lot of rain) you can stick it in the ground and give it a twist.  Weeds come right out with a clump of soil still attached but the rest of the ground can be easily tilled up too.  It works great.

While I was tilling the ground inside the boxes, my husband made two trips to pick up and deliver 2 cubic yards of Black Triple Mix topsoil at $40.00 (including tax) per cubic yard.  By picking it up ourselves we saved an extra $80 in delivery charges over and above the cost of the soil, which totaled $80.00 plus our gas.  I helped shovel out the dirt into the boxes and got a lot of exercise in just prepping the garden.

Teddi enjoyed just being outdoors where we were.  The grass is growing so fast we can hardly keep up with it.  We've got to hurry up getting the gardens ready so we can find the time to mow the grass again.

  

You are suppose to section sixteen 1 foot squares separated by lattice or strips of wood.  Using the square foot gardening method, you divide a 4′ x 4′ box into sixteen 1 foot square gardens. You then can plant a different crop in each of the squares. For example, you might plant 16 carrots in one box, four beans in another, and one cabbage in another. That leaves you with 13 other boxes to fill!   You shouldn't have to do any weeding but if you do, the soil is light and loose enough to pull them right out.   You don't need as much space, you shouldn't get hardly any weeds and you don't have to waste crops -- only plant what you need.  


I took a a bit of a shortcut by just sectioning off them up with colored string and then just used a ruler to divide four 1' squares in each of my special sections.   

Now before I started planting my garden, I drew up a diagram of WHAT and WHERE I wanted to plant..

In case you are wondering why I planted "marigolds" in my garden (and yes, I noticed that I misspelled them in my diagram).  According to the book, these plants discourage certain pests and critters from gnawing on your plants.  We'll see if it works.  I may have to build a scarecrow to keep the birds from eating my seeds.  They've been out there poking around for worms I reckon but they could be after the seeds.  Either way I don't want them messing around in my garden.  


I've been watering this garden using the hose from the rain barrel and by hand using a watering can.  The rain has helped a lot but one night a storm came up with a little hail.  I have since put up some trellis for my beans and peas.  I've also put some little cages around the plants that were transplanted (tomatoes and herbs).


Keep watching for updates.  I would love to see your comments.