First Year Square Foot Gardening in Zone 9 South Mississippi

brianj555 12/6/2017, 9:20 am

I had a better first 4 months of gardening than I ever thought I would have due to the ANSFG method and the help of all you guy's on this forum. I was thinking last night about the minute where I saw a video on YouTube that introduced me to our method. What a big find that was. I remember I had already made the boxes, but had not yet filled them with what was going to be topsoil. I was watching some videos about how to plant tomatoes in raised beds when I stumbled on one about square foot gardening. I was sold. I remember being so excited that I could fit so much good stuff inside a 40 square foot box. I certainly wasn't planning on spending that kind of money to fill the box, but what they said (I can't remember the exact video I started with) made sense to me even as a newbie. I would be dishonest if I didn't say that my stomach dropped a little at the local feed and seed when my total came up on the register though. A cubic foot of MM only cost me about $5 per cubic foot, but at 40 cubic feet , it was quite and investment. I did save a lot of money and get a better quality product by mixing it myself and not buying the items at a big box store though. The great thing is that all I have to do now is add a trowel of compost when I remove a plant and according to sources I have come to trust, the mix just keeps getting better each year.

Below is a picture of my bed MY FIRST YEAR gardening with the ANSFG method and should be proof to anyone that this method works. I didn't even start the bed until very late July and I had no previous gardening experience. I read and followed the suggestions in the ANSFG book and posted many many First Year Square Foot Gardening in Zone 9 South Mississippi Icon_biggrin

questions to the good people on this forum. That and and a half hour a day to care for the plants was all I needed to end up with this result. First Year Square Foot Gardening in Zone 9 South Mississippi Icon_cheers

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First Year Square Foot Gardening in Zone 9 South Mississippi Thrivi10

**trolleydriver** 12/6/2017, 9:23 am

Brian, you have done really well. Congratulations.
way to go

countrynaturals 12/6/2017, 11:52 am

Brian, I just did the math on my new ANSFG bed. It would cost $1500 to fill it with the pre-mixed MM I used in the 3x3. affraid

Needless to say, I'm loving the "humanitarian method" from Mel's book, which is FREE! tongue

I think you get the prize for the best first year sfg garden. Mine wasn't a total failure, but I had already bought the top soil before I found this site, so I had a real challenge to get anything at all. 2nd year was much, much better. happy turtle

brianj555 12/6/2017, 1:24 pm

countrynaturals wrote:Brian, I just did the math on my new ANSFG bed. It would cost $1500 to fill it with the pre-mixed MM I used in the 3x3. Needless to say, I'm loving the "humanitarian method" from Mel's book, which is FREE!

I think you get the prize for the best first year sfg garden. Mine wasn't a total failure, but I had already bought the top soil before I found this site, so I had a real challenge to get anything at all. 2nd year was much, much better.

Wait.... $1,500??? How many cubic feet do you have in your new bed? How much does the pre-mixed cost anyway???

BeetlesPerSqFt 12/6/2017, 4:10 pm

Mine was a little over $5/cu ft, too. (About $10 per a 3cf bag of peat, $40 per 4cf bag of vermiculite, and about $4/cf for various composts.)

countrynaturals 12/6/2017, 5:35 pm

Wait.... $1,500??? How many cubic feet do you have in your new bed? How much does the pre-mixed cost anyway???

$30 for 1.5 cubic feet, delivered, from Home Depot. The bed is 3x5 and a foot deep. Maybe I did the math wrong, but I can definitely calculate "free." Embarassed

brianj555 12/6/2017, 8:58 pm

countrynaturals wrote:
Wait.... $1,500??? How many cubic feet do you have in your new bed? How much does the pre-mixed cost anyway???

$30 for 1.5 cubic feet, delivered, from Home Depot. The bed is 3x5 and a foot deep. Maybe I did the math wrong, but I can definitely calculate "free."

Yes. That would cost $300. Free is clearly better though. sunny

If you could find a good feed store, you could probably fill it for about $65 and have a few cubic feet of peat left over. 4 cubic feet of peat ( compressed which fluffed = 8 ) $20, 4 cubic feet of coarse vermiculite = $20 and 6 cubic feet of compost (5 diff kinds - the one extra to offset the 1 cubic foot short of vermiculite ) = 25$. That’s. $65. Now those are south Mississippi feed store prices, but for 1/5 the price , you could afford to drive here! Wink

Maybe doing some gambling and pick up lots of large shrimp for $3 a pound off the docks while you’re at it. santa

countrynaturals 12/7/2017, 12:06 pm

countrynaturals wrote:Brian, I just did the math on my new ANSFG bed. It would cost $1500 to fill it with the pre-mixed MM I used in the 3x3. Needless to say, I'm loving the "humanitarian method" from Mel's book, which is FREE!

I think you get the prize for the best first year sfg garden. Mine wasn't a total failure, but I had already bought the top soil before I found this site, so I had a real challenge to get anything at all. 2nd year was much, much better.

It wasn't my math that was off, it was my brain. This calculation was actually for my whole sfg, including my 72' Salad Bar. It was a rough estimate because one bed is a foot deep and the big bed only had 6" of top soil on it. I wasn't really paying attention, since it was all speculation, anyway. Embarassed

I do love the prepared MM, because it works so well, instantly, but I can wait a few months for the free stuff to catch up. geek

countrynaturals 12/7/2017, 12:09 pm

brianj555 wrote:
countrynaturals wrote:
Wait.... $1,500??? How many cubic feet do you have in your new bed? How much does the pre-mixed cost anyway???

$30 for 1.5 cubic feet, delivered, from Home Depot. The bed is 3x5 and a foot deep. Maybe I did the math wrong, but I can definitely calculate "free."
Yes. That would cost $300. Free is clearly better though. If you could find a good feed store, you could probably fill it for about $65 and have a few cubic feet of peat left over. 4 cubic feet of peat ( compressed which fluffed = 8 ) $20, 4 cubic feet of coarse vermiculite = $20 and 6 cubic feet of compost (5 diff kinds - the one extra to offset the 1 cubic foot short of vermiculite ) = 25$. That’s. $65. Now those are south Mississippi feed store prices, but for 1/5 the price , you could afford to drive here! Maybe doing some gambling and pick up lots of large shrimp for $3 a pound off the docks while you’re at it.

Or, I could just stick with my free stuff and you could ship me some shrimp in one of those ice pack containers. rock on

**sanderson** 12/8/2017, 2:38 am

Wait, $3/lb for fresh shrimp???? Shocked

brianj555 12/8/2017, 8:43 am

Yep! Certain times of the year, you can go right down to the docks and buy them directly off the boat. The heads are still on, so you do have to take that into account. They will de-head them, but there is a fee for that. They leave them on because if they are going to be boiled, it's better to have the heads on. I'll bet those heads would make good composting material???? thinking

What do you think?

Different Topic - Do we have any members on here that are in the path of those wildfires in CA????

**sanderson** 12/8/2017, 1:15 pm

Shrimp compost Very Happy

I don't know of any members in the path of the current SoCal fires. They may be affected by smoke drift.

CapeCoddess 12/8/2017, 3:09 pm

yes! Seafood parts make good compost!

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