Back to SFG in Illinois

I thought I posted this earlier but I'll try it again. My name is Buddy from S/W Illinois.
Many many years ago back before the internet, When  Mel Bartholomew was on the learning channel, I bought his book on SFG. It looked easy so I gave it a try and it worked just fine. At that time I had about an acre of garden which consumed all of my time so I gave up on SFG and went back to my in ground one acre garden.
    
         A few years later, I had to give up the big garden because of my age. Almost 70 yrs old now. Lately, my green thumb has been saying to me, "Buddy, lets plant something" so this week I went to Home Depot and bought the lumber to build a 4x8 raised bed in my back yard. Now I have the fever so badly, I think I'm going to fill the whole back yard with raised beds. 

Hi Buddy. Welcome to our party from Atlanta, GA! Glad you've decided not only to get the gardening bug again, but we're glad you're here!

AtlantaMarie wrote:Hi Buddy.  Welcome to our party from Atlanta, GA!  Glad you've decided not only to get the gardening bug again, but we're glad you're here!

Thank you very much AtlantaMarie. Ive been gardening for about 60 years. My father used to make me help him in the garden when I was a child and I hated it. Little did I know, he was instilling something beautiful and wonderful in me. Once I got older and got married with children, I had to garden to help fed my babies.
        
I'm sure you know the feeling when you smell the fresh soil in the spring and see the plants when they first start to sprout in the spring. I'm going to fill my entire back yard with raised vegetable and herb beds and put a few lawn chairs out in the garden so my wife of 50 year, and I can go out at sunrise and have coffee and just sit in the garden.
      
We also have an apple, pear, peach and a plum tree in the yard which bear more fruit than we can eat so we take it to the senior citizen center and donate it............  I'll be posting some pics later.  Thanks for the welcome.  Buddy

Hi, MrB!  Welcome to SFG from Ohio!  I did the original version for about 3 years too, then moved and fell away from it, now I am back to the ALL NEW method, and after one season, I too have the SFG Fever bad!  So glad you found us, love your bed, great start!  

Your plan sounds wonderful. I am working on planting some berries and other plants in my yard this year, only have one old pear tree. So I am concentrating on more beds and and "Eat Your Yard" type of approach!

Keep us posted, post a lot, and you already have the picture thing goin on!  Keep lots of notes, what works, what you like to eat, and not so much.  Looking forward to hearing about your experiences, and you have lots of them to share with all that exposure to gardening!

Yay! Another fruitee!

That's what we call all of us who went crazy planting fruit trees a while back.

Boy, you've really got the bug! look at that box...and those trellis's! Did you make those lovely trellis's?
And you want to plant the whole back yard? Why the heck not...good for you I say.

CC

Mr Booker, Welcome to the Forum from California! From your photo, it looks like you are using the All New SFG method. Having a little sitting area sounds great. For a variety, and looking towards the future, I would recommend a couple of smaller table top beds, especially for things like herbs and "lettuce" where you just want to grab a bit of produce. I love stepping off the back porch for a bit of dinner cooking herbs.

MrBooker wrote:
        
I'm sure you know the feeling when you smell the fresh soil in the spring and see the plants when they first start to sprout in the spring. I'm going to fill my entire back yard with raised vegetable and herb beds and put a few lawn chairs out in the garden so my wife of 50 year, and I can go out at sunrise and have coffee and just sit in the garden.
      
We also have an apple, pear, peach and a plum tree in the yard which bear more fruit than we can eat so we take it to the senior citizen center and donate it............  I'll be posting some pics later.  Thanks for the welcome.  Buddy

Oh, yes... That I do... I didn't grow up gardening, but I love my little plant-babies...

And that's great that you donate to the senior center. I'm sure they appreciate it.

"I think I'm going to fill the whole back yard with raised beds". That's what I posted on March 19th. Well, I've almost done just that. I now have two 4x8s, two 4x4s and two, in ground 5x 10s. They all have hoops and a trellis except for the 5x10s. Later this fall, after harvest, I'm going to lay a one foot wide brick path down the middle of the 5x10s, frame them in and add MM to make them raised beds.

        So far this spring, the SFGs have done better than expected. With the help of the hoop houses, we've harvested head/leaf lettuce, radish, green onions, Swiss chard and spinach.

Later this afternoon, I will post a short Youtube video of my garden. I've been doing a LOT of research on winter  gardening (did he say WINTER ) in zone 6 and have ordered most of the seed I'll need...    Cheers from S/W Illinois.

MrBooker wrote:Later this afternoon, I will post a short Youtube video of my garden. I've been doing a LOT of research on winter  gardening (did he say WINTER ) in zone 6 and have ordered most of the seed I'll need...    Cheers from S/W Illinois.

Looking forward to that video.  I also garden all winter, but I'm in zone 9 so it's not quite such a challenge.

countrynaturals wrote:

MrBooker wrote:Later this afternoon, I will post a short Youtube video of my garden. I've been doing a LOT of research on winter  gardening (did he say WINTER ) in zone 6 and have ordered most of the seed I'll need...    Cheers from S/W Illinois.

Looking forward to that video.  I also garden all winter, but I'm in zone 9 so it's not quite such a challenge.

Ok... Heres a quick vidio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FefbZVpw2s&feature=youtu.be

I loved your video, Mr B.  I can see you are no novice. Everything seems to be so neat.
Not a bit like my garden.

Everything looks so healthy!

sanderson wrote:Everything looks so healthy!

  yes, and I don't understand why. I haven't amended the soil in those barrels or the in-ground gardens in years. I only rotate tomatoes and peppers each year in the barrels. In the past, I have only watered and used liquid Miricle Grow every few weeks.

     All of that will change from now on. I'm going back to doing it the right way..

Very nice video MrBooker. Thanks for sharing with us.