Square Foot Gardening

So I haven't been real on the ball this year with pictures and posts and such...... even though it may seem I have given up on gardening, I have NOT. I actually took a class on it last weekend..... and am considering joining a gardening club. Yes you read right..... gardening club..... but more about that later.



First let me say that I really need to be getting out from behind this computer more and into my garden. Second, I should mention that I don't always remember to photograph before pictures..... it always happens that half way thru my adventure, I think, OH (insert explative here), I should have taken a picture of what it looked like..... this is what kind of happened the other day, but lemme take you back a few days first.



Last weekend, Mothers Day weekend, I convinced my extremely tight pocketed husband to dish out 80 bucks for us to take a class on square foot gardening. He whined about it quite a bit, but after he did some research himself he found that this method could cure our yearly fight..... the one where I get full of wind, piss and excitement and plant a full garden.... but then by july, it is completely over grown. We fight because I just don't wanna get out there and weed, and our produce dwindles to the point where I end up at the farmers market spending way too much on stuff that sits in our drawers and rots until the following week, when it all starts again. Sound familiar to anyone????

So anyway, last weekend we took this class on "square foot gardening", but it had a twist. It was taught by a woman who uses biodynamic methods and although she follows much of square foot gardening rules, she also inserts some of her own thoughts and improvements. Rose is quite amazing as she travels the world teaching people to garden in this manor. In Guatemala, she has taught a village to not only grow and harvest for themselves, but they are now growing, harvesting, canning and selling to other villages. She is also traveling north to Canada to teach them how to grow as much as possible during their short summer season.

I found the class to be interesting and pretty informative.... however, I felt like there could have been some more to it. But I left with a sense of wanting to garden, NOW! So Tuesday of this past week, I headed out with the kids to get started. Problem number 1..... never and I mean NEVER go looking at plants before you get your plot dug and ready. I was thinking, well, let's get the plants so we know how much space we need... Not exactly.... instead I ended up with too many plants and the want to get them into the ground immediately. This affected the next step of the process which was to go to home depot and look for stuff to make the garden. I ended up using blocks, because I liked the idea that I could plant inside of the holes. Then off to get the organic dirt. I tried to do the math myself and thought I needed so much dirt so I considered ordering a truck load. So I just grabbed four bags and headed home. I couldn't understand how it could need so much dirt until after I called my hubby from home and realized, I was figuring out square footage but using the wrong numbers. I needed just 8 bags of dirt and should have bought them. BUT again, not using the noodle. I was so excited, I didn't follow the new square foot rules of just putting your garden ON TOP of the old one, so I began digging.... NOT GOOD! My poor garden was lumpy and wasn't mixed of the right things..... but I NEEDED to get those plants in! Seriously, I can only explain it like a drug. I just needed my fix. I needed those plants in the ground, on that day or else I wouldn't be sane. So I did just that. Now whether or not they are exactly like my class, I have to say NO. Will they work, I sure hope so!