[craftypam]

Hi nuisance;
I'm going to try this for the first time this year; maybe we can use this thread to discuss our findings. Just for your info if you will need it; I had a really hard time finding coarse vermiculate. I finally found it at a place that does landscaping. I've been picking up a little at a time. My dh made the wood part this weekend. I also went to amazon and found trellis netting at a place named BIC for the cheapest price.

Pam

PS Do you have the all new square foot gardening? Reason I ask is because there is no digging. 10 new extra ideas.

 

[craftypam]

i have also been wanting to do this for years and haven't yet. Just before I came here tonight, I looked at the Home Depot ad online. They have 4 x 4 cedar frames for gardens for $35.00 I think. I want mine to be raised because I'm lazy and don't want to dig...another reason I haven't done it yet. I have no idea if that's expensive or not? Good luck with your garden

Hi,
The new square foot gardening book has 10 new tips. One of them is NO DIGGING. Borrow the book from your library. Thought I'd let you know that to encourage you. I'm not sure but I thought cedar required taking care of it in some way. My dh made 3, 4 x 4 boxes with just plain 2 x 6 for $25 plus some screws. You make up the frames and fill them with dirt after putting weed block down first. You do need to make them deeper for root crops. Hope this encourages you to join us

Pam

 

[craftypam]

I paid $50 for my vermiculite. (It was 2 very large bags.) I had a very hard time finding the coarse.

 

[craftypam]

Russ,

The name of the place is Soulliere and its on Little Mack @ Stephens on the West side of the street.

 

[craftypam]

I've had good luck growing potatoes in large pots. I also put several hills in an old washer tub.

You can see by the rock in this picture why plowing up the ground and having a conventional garden is not an option where we live. Since standing bent over to tend a garden is not something we're interested in doing anymore, we've opted to raise most of our gardening to a more comfortable height, which is why I knocked together a small stand from scrap lumber for the washer tub to sit on.

We're doing SFG in a tabletop garden. The downside is it dries out quickly. We've only used it one season without much luck but it was neglected. This year will be better! We made an identical table garden for my mom two years ago. She is handicapped and conventional gardening isn't an option for her. She has had great luck with hers and grows all kinds of small crops like lettuce, greens, radishes, etc. It's easy for her to tend and it keeps out destructive critters like bunnies. We made both gardens with an old panel door on the bottom and scrap lumber for everything else. The squares are marked off using some lawn edging I got cheap at a rummage sale and cut to fit. It's hard to see with all the wild raspberries behind it, but the garden is full of various peppers and brussels sprouts.

I went to some garden talks this weekend and they had a watering system that you attach to your hose that waters 10 pots; maybe you could look at that and make something similar to that to water table top. It was really small tubing (which I think might slowly water) or what about the soaker hoses (like a regular hose with small holes) I'm either buying that or
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Picture didn't come up; go to Costco.com and put in sprinkler.

Just some suggestions to possibly help.

 

[craftypam]

1. New location - close to the house
2. New direction - up, not down
3. new soil - mel's mix 1/3 coarse vermiculite, 1/3 peat and 1/3 compost
4. New depth - only 6"
5. No fertilizer
6. New boxes - above ground
place boxes on top of the existing ground
7. New Aisles - comfortable width make them 3' wide so you can get around when things start coming in.
8. New grids - prominent and permanent
9. New Idea - don't waste seeds Like this idea alot Would you go to the produce stand and buy 10 heads of lettuce at one time; then why do we plant a whole row to come up all at the same time.
10. new opportunities - tabletop garden

If you need clarification on any more let me know

 

[craftypam]

I typed the above info directly from the book and didn't look up the old book.

 

[craftypam]

My garden has been awful the last few years getting hardly anything from it and I believe most of it is the soil even though I've been adding to it for years and using a rototiller to turn the soil. I also have to stay out of the sun for health reasons and been having a hard time getting rid of the weeds. Sooo when I read about sq ft gardening and alot of the common sense used to do this form of gardening; I thought I'd try it.