Happy to have found this site

LarryH 2/6/2018, 9:03 pm

I remember the PBS show and was inspired to buy Mel's original book. I tore out my garden and started SFG. So naturally when that got really going, we moved. Now that I retired this last spring I will have the time to start again. Found Mel's 2013 edition and I am excited to try Mel's mix. I am very interested in trying individual bed covers - we have a severe deer problem. Hi everyone, this is going to be fun.

**sanderson** 2/6/2018, 11:26 pm

Hi, Larry! Welcome to the Forum. $glad you\'re here$

**AtlantaMarie** 2/7/2018, 7:21 am

Hi Larry. Welcome from Atlanta, GA!

Be sure to check out the archives (upper left corner). There's lots of hard-won wisdom there...

How will THIS garden be different from your other one?

LarryH 2/7/2018, 11:50 am

The last garden was a very large raised bed with walkways through it. This time I am going to stick with the 4x4 sizes. A local garden store uses a very heavy weed cloth as walkways through their plants and now that the beds will be no deeper than the boxes, I plan on laying out the entire area with the cloth. The walkways will no longer be muddy and can probably be cleaned with a leaf blower.
Mel's mix is a no brainier over my clay soil.
Individual bed covers will be a large experiment to see if they can truly be made squirrel and deep proof.

**sanderson** 2/7/2018, 12:39 pm

This weed cloth - can water go through it? Just asking.

I have "commercial" grade weed fabric from Home Depot under the wood chips in the isles. First winter without mud.

Before: Happy to have found this site Garden17

Weeded:

Commercial weed fabric: Happy to have found this site Garden18

Finished with wood chips: Happy to have found this site Garden19

countrynaturals 2/7/2018, 1:29 pm

Larry. $glad you\'re here$ from Redding, CA. I also started with the old sfg method. I now have 1 ANSFG bed, 1 "humanitarian" (from the new book where he talks about using straight compost if you can afford MM), a whole BTE garden (woodchips and compost), a walled-in waist-high, "keyhole" garden (we call the Salad Bar), and all sorts of containers. I can relate to getting a garden all conditioned, then moving away. AARRGGHH!!!!! This is my 3rd year, so I'm expecting great things. Looking forward to sharing your gardening adventures. I love you

LarryH 2/7/2018, 1:39 pm

The company is Dewitt and I believe that it is the heavy weight ground cover because it has the yellow stripes on it. Yes, rain goes through. It is their human pathway through their tree and large shrub displays. It has been there for several years and does not appear to be deteriorating. It looks like they secured it with large spikes.

**sanderson** 2/7/2018, 1:56 pm

I just looked up the product. The strips every 1' will be nice for laying out the beds / isles.

plantoid 2/8/2018, 6:32 pm

Welcome to ANSFG Larry .
I live in Great Britain & have a long history with square foot style gardening .

Check out my strap lines there is a second final book from Mel himself , where we don't use any natural soil in the beds at all ... it's so superior .

You need to do that looking up thing already mentioned as well as finding out about " The Berkley 18 day hot composting method " ,for it's a quick cheap easy way of getting all the quality compost you need for starting off your beds with Mel's mix and for keeping you with a continuous source of quality compost to nourish the beds after taking crops out of the beds .

LarryH 2/8/2018, 10:07 pm

Hi plantoid;
Nice to hear from you, I have cousins in GB, grandfather was from Land's End. I would love to spend a month or two in the British Museum, what a treasure! I was just looking into composting so your Berkley tip is right on the money. I have the second book and will positively be using Mel' mix. Thanks for the tip.

**sanderson** 2/9/2018, 2:41 am

Larry, I'm also a proponent of the Berkeley composting method. A 3' x 3' x 3' bin takes a lot of material to fill to the top, and you do need to keep turning it. But, after it cools (10 days?), you have usable compost.

farmersgranddaughter 2/9/2018, 3:25 pm

Welcome, Larry! We too have a deer problem and a local Fish & Game officer told me that coyotes eat watermelon (which I hope to grow). I'm looking forward to learning about protective covers for your garden beds.

**Scorpio Rising** 2/11/2018, 2:53 pm

$glad you\'re here$ Larry! Can’t wait to hear about your gardens, and your experiences as you move through SFGing! I am one of your Regional Hosts, so come on over to N&C Midwest to keep us posted, we share some commonalities as far as weather, pests, etc.

I did the original SFG back in the late 80s-early 90s with great success. Then went to the dark side of traditional Rodale style organic gardening. Got my chops on with composting there, but by July, it was just a weed patch every year!

So here I am back in the loving arms of SFG! I do a fair number of containers too, and my flowers are in dirt.

Glad you are here!

**sanderson** 2/12/2018, 12:12 am

Larry, you can start your journey thread in your Region. like Scorpio said. Something like "Ohio Larry's SFG Journey." Just an example.

**Kelejan** 2/12/2018, 6:40 am

$glad you\'re here$ Larry happy hi

from Kelejan in British Columbia :canada:

I had my start using the 1980's book that I had on my bookshelf for many years. To my good fortune I logged on to the Internet the day before I actually was going to start to find that there was a later book that cut out all the digging. I was so glad as my soil is only a light cover over massive rocks that were laid down in the glacier period.

Look forward to seeing your progress.

BeetlesPerSqFt 2/12/2018, 9:48 pm

Hi, Larry! There's some good stuff in that 1980s book. My garden is part old style and part raised beds.

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	Hello Guest! Welcome to the official Square Foot Gardening Forum. There's lots to learn here by reading as a guest. However, if you become a member (it's free, ad free and spam-free) you'll have access to our large vermiculite databases, our seed exchange spreadsheets, Mel's Mix calculator, and many more members' pictures in the Gallery. Enjoy.