My Square foot garden project (dial-up warning),

[amerikat]

First off I would like to thank everyone else that posted their garden pics, they were a real inspiration to me.

I have always loved gardening, but for years I have lived in apartments. Last year I bought a house and now have the freedom to garden any way I please. I moved in the winter so the first spring I waited to see what came up. I moved a lot of plants around last year and have some nice flower gardens now. I moved a lot of hostas and planted tulips and daffodils. My real love in flowers are zinnias....more about that later.

I had read a great deal about raised bed gardens which lead me to do some research which led me to square foot gardening. I bought the book and was really impressed with it so I decided to go in that direction. I liked the idea of the efficiency of the method and with compost the lack of chemical fertilizers really intrigued me.

So here is my pictorial of my square foot garden.



Here in upstate NY there are many small lumber mills. I wanted cedar but couldn't get it at a reasonable price, so I settled for Hemlock. One hundred feet of 1x10x10 and 100 feet of 1x10x2 & 1/2 total cost $38. rought sawn.



I trimmed the ends and predrilled the holes for the screws.




Completed box 4'X 10'



The frame needed to be leveled. so I used my favorite gardening tool to remove grass.



I set it in place and put the weed barrier down.



Time to mix to growing medium. A local farmer provided the manure compost. 1 and 1 1/2 cubic yards.


Peat moss was easy to get.

I ordered almost 10 cu/ft of vermiculite, when I opened the bags it was pearlite........oh well to late to reorder. so I used it.

I mixed it buy thirds in my wheel barrow, five gallon buckets of each.

what

I put the mix in the container




I used the 1X2 1/2x 10 to make a frame to keep the local animals away and can cover it in plastic to make a cold frame for next spring. I used galvanized poultry wire . I have planted earely so it can also serve as a hedge against a late frost

amerikat/IMG_2002.jpg

So I have planted a few things.


I hope for a bountiful harvest. It's the new Victory Garden.

I also bought a broken down compost bin.......that's another post and the upside down gardening is also another post..

Happy gardening to all.