GARDENING IDEAS

I love square foot gardening. It makes gardening manageable. I didn't use the small one foot squares but instead uses 8 foot boards and was able to make sections 4 foot by 8 foot by laying these down to walk on.

After working up the soil by hand with a shovel and removing all the roots and weeds it was ready to plant. I could immediately plant that area and move on to the next and laying out the next boards and planting again. When I do this I find I have so much less of a problem with weeds. I have found that rototilling just multiplies the problem and the battle is much greater in the end. The long hours of work are well worth the effort in the end.

I use a 2 inch by 4 inch board to help me make the rows by laying it against the outer frame board to walk on and then lifting it so that the 2 inch side is pressing against the dirt. I push this down to make a trough to plant the seeds in and then let the board go back to the 4 inch side and up again to the 2 inch to make the next trough. This makes 2 inch troughs every 4 inches to allow room for growth yet closely planted to shade out any weeds from growing between. It is amazing how many carrots and parsnips I got in a 4 foot by 8 foot area plus the bonus of no weeding.

Continuing this until the garden area was completed. It took me till the end of June but was well worth it. Now it is done and never needs to be done again. We only walk on the boards so the ground is never packed down or disturbed. My friends and neighbors thought I was crazy to take so long to do it all by hand but now they are stunned at how little weeding I actually do compared to their gardens which were rototilled.

All I do need to do is work it up with a garden claw and make my rows and plant. I plant very closely and so weeds don't stand a chance either. I get more produce from a small area this way. My neighbors were surprised when I refused the use of their roto tillers. I didn't want to multiply my weed problem as our yard had been unattended for a number of years and the weeds had taken complete control. Now they are surprised at how very few weeds I have.

It also looks so organized with each block of growing produce. I just love it. When I do want to work on a particular area it isn't overwhelming as I can finish each small block in a short time and be done. I work in a pail of peat moss and compost to each area before planting and again it is such a small area to work it is a joy to feel like I accomplished something. Never having that unfinished feeling again. I move my crops to different spots each year to rotate the use of the ground.

I do have herbs and strawberries as well as flowers that all return year after year. My friends have told me my garden is an inspiration to them and they want to try it themselves. They are interested especially in having flowers throughout the garden to enjoy. So I decided to share it here with others.

I have read of an idea to use tires to grow potatoes by stacking them higher as the plants grow adding dirt as you do so. You end up with a tower of tires and you just knock it down at the end of the season and it is full of potatoes in a very small space of ground because you are going up.

I was thinking that building boxes side by side in a neat row with scrap lumber would work the same but look neater. The main thing is to grow upwards to get more food.

I even tried using my compost bin one year as I hadn't been using it because it was too small and I found a large boxed in area worked better for composting. The only problem was the plants getting enough sunshine until the plants got taller. I took off the top section and then added it later to solve this problem. It worked fine and I just had to remove the composter to get at the potatoes which had grown inside. Easy harvesting.

These are just a few thoughts to share.

I have many indoor plants to keep me content through the winters but am always anxious to get outdoors. That is another benefit to this style of gardening. I was able to plant my lettuce, spinach, peas, and radishes in April because my ground was ready to go and I didn't have to wait for it to dry up as many of my friends. We live in Alberta and I had lettuce ready to eat when everyone else was just starting to plant theirs. If I could get a few boxes covered with windows I could probably do even more crops earlier. We have only been doing this for the past two years so much to learn yet.