Saturday, April 19, 2008

Green Thumb? We'll see!

I don't know if you have heard of Square Foot Gardening, but it's AWESOME!! Basically, you harvest more in less space by using a 4 square foot planter box that you fill with a special mix of peat moss, vermiculite, and compost. His book is easy to read and he explains everything very well.

I tried to start last year. I even thought I wrote about it, but my attempt was pretty unsuccessful (except for a few strawberries and one box frame that I built) . I blame it on being pregnant last spring and summer - I didn't want to do ANYthing.... So this year I decided I was really going to tackle it and not put it off.

DAY ONE
This is what I had from last year: a small box of strawberries and an unfilled box. I bought all of my soil supplies and went to work.This is what we had by the time we got all the ingredients mixed together. It took a little bit longer than I thought it would. Good thing it was nice out that day and I had a good helper, a 2 year old that loves to play in dirt.
DAY TWO
This morning I marked off my grids and added more soil to my strawberry box, thinned them out and replanted them. In my bigger box I planted the two dahlias that I bought. I wanted something to be growing already so I would feel like I could SEE that I had made progress.
I'm feeling very pleased so far. I've started to sprout a bunch of flowers and some vegetables. I'm going to plant tomatoes (of course!), jalepenos, garlic, beets, beans, peas, basil, cilantro, tarragon, thyme, oregano and who knows what else. I might even try cucumbers and carrots. I hope I'm not taking on too much. But I have another box to fill, and really, there is so much space to grow in. Good thing I have people to share it with. I'm having grand dreams of a lush, beautiful, flower and vegetable filled garden. To be continued.....

1 comment:

  1. This looks like fun. I tried to check out the book from the library but every copy they had at all the SL county libraries was either checked out or on hold...guess it really is a good idea!!!
    Good luck.

    ReplyDelete