This weekend we decided to plant our garden. I know it's not much, but we're working with what we've got! If anyone has an excuse not to have a garden, it me. Ok, so maybe if you live in a large city with a high-rise apartment and no balcony, then you have a better excuse than me. But still, we live in a townhouse with no more than a few feet of patio and a few square feet between shrubs in our flower beds.
The last few years we've done pots with tomatoes, herbs, green beans and some zucchini. This year however, we've added the square foot boxes. This will be my first attempt at square foot gardening. Luckily I have my amazing neighbors and friends, Emily and Iliana, to walk me through it. They've had great success with theirs the last couple of years.
This is my hard working, wonderful husband, getting the boxes ready. We purchased some 2x6's and my husband built them. At the bottom of the boxes is a piece of cardboard. Once the boxes were built and in place, we drenched the cardboard with water then filled each box with a special "square foot gardening" mix of soil. We purchased our soil from Cooks Green House here in Orem. The wonderful employees at Cooks also helped us pick out our plants and gave us some good tips for the particular veggies we are growing.
We are growing zucchini and yellow squash in one box, and cucumbers and red peppers in the other.
We kept our pots this year as well. We have tomatoes in one. And basil, chives, and cilantro in the other.
Little r has already been a big help with the watering process.
I will keep you posted on our progress and harvest. I'm sure I'll be coming up with lots of fun recipe for our crop.
If you're interested in starting your very own square foot or pot garden I'm sure there's a local green house that would be happy to walk you through the process. Don't be afraid to walk in and just start asking questions. It's what they do...and they love it!
There are also some great online resources for square foot gardening. They include...
Step-by-step instructions on building your square foot garden, garden plans, companion plants, plus much more about gardening in general:
http://organicgarden.org.uk/?page_id=1648
Information on designing, building, planting, and growing your garden:
http://www.mysquarefootgarden.net/plant-spacing/
Also if you have any questions for me, feel free to ask. I'm no expert and I'm learning as I go, but I'm happy to share what ever knowledge I've gained. I can also pick the brains of my friends for you. They're pretty cool and they know a lot more than me.
