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Friday, February 17, 2012

Garden Preperations from 2011

Last year, in 2011, we bought our first home.  I wanted a garden, especially after living in apartments for several years and I had read up on Square Foot Gardening.  I was going to review it this year and discovered I had never posted the pics!  Oh well, this is what I built.
I built 2 boxes, covering the bottom in weed-cloth.
Supplies, including weed-cloth and ceder.


Stapling in the weed-cloth

Thankfully, the screws did not require pre-drilling.

Finished box

Two finished boxes.

Unfortunately, you might notice that I did not clear the grass underneath the boxes.  I layered three layers of weed-cloth in the bottom of each box and I thought that would be enough.  Wrong!

I also mixed my own soil from these ingredients.
Different bags, different colors
Spread them on a tarp and fold them together

Perfect dirt!


Water it in and add pepper plants!

Drag it over and fill the boxes


We got bunches of peppers off of these two plants.  They grew to about waist high and produced lots of peppers, especially in the fall, when the temp's were not so high.  They also grew grass like crazy.  It was very disappointing and very frustrating. 

ONE YEAR LATER

I pulled the pepper plants from the box in the right. The left box grew grass.  However, this January, the seeds I planted for lettuce and spinach finally sprouted.  Along with more grass.

Garden for 2012

Reused plastic bins, weed cloth, & new premixed  soil.

Drilling out drainage with wood brace to prevent cracking.
I stacked them on top of cinder blocks.
Duct tape the weed cloth inside tub.

Lettuce Sprouts!
Spinach Sprouts
I have not had any weeds yet and I can use the full strength fire-ant killer on the ground below the containers.
A new Strawberry plant and the ever faithful, ever returning chives.
Hopefully, the growing season will be better for veggies and the grass will stay where it is supposed to.  We will see how it goes!

5 comments:

MIK said...

Wow, true square foot gardening, you put me to shame! You've got some impressive beds here, I hope your have a good growing season! Although it feels like spring today, it's still a few months off before I get to work on my own garden. Nice pics, kudos.

Blitzspear said...

I've just got an allotment this year, just waiting to start planting when the weather improves. I may look into this method for some extra growing at home too.

Shelexie said...

@Mik - Thanks Mik! Our weather in South Texas lets me start planting stuff like spinich and lettuce now. Some of the other stuff has to wait a few more weeks ;)

@Blitz - I had to look up what an allotment was! I know it's not mini-related but I hope your able to post a pic of your work later on =)

The Lord of Excess said...

We tried this last year and sadly it was disastrous ... dogs, children, the elements, plagues, rivers of blood, locusts ... well maybe I'm getting a little carried away there but you get the idea.

Yet your post here is inspirational ... is it too much to ask for one to grow some strawberries, tomatoes, pumpkins, squash and beans!!

Best of luck and may the the gods of gardening smile upon your wee corner cornucopia :)

Shelexie said...

@Excess - I am seriously considering planting the old beds with pumpkin and zucchini. They take a lot of room and I won't mind if there is some grass around them. Thanks for the post =)

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