That's a LOT of squares!

Yesterday was Easter, but to us it was D-Day. Matt left today for 7 weeks on a work trip therefore, yesterday was the last day we had to get our garden beds up and functional. The past three years I had a garden bed right outside of my porch area. This area worked out great, except, last year when I converted it into a "square foot" garden, I didn't follow the rules. There was a tiny path for me to walk along to pick and plant, when I bent over I would bump the porch and fall into the garden. Not to mention, I didn't use "Mel's Mix" so the ground became hard and clay like. We, meaning Matt and I, decided to add this area to our overhaul of gardening. After literally "snapping" together the Vermont Cedar bed, we were thinking this too was an easy job. Unfortunately, it was not as easy.

First I should explain. Last year we took a "class" on square foot gardening. The woman putting on the class showed us pictures of people who had done "different" gardens. One that I thought was really cool was a person had used cinder blocks as their outer perameter. This meant the holes in the block were extra space for planting. Last year I planted herbs in those holes and it worked out well. Using these blocks again this year, we decided to expand the garden, knock out the last two rows so there was space to walk, and then expanding the front by two squares. In all, we ended up with a 4x11 garden space or in square foot terms, 44 squares.

Our first issue was when we tried to place the block right on the ground which was not level. Add to that, the rule of thumb is to put cardboard or wet newspaper down under the block and all over the garden area before you add your "Mel's Mix". Ever try to balance something on uneven ground and cardboard?

The second issue was there weren't enough blocks. We ended up having enough for three sides, however the back side we decided after some friendly chat back and forth that blocks there would be too big and would compromise squatting space for planting and picking.

The third issue was there wasn't enough cardboard. I had to open some items that I wasn't ready to open to be able to use the cardboard. Who'd have thought we would run out of cardboard?!?!

The fourth issue was that we didn't have enough stuff to make a batch of "Mel's Mix" so it was off to the garden center again. It's been expensive to make this special dirt but we are hoping that with the addition of our compost inbetween plantings that we'll be able to use this for a long time.

The last issue we encountered was after getting it built and all the dirt in how we were going to make the squares. In the wooden construction, we just drilled screws in and strung it with string. Matt attempted to drill straight into the block without first drilling pilot holes and a big chunk of block fell off. Luckily it didn't compromise our garden and it was easily remedied, but I was quite exhausted after that and I hadn't even done the majority of the work.

At this point we have the 44 squares in the block construction and 21 blocks in the wooden construction, plus about 3 inches along one side of the wooden garden in which I can plant carrots or other tight fitting plants.

Those of you who are up on square foot gardening, you may be wondering why all these squares for a family of 4. I am hoping to have enough of a harvest this year to can.... especially tomatos. And since they take up one square per plant, I hope I have enough. My plan is to continue to add garden beds each year for different things. Let's hope these two gardens work out and I finally become a real gardener......