Digging in and Setting Up - Square Foot Method

I visited the local Menards (hardward store) and picked up some hot pink mason's line to start marking out the garden.  I'm going to stick closer to Square Foot Gardening principals regarding plant spacing so I want to be more accurate with my seed placement.  What is Square Foot Gardening?  Mel Bartholomew, the originator of the idea explains it:


"a system of laying out, planting, and maintaining a productive, attractive garden in any amount of space.  The garden is based on a grid of 1-foot by 1-foot squares, with single seeds or plants placed in carefully determined spacings."  Mel goes on to say, "The square foot system lets you make the most of your garden space to conserve the amount of water, soil conditioners, and labor needed to produce a maximum amount of food in that space.  A square foot garden takes only one-fifth the space and work of a conventional single-row garden to produce the same harvest."   


Here are a couple of links to some good Square Foot Gardening websites:

Mel Bartholomew's Site:
Square Foot Gardening Foundation

Also one from Tim Beckman from Indianapolis, Indiana:
Tim's Square Foot Garden

Started the Garden

Today I just turned in the mulched leaves that I mulched into the garden last fall.  There was a crazy amount of worms, I'm so excited!  I also planted some mesclun lettuce, spinach and romaine lettuce.  I might be too early for the romaine, but I'm still trying it.

Here is a link to Early Spring planting ideas.

Coming up: The GreenNet Green and Growing Fair

GreenNet Green and Growing Fair
April 24th, 2010, 10:00-3:00 at the
Garfield Park Conservatory
300 N. Central Park
Chicago, IL


This is the part I think my kids will like:
(snip)
Kid's Activities in Children's Garden:
Plant a Pizza Garden to Take Home! 11 am to 3 pm


Grow your own pizza by planting ingredients in a take-home container-basil, tomatoes, green peppers, and more! Also, learn about plant parts and define the parts used in pizza.

Pickle Garden

It's 29 degrees Fahrenheit in Oak Park today but I'm dreaming of warm weather and pickles.  What is your favorite pickling cucumber?  What is your favorite pickle recipe?  I just tasted some (store bought) spicy pickles, delicious!

Seeds are in

At the Home Depot last night, saw that the seed display was in already.  This is my first choice for my 2010 garden!  Pickles!!!!!!

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Seeds Obsession Starting

I'm starting to get some catalogs of seeds and I'm starting to plan out what I want to put in the garden this year.  The variety is great but also makes for hard decisions.  I'm trying also to figure out how much I want to start from seed, and also what set up I might use for the indoor seed starting.  I'm also trying to be super-cheap about this, as I spent quite a bit last year on the raised gardens.

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Mulching the leaves directly into the garden beds.

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