HI from South Alabama

I'm pretty new at gardening. We had around 6 acres of garden when I was young. I worked it every year. Unfortunately, I was young enough that I didn't know that I should be paying attention. 

Now I'm venturing into growing my own food as an adult. Last year, I managed to kill tomatoes and nearly kill peppers. It was a GREAT learning experience. 

This year, I learned about Square Foot Gardening. So far, I am doing  a good job of keeping the plants alive. I'm pretty excited about my gigantic harvest I'm expecting.

Welcome to the forum, LAGirlInBama! I grew up with a garden, too, and had my first year failures as well -- give it another year or two and some of it will start to come back to you; you'll read things here on the forum and realize you've sidestepped a few small mistakes here and there because you subconsciously remembered things you learned from back then.

Tell us more about your garden, what plants have you got growing now? Are you growing in ANSFG raised beds already, or are now planning on adding some? (We love garden pics if you can manage it!)

I'm in central PA, currently below freezing, so not much going on here yet. I have some winter gardening that's more experimental in quantity (if I eat it, the experiment ends) and I have my earliest stuff started indoors (onions, celeriac, broccoli, and cabbage.) So I (and other folks still in winter) like to hear about green things.

-Beetles

LAGirl, 
Welcome to the forum from Coastal NC. You have come to the right place for SFG knowledge and then some. We are a very friendly bunch, if I may say so myself...well that is unless you don't post any pictures, then some of us get a little pushy  
Seriously, we love pictures so be sure to post some as you go along.

I'm not sure what ANSFG beds are, but mine are raised. I have two. They are 4' x 8' x 1', which I later found out was actually deeper than required, but I'm not upset about it. It took a little extra dirt to fill it was all.

In the first bed, I have several varieties of tomatoes and peppers, onions, squash, tomatillos, and eggplant. I'm testing varieties to see which we like best and which produce best. In my second, I will have bush beans, pole beans, more squash, cucumbers, greens and a few more peppers. I didn't realize how to properly group them for crop rotation, so I have a little bit of mixed stuff. At least I got most of my nightshades together in the first box.

In addition to that, I also have several buckets of peppers, which I hope to keep alive until next year, and also some containers with herbs, radishes, and a few varieties of potatoes.


The photo, if I attached it correctly, is of my garden on 2/26 shortly after I transplanted. My babies have grown so much since then.

 LAgirl. Welcome from Redding, CA. Looks like you're old school sfg like me, planting in dirt. ANSFG is "All New" and uses Mel's Mix, a soil-less growing medium. This is my 2nd year and my "bountiful harvest" from last year was a handful of cucumbers and a few tomatoes. I've learned (the hard way) that I garden much better in the winter than I do in the summer.   Can't wait to see more pictures as your babies grow.

countrynaturals wrote: LAgirl. Welcome from Redding, CA. Looks like you're old school sfg like me, planting in dirt. ANSFG is "All New" and uses Mel's Mix, a soil-less growing medium. This is my 2nd year and my "bountiful harvest" from last year was a handful of cucumbers and a few tomatoes. I've learned (the hard way) that I garden much better in the winter than I do in the summer.   Can't wait to see more pictures as your babies grow.

Yes, I guess I'm Old School. I'm using peat moss and composted material. I couldn't find vermiculite to do Mel's recipe. Most of what I have learned, I've learned online as I haven't bought his book yet, but I plan to. I'm going to try to take some of the classes too. 

We did pretty well with our peppers last year (in buckets) once we figured out that they were partially underneath an oak tree that was trying to kill them...We almost saved our pepper plants over the harsh southern winter. (Temperatures dropped below 50 a few times.) We did actually have a few freezing nights, and we kept them alive through them. The very last freezing night got into the 20s and killed our peppers. We're going to do better this year.

LAgirlInBama wrote:

countrynaturals wrote: LAgirl. Welcome from Redding, CA. Looks like you're old school sfg like me, planting in dirt. ANSFG is "All New" and uses Mel's Mix, a soil-less growing medium. This is my 2nd year and my "bountiful harvest" from last year was a handful of cucumbers and a few tomatoes. I've learned (the hard way) that I garden much better in the winter than I do in the summer.   Can't wait to see more pictures as your babies grow.

Yes, I guess I'm Old School. I'm using peat moss and composted material. I couldn't find vermiculite to do Mel's recipe. Most of what I have learned, I've learned online as I haven't bought his book yet, but I plan to. I'm going to try to take some of the classes too. 

We did pretty well with our peppers last year (in buckets) once we figured out that they were partially underneath an oak tree that was trying to kill them...We almost saved our pepper plants over the harsh southern winter. (Temperatures dropped below 50 a few times.) We did actually have a few freezing nights, and we kept them alive through them. The very last freezing night got into the 20s and killed our peppers. We're going to do better this year.

Welcome!
Sorry for your loss

RoOsTeR wrote:

LAgirlInBama wrote:

countrynaturals wrote: LAgirl. Welcome from Redding, CA. Looks like you're old school sfg like me, planting in dirt. ANSFG is "All New" and uses Mel's Mix, a soil-less growing medium. This is my 2nd year and my "bountiful harvest" from last year was a handful of cucumbers and a few tomatoes. I've learned (the hard way) that I garden much better in the winter than I do in the summer.   Can't wait to see more pictures as your babies grow.

Yes, I guess I'm Old School. I'm using peat moss and composted material. I couldn't find vermiculite to do Mel's recipe. Most of what I have learned, I've learned online as I haven't bought his book yet, but I plan to. I'm going to try to take some of the classes too. 

We did pretty well with our peppers last year (in buckets) once we figured out that they were partially underneath an oak tree that was trying to kill them...We almost saved our pepper plants over the harsh southern winter. (Temperatures dropped below 50 a few times.) We did actually have a few freezing nights, and we kept them alive through them. The very last freezing night got into the 20s and killed our peppers. We're going to do better this year.

Welcome!
Sorry for your loss

Thank you for the Welcome.

My gardening motto is: Every gardening loss is an educational gain.

So, I really feel like I've gained more than I lost.

LAgirlInBama wrote:My gardening motto is: Every gardening loss is an educational gain.

So, I really feel like I've gained more than I lost.

I think you are going to fit in nicely with our forum members

LA Girl, Welcome to the Forum from California!

LAgirl ... I'm late but I want to offer you a warm welcome to the forum from Ottawa, Canada.