hi hi! from NE Atlanta GA

Good afternoon!  

I'm prairie-born and southern-bred, currently residing in Atlanta GA (NE OTP), and this year I've started my very first garden.  

It's just a tiny little back porch container plot, but it's already given us a couple of dinner's worth of home-grown green beans and a salad or two.  I was intrigued beyond belief to have discovered information about container gardening, and square foot gardening in particular, as I have a few chronic conditions that make traditional gardening impossible. 

I'm keeping a garden journal in Evernote wherein I log daily conditions/harvest/tasks, and I just ordered Mel's 2nd edition book to read through (which Amazon says will be here on Thursday).  I've read pretty much every word on the main square-foot and planting-by-color websites, and I'm taking stock of crafting and hardware supplies we already have on hand.

I'm dedicating this first year as my "Mistakes Were Made" year, as it's already proven full of learning curve and notes for next year.  I'm so happy to have found this forum, as I've already a load of questions (such as, "what is Mel's weed fabric made from?" and "how the heck do we reclaim yard from a decades-long kudzu invasion?") and a lot of pictures of things that I managed to unknowingly do right.  I truly look forward to sharing the journey.


Nice to meet everyone!  

~ Sharon, aka BeckieSueDalton

GooglePlus Collection, my gardening journey:
The Gardens at Chateau Boudreaux

BeckySue,  Welcome to the Forum from California!    I'm glad you ordered the book.  It explains the excellent basics of Square Foot Gardening.  A few of us have tiny backyards (me) or only balconies/patios, and SFG allows for unusually productive use of a small space.

 BeckieSue, from South Dakota!  First year is DEFINITELY a learning curve.  Your fellow Southern Gardeners will have to give you instruction on the Kudzu, as I have read it is like an ever-growing blanket that consumes all it touches!

Welcome, BeckieSue!  I too am a relative newbie, did the original SFG in the mid to late 80s, then endured a couple decades of some success with Rodale's All New Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening.  Just kept getting overwhelmed in July through ?harvest by the (OK, now in your head play "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns n Roses) that my harvests were disproportionately small compared to investment.  Plus, quite frankly, I just got burned out on the garden during the hot humid summer peak time.

Enter, Square Foot Gardening 2nd Edition!  WOWOWOWOWOW!  You will be flabergasted by the simplicity and joy this method will bring to your life and table!

Hello and welcome from south Atlanta. Not sure what to due for the kudzu. Never truly dealt with it. Congrats and your harvest thus far and the hope of more to come.

BeckieSueDalton wrote:
"how the heck do we reclaim yard from a decades-long kudzu invasion?")

GOATS or a lot of strong herbicides and years of monitoring the reemergence.

LOL!  Gotta agree w/ Yolos on the goats and kudzu.  Goats LOVE it apparently.

Sounds like you've got a pretty good setup, BeckieSue.  We'll give you all the help we can!

A few months back, I actually asked the Boy (my darling husband) if we could have goats.  He said "maybe", but after checking our city ordinances, he said our residential plot is too small to host farm animals.  Plus there is a pack of feral dogs that roam through several times a week, and he's afraid they'd kill an outside animal if we had one.

What I need to find is a traveling goatherder who's willing to camp out in my backyard for a few days in return for free dinner and free grazing.   

Apparently you can rent goats to get rid of kudzu.
https://www.google.ca/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=renting%20goats%20kudzu

Thanks for the replies, peeps!  You've made me feel welcome here, indeed.  

And Cherbear, you have made my day!  I'll check around and see if I can find one of the agencies close by.  



EDIT:
I've found two local agencies, both of which are being used in the downtown's Path400 and Beltline projects.  Sharing the links here for anyone else in Atlanta's greater metro area.

Ewe-niversally Green and Get Your Goat

Beckysue  
from Kelejan  

Best of luck with your goat project.  We had a goat once, and we  tethered in the garden and every day it ate a circle then after putting it in its stall overnight, moved it to the next patch.  We found it cropped the grass very neatly.

I would like to try rabbits now, but then I think of our deep cold winters and the responsibility of looking after livestock every day without fail.  One can leave a garden for a little while but one has to have others to see to livestock.
Look forward to seeing your progress.

Renting goats. How neat!

Not sure whether to call you Sharon or Beckie or BeckieSue, but welcome!

A friend of mine raises goats. He says the males are a huge pain and that they can leap over anything, so are very hard to contain. He told many tales of their destructiveness and ingenuity. Made me glad I didn't have any!

Friends of mine raise goats for milking and meat. I have heard stories about how onary the Male can be. Nailed my friend right in his gluteus maximus

My SFG book is supposed to arrive today.  I'm so excited that I keep checking the mailbox instead of doing productive things.  


Mark ... Beckie or BeckieSue, either one, is fine for here.  

Seamammal ... my husband's family had a small farm when he was young.  He's told me some truly amusing stories about how terrifying roosters and male goats can be, so if we ever do have enough land to not get in trouble for owning livestock, he's said we can have female goats.

seamammal wrote:... I have heard stories about how onary the Male can be. Nailed my friend right in his gluteus maximus

So all the old cartoons about billy goats were right!  

When we first got chickens, my wife and I had a riot watching them, and then recalling all the old cartoons that depicted the behaviors of chickens.  The cartoons were spot on, and made us appreciate the quality of cartoons 'back in the day'.

Ah, innocent days of Saturday morning cartoons and cereal while my folks slept in.