The 2007 Garden

This little tiny garden looks almost comical compared to some gargantuan ones I've had in the past. One year (my personal best) I grew all of the veggies for our family for an entire year. We had a smaller family then. Younger, too, without these "teen-age" appetites.

I stopped gardening a few years back because it was such a huge job, I was always "behind," and I would rather spend my time at swim meets, not weeding the garden. But I missed it. I really love gardening. Growing food. Going "shopping" in the back yard for the dinner salad.

I heard about this new concept (actually it's quite old) called square-foot gardening and I thought it'd provide a perfect compromise to having a garden vs. being a slave to it. And so far it's working well.

First Don and I cleared all of the shrubs and vines that covered this area. That was a big job. Then Don Sr. made me these cool planter boxes. They're 11x4, and there are three of them. Don went and purchased two truck loads of soil to fill them. Then Dylan and I measured off 12-inch marks, screwed screws in the marks, and then strung string around them to make 1-foot squares. There is a different crop in each square, planted densely to make the most of your space, and also to not have much room for weeds.

I got a late start this year. I don't think I planted these boxes until after July 1. Mind you, up until then it was pretty cool and wet, so maybe I didn't miss much growing season. In the planter boxes, I have squash, cucumbers, lettuce, green beans, spinach, swiss chard, lettuce, rutabagas, carrots, onions, leeks, kolrabi, broccoli, and cauliflower.

So far this month I've spent about 15 minutes weeding. If this goes well I'll beg and plead for pop-in-law to make a couple more boxes, and we'll clear some more space for them. This is definitely the way to grow your veggies.