New to forum, older SFGer

[Judy McConnell]

Since I joined SFG several years ago, I have been inactive. Found where I had saved the SFG site and decided to revisit it a few days ago. A new beginning!!

Some 40 years ago, we purchased a little run-down farm in the mountains of southwestern VA (near Blacksburg) and began to grow about 1/2 acre gardens to feed a growing family. THis went on for about 10 years until the kids were grown and I had grown tired of gardening plus canning all those cans of produce.

Fast forward 20 years - having moved to Northern VA for work and buying a house in Manassas, VA - I began to get the urge to garden again. After digging a couple of "test holes" in the back yard only to discover we were underlain by good old VA red shale, there was no way I could dig a decent garden.

Aha - raised beds were the answer and I built 4 beds (4'x8') filling them with purchased soil from a garden center. About the same time I discovered SFG and began to improve the soil. The next year, I added two more beds but was more careful about the soil mix. Now I want to use Mel Mix in these six.

We still own our little farm and were able to do some renovations to it. That left us with a sharply cut off bank that would need attention - easy to erode - the answer = terraces, sort of sfg but elongated, most will become 30" deep and varying from 8-10' long.
Since I can't be there constantly, this will be an on-going project.

I'll try to keep you all informed with my progress.

[GWN]

Welcome to the forum again.
If you are going to need to be away from the space for long periods, I would suggest you check out the back to eden thread here as far as watering.
Its about a farmer in northern washington who has changed his gardening by adding 5 inches of wood chips on top and never waters.
I am trying this this year over my SFG as I really struggled with watering last year.
I also live out in the country.

Janet

[camprn]

Welcome to the forum again.
If you are going to need to be away from the space for long periods, I would suggest you check out the back to eden thread here as far as watering.
Its about a farmer in northern washington who has changed his gardening by adding 5 inches of wood chips on top and never waters.
I am trying this this year over my SFG as I really struggled with watering last year.
I also live out in the country.

Janet

Welcome back to the SFG Forum.
Just to be clear, the 'Back to Eden' thread does not promote Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening. However the use of mulch for moisture retention and weed control in the SFG is recommended, if you have such a need.

[plantoid]

Hi Judy ,
Welcome back to the world of sfg'ing , Mel has rewritten the earlier books with a simpler one that does not use mother earth ( details in my straplines ) as the growth medium .
It's brilliant for growing alsorts of veg and flowers in almost any climate .
In the index and on the left of the home page are articles you might like to read up on .for making your composts and self watering beds .

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