Getting Started

We started the new family project today. It is called a Square Foot Garden. We bought a book that my friend Rex Stutchman suggested and got started. It looks like a fun way to get some fresh vegetables without me having to plow the south forty, which we don’t have to begin with. It cost about $80 for all the supplies (about $5 per square foot) and we assembled it in about an hour. Easy enough.

The first step is to find a sunny spot in the yard and clear and level a place for the 4 x 4 foot box.

With the aid of my right hand person, we built a 4' x 4' box using pine 2x6 planks, screwed together with 3" deck screws. We laid the box on weed cloth. Taylor says "job well done."

Mixing the soil comes next. Because our soil is in very bad shape, the square foot garden works wonders for us. We mixed 1/3 vermiculite with 1/3 compost and 1/3 peat moss.

The book says to use a variety of composts, so we bought several different bags.

Taylor, with the help of her mommy, mixed the compost, vermiculite and peat moss together in a wheel barrow for easy transportation to the box.

Daddy took the wheel barrow to the box and filled it full of the soil, leveled it and soaked it with plenty of water.

Daddy then watered the garden and marked off the 1 foot marks for the cross strips.

With the cross pieces added, we now have an official Square Foot Garden! Marie liked it so much and we had so much extra soil that I build her another one as well.