Square Foot Gardening

I am so excited that we have our very first garden! I always wanted a garden, but just never thought I had time to take care of one. Of course, I have been either pregnant or taking care of a little one most summers during our 9 years of marriage--so I was probably right that I didn't have time. This summer is different, though. Our youngest child can walk all by himself and that alone makes a big difference. Although, one thing I didn't count on is his intense desire to walk on a garden and to pull out everything within his reach!

A couple of months ago I learned about a method of gardening called square foot gardening. It sounded easy enough so we decided to try it.

Steve built a box that is 4'X4' and left the middle empty. You don't have to amend the soil underneath the box, but we chose to mainly because we have terrible soil. We dug up the grass and then mixed bagged topsoil into the soil left behind. Then we filled the 4X4 box with a very rich humus and topsoil mixture. The grids on the top are just to mark off 1x1 sections that make planning and planting the veggies easier. We chose to only do one section this year since it's our first attempt at gardening. We've planned out a section of the yard that would be good for up to 4 of the boxes, so maybe next year we'll add another box or two.

We did the planting this afternoon, but I just didn't have time to take a picture afterwards--it was too close to dinnertime and bath time for the kids. By the time that was done, it was too dark for pictures. I will definitely get pictures either tomorrow or Monday.

Ryan is helping Steve dig up the grass

We now have all the grass out and Kaeli is helping to loosen the dirt left behind.

And here is the finished product!

Our plan is to eventually kill off the grass around the box and make pebble/stone paths around the box/boxes. This will help to reduce the amount of weeds and grass that end up in the garden box. When I post "post-planting" picture I'll include a list of what we are trying to grow this year.