Hello from Atlanta

Good morning! This is my first post here, but I've been following along for a while. I heard abut SFG last summer and bought Mel's book. Having been active duty military, it had been a while since I'd done any serious vegetable gardening. About a hundred years ago, we did about 1/4 acre in Delaware - the "traditional" way - complete with huge root tiller and way WAY too many of everything. It, frankly, exhausted me!! Even eating fresh tomatoes and potatoes and peas only sort of made it worthwhile. So....to say that I was intrigued by the SFG method is an understatement!! I was retired. I wanted to eat fresh and as local as I could get. I wanted to garden. I enlisted my husband to help me get started. And, of course, I didn't start with ONE box. Oh no!! I went with FIVE boxes. And 3 grow bags of potatoes. And two containers for draft blueberries. That's a lot of Mel's mix, folks! So, we gulped and bought the peat moss. And the coarse vermiculte. And bags and bags of compost. So I could get my 5 compost blend. And we blended and blended and mixed and mixed. And my super hubby built me 5 boxes, all standing at 3 feet or so, so that I didn't have to get down on my hands and knees (which I don't do very well these days). And trellises. And grids. We planted asparagus in one bed. Strawberries in another. And corn in a third. And tomatoes and peas and beans and herbs and kale and chard.....in the other two. We started this journey in January. We've been eating kale and radishes and using the herbs for cooking. I'm so excited and so pleased with how everything is growing!! if I can figure out how to post pictures, I will.

Gotta love a happy story! Welcome to the forum and we all love pictures. If you click on 'Home' at the top of this page, then scroll down and click directly under 'How to...', then scroll down to 'Uploading photos...' that will give you the instructions.

CC

Welcome to the SFG forum. I too hail from the Atlanta area (NW) and have only been at this a short while. This is about the most addictive hobby I have ever tackled, but also the most rewarding one as well.

Look forward to seeing your pictures when you get them posted. You will find many friendly and helpful folks here so visit often and share in the fun.

well cdedriver! Sounds like yall got it going on. I hail from Columbus just south of ya. Here is a link to "how to post pictures located on your computer https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t129-how-to-post-a-picture-located-on-your-computer . I have to add a few steps to "allow access" to my computer just after clicking on the "copy" button; then I click on the "upload" button before pasting the copied link in the "post a reply" box. But you will get the hang of it.

Wow! You don't mess around! I can't wait to see some pictures!

And welcome! I'm south of you in Savannah, and I'm new to gardening.

Welcome. I am 25 miles south of the Atlanta Airport in the tiny town of Brooks (which is about 10 miles south of Fayetteville).

You sure did not start small your first year but I bet you will enjoy it. Last year (my first year at SFG) I also planted a bed of strawberries and intended to do a bed of asparagus but have not done that yet. but I do have a lot of other boxes and things planted.

Good to know there's so many folks around here doing this. Appears that the forum format doesn't like my iPad for posting photos - but it's working on my desktop. Here we go:

These are the two rotational beds. Trellising tomatoes, peas, pole beans, yellow squash and Lambkin Melon. On the far bed, you can see the "diapers" we put on after the first big rain. We realized that we were losing a lot of "Mel Mix tea" with every rain. So now we funnel the tea into buckets and then I use it to water. So far seems to be working pretty good!


Closeup of the trellis. The peas and beans are almost tall enough to reach the trellis.


Big picture view of all the beds. It perhaps doesn't get QUITE as much sun in this spot as it maybe should - but - it's right outside the door and I pass it many times a day. And - so far....it's discouraged the deer from coming to the banquet table!! The bed closest to the camera is the asparagus. We started with a grid - but the 2-year crowns were so big that we had to plant without the grid on. We tried our best to get 4 plants per square, but... when the little shoots started to come up - some were UNDER the grid. That didn't seem like a good plan, so we used that grid for the corn bed. Hopefully Mel will still give us credit - 4 out of 5 ain't bad!?!?


Bird thwarting coverings. We had SO much fun building these.


Strawberry bed. Trellis will support small watermelon and small cantaloupe.


So - that's our entry into SFG. I really did try to do "just one bed". But - I just couldn't whittle down the list of what I wanted to grow! The best part is that I don't have to bend over, squat down, stand on my head. And taking care of them is so easy with the Mel's Mix as the starter. Those two aspects almost guarantee that I won't get tired of it and let it all go to heck!

(I don't know WHY I put in the dancing carrot - just liked it, I guess!)

Thanks for the welcome!!
Mary

The 'diapers' are brilliant! Everything looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing this!

CC

Thanks!

Y'all did an excellent job on those table top beds. I have only one right now, but hope to add 2 more for next season, they sure save your back.

They sure do!! All the credit goes to the hubby. I told him what I needed and he made it happen! Good luck getting some more!

Wow cdedriver! You have a really nice lay out. I am from Fayetteville (originally from Los Angeles). This city boy is gonna have 3 4x4 beds and 10 earth boxes. When I'm done, I hope mine look as good as yours!

Welcome to this forum. Nice to see another gardener based in Georgia!

Windmere wrote: This city boy is gonna have 3 4x4 beds and 10 earth boxes.

WHEN Windmere. I haven't seen any yet.

Hi yolos.

Yeah, I know. I'm using the weird weather as an excuse. I do have the Earth Boxes out... but they are filled with old dirt (not MM) and they need to be emptied and filled with the good stuff. The older man who gave me the Earth Boxes used really rich dirt though. I'm planning on using it to amend the soil around our house (my daughter wants to plant butterfly flowers).

On the flip side... All my seedlings are doing extremely well.

So... soon... soon

I'm actually in Fayetteville...well, it used to be Fairburn and then the post office decided we were going to be in Fayetteville!

Good luck getting your beds and Earth Boxes going!

cdedriver. Your garden looks great.

Did you say corn in a tabletop bed? I want to see that. I have 4 beds. Two are tabletops. One of the beds on the ground is the double high block bed in my avatar. I've grown corn in both of the beds on the ground. My table tops have garlic, onions, peppers. lettuce. squash, bush beans & cucumbers planted right now.

In just the last couple of days have the tomatoes, squash, cucumbers and beans starting to flower.

Thanks Lindacol - yea, corn in a table top. I'll likely need a forklift to get me up to harvest!!

It's an experiment, I suppose. I was going to ask him to just build it with maybe 6-7 inch legs, but then..... I didn't! So, we'll see what happens.

I like the look of your cinder block bed!

cdedriver wrote:I'm actually in Fayetteville...well, it used to be Fairburn and then the post office decided we were going to be in Fayetteville!

I lived in Fayetteville for 20 years. Off Sandy Creek Road then Eastin Road. My daughter went to Sandy Creek High School. I moved further south to Brooks in 2007. There are now quite a few of us on the southside posting on the forum. Glad you are posting. If Windmere ever gets started we can do some comparing.

Today I planted 4 more tomatoes, some cucumbers, melons, watermellons and yellow crook neck squash. Yesterday I planted artichokes as an experiment. Tomorrow I may be able to plant a block of 4 x 4 silver queen corn. But maybe not. I still have to cover my strawberries with some netting to keep the birds from eating the strawberries which have already set on but not ripe yet. Also hill up my potatoes. Maybe I need to quit working for a living and just play in the dirt (or Mel's Mix).

I trimmed my asparagus yesterday. Read to do that here on the forum. Hope it was the right thing to do. I've also been spraying my tomatoes with soap water for mites. Planted the next rotation of corn. Planted a new sqaure in some more radishes. Planted some mint in the old radish square. Watching the poratoes grow - I swear, you can almost SEE them growing! Waiting for the berries to ripen.

Just rolling along taking care of things and waiting to eat the spoils!

Oh, and watching for the black snake I saw this morning. He's a "good guy", but....they scare the pants off me when I see them!!
Hoping he finds no need to get up in my boxes or....into my car

Happy May Day everyone!

cdedriver wrote:Planted some mint in the old radish square.

It MAY not be too late to remedy that. Seriously, mint is invasive, so you might want to put it in a pot or somehow contain it. (I know what Mel says, but...)

I know. I was thinking that as I stuck the seeds in the square.... I may pull any seedling out and put it in a pot.

We had mint in Colorado. It was everywhere. My dad would pull it all out and then.....somehow....it would be back!!

Appreciate the reminder to pay attention to it!!