My New Square Foot Garden Raised Bed

Yesterday I told you about my new PVC raised gardening boxes in the far top left corner.  At $59.97 each on sale, they certainly were not a cheap way to build raised garden beds especially since between the two I ended up with 16 square feet of growing space.  My husband doesn't like the new PVC beds so he picked up some spruce to build me a wooden raised bed.



The new raised bed is 4' x 12' x

Raised Beds at the Organic Farm

Strawberry BedsJuly 28, 2010
Imagine my delight when we pulled onto the organic farm to see 2 raised beds planted using the square foot gardening method and larger raised beds for the everbearing and June bearing strawberries.  Pictured are 3 of the raised beds for strawberries.  I didn't get a picture of the smaller (4' x 4' ) square foot raised beds.  I will be sure to get a picture the next

New Raised Beds (2)

Yesterday I posted about the new raised beds going in.  The beauty of raised beds is they are easier plant and maintain as well as being easier to protect against critters like rabbits.  If rabbits are a problem the bed is already raised by at least 8 - inches so simply adding low fencing meant as garden edging that is about a foot tall around the inside perimeter at the soil level is high enough

New Raised Beds (1)

I've been talking of expanding the raised beds since the end of last growing season.  It's been a rather funny year what with the house on the market and going on vacation the new beds were put on the back burner this spring.  Once the other beds  and most of the containers were planted combined with no offers on the house I made the executive decision to put the new beds in anyway.  Originally I

Tomato Plugs

Tomato PlugsJune 9, 2010
Traditionally in our area home gardeners aim for having their gardens fully planted by the May 24 long weekend.  With recent climate changes there has been a push for some home gardeners to start putting their vegetables in too soon.  Our average day of last frost (ADLF) is usually around May 8 but we had a good frost here on May 14 this year so those with warmer weather

Herb Bed Progress

The herb bed is coming along nicely.  Most of the perennial herbs came up without a problem although I did lose the nasturtiums and rosemary.  The bed cleaned up quite nicely though.  I was quite pleased at how robust and healthy the perennial herbs looked!

To the top right there is sage and chives in bloom.  To the top left are two patches of lavender and to the left middle there is summer

Preparing the Beds for Planting

I did not do anything to the raised beds before we left for vacation.  The weather didn't co-operate and despite the local predictions of a dry spring we had a fair amount of rainfall.  I would have liked to have had my beds planted earlier this year but knowing we would be away for 11 days there was little point especially with frost threatening just a couple days before we left.

It's amazing

The 100 Square Foot Garden Challenge

Rosalind Creasy of Mother Earth News has proposed a 100 Square Foot Garden Challenge. The challenge is produce as much edible food from a garden space of 100 square feet.  Ideally according to Creasy the bed should be a 4' x 25' Jeavons style garden bed with the long end facing north to make crop rotation easier and eliminate shading problems.  Basically a Jeavons garden bed is raised and no till

Urban Gardening

image courtesy of The Graphic FairyWhen most people think of gardens they think of a large plot with neatly arranged rows of fruits and vegetables perhaps with a fruit tree or two. This method is known as traditional row gardening and while still popular for those with extra space, it is going by the wayside for urban gardening where other methods are proving to be more productive. High

Frequently Asked Square Foot Gardening Questions

If you have been following this blog you will know that I garden organically using a modified version square foot gardening method combined with companion planting and a bit of the Mittleider method tossed in. The square foot gardening method is a modified version of the French high intensity gardening method and popularized by Mel Bartholomew. Mel Bartholomew answers the most frequently asked

Little Marvel Peas (Pisum sativum var sativum)

Most home gardeners know certain varieties are consistently good performers for them. There are three ways to tell if a variety is a good performer for you general area. The first way is to pay close attention to the varieties being sold at local nurseries. Usually there will be one variety that is consistently sold at all of them. The second way is through word of mouth and the third is

Heinz 1439 Tomato

Tomatoes are likely the first choice of any vegetable grown in home gardens and for good reason. Homegrown tomatoes are the best tasting tomatoes you can ever eat! They are simply the best fresh picked from the vine, still warm with the sun's kiss and moments away from a sandwich or salad. Most home gardeners will grow more than one variety of tomatoes usually chosen for a particular use.

Small Garden Tools

Every gardener has small garden tools but when it comes to small garden spaces and square foot gardening you really need handheld gardening tools. They outperform the forks and dessert spoons I've been known to use on occasion. Besides they make you feel more like the gardener you know you are!Trowel & CultivatorI actually have 3 hand held trowels with the most recently purchased one due to not

Update 2 - Peas & Greens

Things are progressing nicely in the garden despite the below average temperatures. We've had a lot of rain and a couple of sporadic days of warmer weather which has helped. The tomatoes that were first planted are now setting fruit and are over the tops of their cages. Everything is looking quite healthy except for the Kentucky Wonder pole beans and brussel sprouts! Something has decided

The Dirt on Worms

EarthwormJuly 13, 2009Worms whether it be earthworms or red wigglers are an excellent indicator of your soil condition. Ideally you will have both since earthworms burrow deeper turning and feeding the soil at the same time. If you are gardening in raised beds or tradition beds and don't see any worms when you are working the soil, you have a problem! If your soil cannot support a healthy

Weeding the Beds

Last weekend was an extremely busy one following a rather cool, rainy week. This gave me little chance to get out into the garden. It's never a good idea to work in the garden when the foliage is wet as this will cause any existing plant disease to spread rapidly. Yet checking the gardens daily is important to catch any potential problems before they become problems. Saturday morning I

Progresss in My Garden

Despite a late start to planting in the new raised garden beds the plants are doing quite well. I've added more herbs as I find them focusing on getting the perennial and biennial herbs established. The weather has been quite wet and below average temperatures so both the mesclun mix and leaf lettuce is growing nicely. The ever bearing strawberries are growing well in their hanging basket

Progress in the Vegetable Garden

If you have been following this blog you will know we've been busy establishing our new square foot garden. Pictures of our square foot garden at our previous house can be found here and throughout the archives up to late June 2007 when we moved here. This garden has been 2 years in the making as we focused on clearing out a lot of overgrowth. The planned design is 4 - 4' x 10' raised beds and

New Raised Beds Layout

Over the past weekend we worked on two new raised garden beds (more here). The beds are being created while we are continuing to rip out existing vegetation so the new beds were not planned using Garden Manager software mainly because the beds were going in late spring. I would have to reboot in Windows as well since this software is not Mac compatible. I've been using the combined with

First of the New Square Foot Gardening Beds

New SFG BedsJune 16, 2009Little did we know when we moved here 2 years ago we would be spending a good portion of our gardening time ripping out vegetation overgrowth. Our property had been over planted in a willy nilly fashion without regards as to growing conditions in certain parts or how the plants would mature or what problems some plants would create. It was so over grown we could not see