Hello! Greetings from Zone 6!

It is 15 degrees here in frigid Cincinnati, Ohio!  I couldn't think of a better way to spend this chilly Sunday than browsing on the web and planning my garden for this year!  I have always tried to have a garden and LOVE working in the yard.  Always a landscaping project in the works!  A friend let me borrow her "Lasagna Gardening" book this past year and I tried making a landscape garden (veggies planted in a bed with flowers, no real structure), but I don't think it was deep enough and I believe the critters enjoyed it more than we got to!  So I am looking to use the flat sunny side of the yard to be more organized this year - hopefully meaning it will be a little easier to maintain.  My yard is open to my neighbors all around me, so I just want to keep it neat looking.

Hello, LStarr.  Welcome from the (relatively) warm & sunny area of Atlanta, GA.

Glad you've decided to join us.

Have you read All New Square Foot Gardening yet?  If not, I'd start with your local library.  It's a great resource.

Lots of folks here always willing to give advice and cheer you on!

Hi, Starr,  Welcome to the SFG Forum from California!    If you have a flat, sunny area (well, I'm jealous! ), you can have a marvelous organized garden with higher production, but less water, in the same area if it was in a traditional row gardening.  You can also buy a gently used copy of the book on eBay or Amazon.  All New Square Foot Gardening, 1st or 2nd Edition.

Since your area is visible to your neighbors, you will totally bedazzle them when you grow 6' okra or 8' tomatoes in only 6" of Mel's Mix.  After you read the book, you will probably has questions, especially about the Mel's Mix, so please feel free to ask them.  We are here to help.

Three members have very organized gardens:  Brainchasm in Las Vegas with cinder block and gravel isles, Yolos has wood boxes with wood chip isles and Southern Gardener has wood boxes with gravel isles.  Also look in the Gallery above for photos.

Brainchasm:  https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t14727p144-newbie-in-las-vegas-year-1

Southern Gardener: https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t16843p32-moved-our-beds

I'll try to find recent photos of Yolos' layout.

And don't forget TShred's new setup!  VERY nicely done as well!  And DStack's...  And... 

The biggest thing is to plan it out carefully before starting.

If I could do it over, I'd make some changes. 

1.  RAISE the beds off the ground at least a few inches and

2.  Just get rid of all the grass and mulch the whole area.

3.  Block the grass that grows along the fence-line.  (WHAT a pain that is to get rid of!)

  from cold, white, snowy zone 5a Maine

If you are putting those beds on grass, you'll want to leave enough space between the beds to push a lawn mower to keep down the grass and weeds.  Doing this by hand in the heat of summer is no fun.
Beds 3 ft wide are a lot easier to tend than 4 ft wide I've found.  Several of our gardeners have 2 ft wide beds and praise them.
And raised up from the ground a foot of more is easier on the back.
Good luck.

Welcome from southeast of Columbus!  

:welcome:LSTARR from cool British Columbia on the West Coast.

Everything that has been said to you is absolutely correct. If I were to start again, I sure would do things differently, using those girls and guys as my mentors..  Meanwhile I do my best to change things as I go along.  Gets better year by year but it is the journey that I find fascinating.

Welcome to the group, excellent resources here.  I'm by Evansville, IN and am in Zone 6 as well.  Check out the Mid Upper South forum section as well.  I got the square foot gardening book from my library first and liked it so much I purchased it. 

Welcome, 

Stephen