"Hello again, hello." Another Victory Garden

My name is Clay Autery. We live up here in Haughton, LA (extreme NW corner of state near Bossier City and Shreveport). We live in a subdivision, but are blessed that it is not yet an incorporated part of the parish.

This past summer, we cleaned all of the trees off the property (pines and sweet gum only). The pines posed a threat to the house in a high wind situation, and the sweet gum trees were all diseased to an extent that they either were or would become a falling hazard. The resulting increase in daily sunshine hitting the property is dramatic and welcome.

Tree cutting was preparatory to several master-plan projects we have on our list, some of which include: grid-tied solar system w/ battery and generator backup, geo-thermal heating/cooling system, cathedralized spray foaming of attic (plus all external walls), and several others.

However, the project that is #1 on the list is to drill and complete a 300'+ water-well somewhere on the lot. I have contractors coming Monday and Tuesday to spec/bid the job. It will certainly come in handy for the new gardening venture.

SFG seems to be tailor made for our purposes. It appears to be space/time efficient and flexible enough to be worked into our various construction projects. In addition, it will offer a ready-made lab, et al. that we can integrate into our son's home schooling curriculum which we are beginning in January. (I am the primary instructor.)

I look forward to getting a start this year, but suspect I'll be limited to a "skills course" for a few years, as funding for gardening do not head the requirements listing. So, this year, I may be limited to one or two modules and direct sowing/buying plant-outs, as I don't have any facilities for starting early from seed.

But, I have both SFG books en route (old and new), and I went ahead and grabbed a copy of the cook book as well... So at least I'll be able to study in my "copious free time".

Y'all have a great Sunday!

Welcome Clay!

Sounds like you have quite a few projects lined up; I am quite impressed! I wish we had the space for a few of them.

Square foot gardening is extremely efficient, and even if you can't do it all just as you'd like to (as was my case, this first year) I think you'll find it's still a joy to partake in. It would be a fantastic addition to your son's education, and his lifetime experience, too, even if you start with just a single 2x2 or 4x4.

By all means get some starts if that is easy...but don't let starting from seed scare you if you want to try it. I planted almost everything directly from seed, in the ground, outdoors. It led to a few late harvests, yes, but it worked!

Best of luck and please let us know how it goes and, pictures please!

sfg and homeschooling are a wonderful combo! actually mel even wrote a book on it.

true confession, i don't own that publication, though.

i just bought his 'new sfg' book after i borrowed it and all his other materials repeatedly from the lbirary.

we were able to use sfg as a way to teach pretty much the entire educational curriculum that a child needs.

and i'm proud to say that he can even tell apart different seeds and can harvest from quite a few different varieties.

sfg was perfect for our family. turned out were were quite good at it (how could you not when you use such perfect medium for growing!) and we even have a small little business selling organic produce in the summer - that kind of started by accident - just word of mouth on my front yard garden and folks started asking for product, so that's how that transpired. made me my expansion garden budget!

we started out with equiv of 2 4'x4' boxes. and expanded the year after that significantly.

definitely start small. it's easy to keep up with if you don't have too much going on at first. i'm glad i took that advice that was told to me - because i love to jump headlong into stuff and make it bigger and better than i've seen. . . we did it gradually here and it was the best approach - not overwhelming.

although i must admit, end of this summer, we neglected our garden more than we should d/t life situations - and that's another testament to sfg - because of the medium and intensive planting techniques, it was not hard to 'reclaim' after a few weeks or so of neglect during the hottest part of the summer.

well happy to 'meet' you and can't wait to hear of your plans and how much you and your child learn together. my kid was never the sit down kid - so hands on was the way to go for us to learn all the basic 'r'. . . . unschooling. it was the right approach for us at the time. my kid also knows north/south/east/west because of our garden. so much you learn and don't realize you're 'learning'. . .

welcome again!

Hey Clay and welcome. I just joined here last week. Great place with great folks.

I am reading the new book now (checked it out from local library) and already motivated for Spring, lol.

Sounds like you have a lot of projects going on. I'm envious of the solar stuff. That is on my list to educate myself on and see what I can do next year. For now though, planning and gathering up materials for my first venture into SFG.

Look forward to hearing of your experience as well.

Hello Clay from a fellow Louisianian !
I tried out the SFG method for our Fall garden this year and it turned out well. For me SFG is addictive (but in a good way) and I have plans to expand for next year for Spring. reading the books over the winter will help you plan for spring.

Again Welcome to the Forum.

Hey there! We were through there on the way to NOLA for our honeymoon cruise in October. I plan to read the books just as soon as they arrive. I've already begun trying to whittle down my list of crops to a reasonable number... and that's hard.

NAR56 wrote:Hello Clay from a fellow Louisianian !
I tried out the SFG method for our Fall garden this year and it turned out well. For me SFG is addictive (but in a good way) and I have plans to expand for next year for Spring. reading the books over the winter will help you plan for spring.

Again Welcome to the Forum.

cautery wrote:Hey there! We were through there on the way to NOLA for our honeymoon cruise in October. I plan to read the books just as soon as they arrive. I've already begun trying to whittle down my list of crops to a reasonable number... and that's hard.

It is SO hard! And even worse when you start reading (and I do mean READING, like a novel!) your favorite seed catalogs.... Don't forget, though, that with SFG you have the opportunity to grow several crops in succession in each square. It gives you some additional flexibility to try more things!

Megan wrote:It is SO hard! And even worse when you start reading (and I do mean READING, like a novel!) your favorite seed catalogs.... Don't forget, though, that with SFG you have the opportunity to grow several crops in succession in each square. It gives you some additional flexibility to try more things!

Howdy Folks:

Boy oh Boy is it hard to keep the number of seeds down. I was just in Florida and found seeds by the ounce in one farm store at under $6.00 per oz. and bought one oz. of carrots and one of lettuce. The next day I found another farm store that had bulk seed by the oz at $1.60 per and thought I was buying different types. When we returned home to Virginia I found out I now have 2 oz of the same types of lettuce and two oz. of the same type of carrots! Carrot and lettuce seeds are very, very small indeed. As soon as I can find the right type of re-packaging I will be offering some on the Seed-Exchange sub-forum. Lots of laughs on my part.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

Megan wrote:

It is SO hard! And even worse when you start reading (and I do mean READING, like a novel!) your favorite seed catalogs.... Don't forget, though, that with SFG you have the opportunity to grow several crops in succession in each square. It gives you some additional flexibility to try more things!

truer words have not been said. sfg combines the best of all the various gardening styles - intensive gardening meets ultimate soil... it's a combo that's hard to beat and really opens up so manyy possibilities of things to plant that one wouldn't normally consider.

different kinds of squash - bring it on - esp since most families only need one of each variety. esp the green zucchini, lol. hand pollination increases germination/fruit production so it really makes it all the more true for one plant of each variety desired.

we planted over 8 different squashes/melons this year. last year i planted only 2.

can't wait to hear of your gardening efforts!

gonna go curl up with my new baker seed catalog that arrived today and start making my lists of what to buy.. .

[quote="cautery"]Hey there! We were through there on the way to NOLA for our honeymoon cruise in October. I plan to read the books just as soon as they arrive. I've already begun trying to whittle down my list of crops to a reasonable number... and that's hard.

We are going on our cruise in feb. I like how we can just drive and park on the pier. Its only a 45 min. drive for us.

cautery wrote:
SFG seems to be tailor made for our purposes. It appears to be space/time efficient and flexible enough to be worked into our various construction projects. In addition, it will offer a ready-made lab, et al. that we can integrate into our son's home schooling curriculum which we are beginning in January. (I am the primary instructor.)

I look forward to getting a start this year, but suspect I'll be limited to a "skills course" for a few years, as funding for gardening do not head the requirements listing. So, this year, I may be limited to one or two modules and direct sowing/buying plant-outs, as I don't have any facilities for starting early from seed.

Clay, welcome aboard! Sounds like you have a lot of potential for a fabulous garden. Remember, "start small, but plan to expand"....overzealousness is amazingly difficult to control. Don't let starting from seed spook you, either. You have enough of a growing season, you can still get in several seasons of crops. I would urge you to read and re-read the portions speaking of "staggering your harvests." That alone should keep things from getting too hectic.

I know others, along with me, would like to see project pictures of the well drilling and the assembly of your garden areas. Please keep us posted.

Another thing to look into is Mel's book for teaching kids. It seems to have some wonderful projects in it and some thought provoking exercises. That should fit well with the kids at home.