Greetings from Washington State!

Greetings!  My name is Mike, and I just registered for the online SFG Instructor course that starts next week!  I'm a moderately experienced gardener, and just completed the classroom portion of the "Master Gardener" certification at the Washington State University extension, and am currently working on my volunteer hours and clinics.  I have the above SFG bed and 7 other raised beds in my yard I've converted over to SFG.  I also just became responsible for a garden that supplies food to the elders program for the Tribe I work for; the garden hasn't been worked at all this year, so I have a lot of work to get caught up on!  I'm going to convert at least 2 of those raised boxes to SFG as teaching/ demonstration gardens for the SFG method.  My hope is to work with our local schools, and particularly the Tribal schools, to teach our children to become more self sufficient as they move forward in life.  We have an expert in traditional plants who is also an incredible resource; I'm hoping to learn a great deal from her and other experienced master gardeners, as well as the folks in this community.  I'm also working with another Master Gardener "rookie" to set up a demonstration garden at a local food bank that just moved; the bed I'm going to do will be the "SFG" bed.  The garden I'm working at for my volunteer time for my certification also has a large SFG demo garden, which I helped plant this year.

I have to say that I've really fallen in love with the SFG method, and I'm seeing it dramatically out-perform traditional methods in my own garden.  I own the "All new" SFG book, as well as the answer book and the SFG "Gardening with Kids".

Welcome to the forum!   

It's been a good spring for PNW gardeners so far this year.

I love your corner brackets. Are they plasma cut, or done old school?

They are done by a company called "Art of the Garden";  artofthegarden.net/

Mike, Welcome to the Forum!    That planted box is just beautiful.  It sounds like you are knowledgeable and very busy with MG and Tribal gardening.

Welcome Mike.    My what a busy bee you are! Thanks for sharing. Hope to see more updates from you with your many projects and gardens you're involved in. We have another PNW'er who just finished his course work for the Master Gardener program and gives us regular updates. My it's a lot of work!

Interesting seeing the bed in your picture nestled in among all those shade loving plants. Looks like everything is happy and healthy in there. How much sun do you get in that spot?

Hi Mike.  Welcome!

Your garden looks great... 

What are the 2 tall plants with the frilly leaves?

That is the sunniest spot in my yard...I live in a maritime zone of the Pacific NW, in the "rain shadow" of the Olympic Mountains; we're only a few hundred yards from Hood Canal.

The tall frilly-leafed plants are just a few early varieties of lettuce.