Salutations From Seattle!

Hello! I live just south of Seattle in the Des Moines area and am in the process of converting my entire yard into a gigantic SFG paradise. I have a few different gardening methods I'm using - aquaponics on my deck, SFG in the front and back yard with perennials like asparagus and rosemary lining my rockery. I've been gardening for years and am excited to improve my yields with SFG...next year will be my first with this method. We're putting in 24 beds between the front and back yard, with plans to put in around another 40 or so over the next five. I'm excited! I'm a homemaker and used to maintaining large gardens, so I know the amount of work I'm getting myself into. We just bought our house last year so I'm finally getting around to putting in a sustenance garden.  I'm hoping to grow about 75% of what I eat, which I know is entirely possible from previous experience. Hopefully the collective experience here can help me with my endeavor.

I wanted to say welcome and congrats on the new house!!! I look forward to seeing pictures of the wonderful gardens that you have planned out.

Wow, Aliakai, just when I thought I had a big garden, you totally trump me!  Trust me, though, you will find the square foot approach mush easier to deal with.  Please tell us: are all the beds 4'x4' or some combination of long beds, short beds, square beds, etc.?  Many years ago we changed from a standard row-type garden to an early form of Square Foot Gardening after reading Mel's first book.  It worked well, but the six 4X4 beds we put in year before last, 1 4X8 bed, and a couple of 2-1/2" by 16 beds along the elk fence has been a real joy to tend.  Less weeds, easier to drape with net to keep cabbages out of brassicas, loose soil so much better for pulling tiny weeds (nothing like weeding with tweezers;) ) better spacing for everything but tomatoes (plants were so huge at 1 per square that I missed some fruits in center--will hereafter plant two toms in center of 4x4 bed and much smaller things around the edge, like basil); and it's so much easier to plant a fall/winter garden!  Welcome to the great adventure!  Nonna

All of the beds we're planting are 4'x4' but we're going to plant them in groups to accentuate the landscaping we've been doing with the yard. I'll post pictures as we continue putting in beds over in the PNW boards.

Welcome!

And WOW, that's a staggering amount of boxes you're going to plant. I'd love to see pictures. I guess you'll be a canning maniac come harvest time!

Welcome to the Forum and SFG.  You will love gardening with SFG. So much easier. PLEASE post photos along the way. We love to watch new gardens develop.

Marc Iverson wrote:Welcome!

And WOW, that's a staggering amount of boxes you're going to plant.  I'd love to see pictures.  I guess you'll be a canning maniac come harvest time!

Definitely. I've got some great canning books and many of the recipes are for the crops I'm growing. I'll make a board in the PNW with pics as I develop the land. We're clearing out the last of the weeds in the front yard and putting down the weed tarp now.

Welcome to the forum Aliakai. Sounds like we're the ones who will benefit from all your previous gardening experience!

Glad you found us over in the PNW forum. Looking forward to seeing how your landscaping progresses. It sounds wonderful!