Plot #45 continues...

My Dad helping me sift the grass out of the soil. We used these wire mesh trays I got at the dollar store. They work great!

My Dad came out from the suburbs and helped me rough in my garden. Early in the morning we roughed in 2, 4'x4' gardens, following the "square foot gardening" method. What do I know about vegetable gardening? nothing! So after some internet research and getting some books from the library, I found Bartholemew's book. It addressed my concerns of growing too much food, (I don't do preserves) and not enough time to do all the work required... this method offers, so the book says, enough yield with the least amount of work (my kind of thinking, exactly!)





Basically you make a grid out of your garden and plant only what you need, and space your seeds according to the final placement of your veggies, eg 3" apart equals 9 seeds per square foot. It eliminates the thinning and since you are only working with a four foot garden there shouldn't be as much weeding either....well let's hope not...we shall see.

The other rule to this type of gardening, is garden up or vertically. Apparently, you can get a better yield and nicer, straighter looking cucumbers if you grow them up a vine instead of on the ground...so you have got to build a trellis. So after lunch Dad and I headed out to Copps to get what we needed to do that. My Mom came by to supervise and she was quite afraid children were going to get caught in this contraption, which lead to all sorts of jokes of checking to see if we trapped any kids lately...SO KIDS BEWARE OF THE GIANT SPIDER NET! mwahahhaha!

I've place a plastic planter in the corner of my plot to catch rainwater until the barrels (I heard we are eventually getting rain barrels). The white bucket is not mine...

A compost pile has been started at the south east corner for all the grass sifted out of the plots:

All in all, I planted:

marigolds, nasturtiums, 1x pumpkin, 1x eggplant, 2x tomatoes, 1x basil, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, onions, green beans, yellow beans, and zucchini...all I can say is wish me luck!