From Eyesore to Garden in Under a Week

When Hubby found this home for us to rent, one of the appealing features was the large plot of dirt begging for someone to plant something in it. I don't remember how I came across the idea, but after we moved in, I started making plans for putting in a few raised Square Foot Garden (SFG) beds. We moved here last August, so I knew I would have a few months to let the dreams and plans dance around in my head (that was before I found out that I can actually garden *year round*). Unfortunately, there's a reason why that section of the back yard is a large plot of dirt. Once I started paying attention to how the sun hit our yard, I realized our neighbors' four very large pine trees prevent any sun from getting to that plot of dirt. Doh! My dreams of a large vegetable and berry garden were dashed. So, after I removed the three severely "pruned" rose bushes in the back yard, and we decided to stay in this house for a few more years, I remembered the Square Foot Gardening Book on my shelf, and the gears started turning in my head again! "Wahoo! I can put in a raised bed!" Out came the measuring tape. 2 feet wide by 8 feet long, with room to spare along the AC unit and between the raised bed and wall of the house. "Perfect!!!" That's enough for 16 squares of bountiful veggies, Babieeeeee! In less than a week, my section of garden went from this: To this: Isn't she pretty?!?!?! Here are a few pictures of the steps taken in building my SFG... In the SFGing book, Mel Bartholomew says a raised bed 6 inches high should be enough to grow most vegetables in. After seeing how much, and how quickly my soil settled in my salad table, I decided to go with 10 inches in height. Also, I had my Tool Man Hubby help me with this one. I was able to get one corner done, but it was pretty hard with the Little One being very curious about what Momma was doing. Besides, it's good to give Hubby an opportunity to use his tools. Here's the frame assembled, and in place. I placed clean cardboard below the frame to prevent any weeds or California Poppies (these buggers seem to spread like crazy. They're even growing vertically out of cracks in the deck) from growing into the raised bed. I attached two PVC pipes to the back wall in the right section of the bed. This is so I can add a trellis in the future for things like peas, squash or melons. Yep! Melons! That's one of the great things about SFGing. Using vertical space to grow! Next came mixing the dirt. It was a *really* tedious task for me to mix Mel's recommended mix. He recommends a 1:1:1 combo of compost, vermiculite, peat moss. I started by dumping the peat into a heavy duty trash bag so I could thoroughly wet it. Wet, turn, wet, turn. The peat soaked up a lot of water, but from what I've read, this is a crucial step. If the peat isn't moistened really well when mixed in, it may never get "fully" moist. I added the verm., then mixed around in the bag. After dumping into the bed, I dumped a bunch of compost and more verm. and mixed. I had to repeat the process a few more times, and after about 3 hours--broken up of course because I had to work during the middle of the day when the Little One slept, and it gets pretty hot on that concrete so I had to take a few breaks, and then more work after he went to bed. My final mix ended up being closer to 1/2 compost, 1/4 vermiculite, 1/4 peat moss. I'll tell ya' what though. That mix is light and fluffy! The last step was to seperate my soil into squares. I used some cheap twine I found for $1, tied one end to a small nail, nailed into the frame, tied around a second nail, and nailed that in. That was "fun" hammering in the dark, but I was determined to get the bed finished. It was going to rain over the coming weekend, and I wanted my plants in! On Thursday, April 30th, I filled my bed with the following... Back row: 1sq ft of onion sets (9 sets), 3sq ft of bush beans (27 plants), 3sq ft of okra (3 plants), 1sq ft of hot pepper (1 plant) Front row: 3sq ft baby carrots (48 carrots), 1sq ft marigolds (6 plants), 3sq ft broccoli (3 broccoli), 1sq ft bell pepper (1 plant) The okra and pepper plants came from the container I had them in, and 3 of the broccoli came from my salad table. Also, I presprouted 15 bean plants and 2 squares worth of carrots. Here are my presprouted beans 5 days after planting: Well, time to go. Check back in a few days for more of what's going on. I'm still not up-to-date! Mooohahahaha. I think I'm addicted to gardening...

Eeeewwww bug infestation!

On the right side of the back yard, there once grew 3 rose bushes. One day while admiring my growing plants, I moseyed on over to the roses to take a look, and maybe even get a whiff of rosy perfume. But Nah-ah! No smelling of the roses occurred. As my nose started getting close, I noticed these: OH, they were EVERYWHERE on the roses! No newly formed bud or leaf was left untouched. I did some quick reading online, and decided the aphids and mealybugs must die! The first step was to enlist some help. With a sprayer full of hot soapy water in hand, Boy Wonder went to work hunting those bugs down, and drowning them in hot suds. Lil Brother enjoyed watching the hunt. After the three bushes were thoroughly soaked and sudsed, I proceeded to cut every last living piece of greenery off of the rose bushes. After this task was completed, and only 3 thorny, greenless stumps remained, I remembered how hardy, and what fighters roses can be... "These guys will grow back, and I'll have more infestations for sure..." I knew the only option was to remove the rose stumps. "But once these rose bushes are gone," I thought, "there will be one eyesore of a plot of dirt in our backyard." It was then that I decided to ask Matt if we should still consider moving to a different house in August... We both (rather quickly) decided that we enjoy this house a lot, and that the thought of moving for a fourth time in seven years really is NOT appealing... "So what happened to that eyesore of a plot of dirt?" You ask? Well, the Little One just woke up, and I have to go get Boy Wonder from school, so you'll have to check back to find out!

And then there was a salad table...

Once I finished filling my containers, I needed something else to do... I decided to build a salad table. I was able to have someone at the hardware store cut the 2x4's for me, and then built the table by myself! Here are a few pics of the steps. Here is the completed frame. Each section is about 12"x31". The next two steps are adding window screening and hardware screening to the bottom of the frame. The window screen holds the soil, and the hardware screen supports the weight of the soil. As you can see, my men in training helped hammer the window screen down... Here are the casters on the legs of the table. I need to be able to move it around, and turn it so the sun can hit all sides of the plants. One thing I didn't take into consideration with adding the casters is the increased height of the table. It's a good height for me, but the finished product looks a little, well, leggy... Like I said, it's a tall table. But here it is! Boy, this BARELY fit through the sliding door! Finally, the table in it's final spot out back. I planted a variety of salad greens, broccoli, and Thai basil. Underneath the table is a container with more greens, and the red one has sweet basil. I ended up using a combination of peat moss, compost, vermiculite, and perlite. Since I finished the table and planted my seeds on April 13th, my soil depth has decreased almost an inch to about 2.5". Also, I started it too late in the season, and the only thing surviving right now is the broccoli. Since this picture, I had Matt drill holes for dowels which I use to drape a section of an old sheet from to protect my broccoli from the hot sun. With the concrete below, and the stucco wall facing north, it gets pretty hot back there from a full day of sun.

In the beginning, there were containers...

Here was the first round of my gardening. We had been contemplating moving into a smaller house, and/or closer to the elementary school, and closer to the shuttle stop, so I wanted to keep my plants in containers for easy moving. Taken on April 11, 2009. On the left are 3 bell peppers and 1 hot pepper. The window boxes have 6 strawberry plants. Shortly after I finished planting these, I added a container with 3 okra babies.

Wow. Can't believe I just set this up...

This is the first gardening I've ever done, and with so much information and so many ideas swirling around in my head, I'm finally breaking down and starting a blog. It may end up being more than just gardening... Family, thoughts, this craziness called life. Little words, more pictures... Who knows? But here it is. It has begun. ;-)