Hello from Tulsa Oklahoma-- new gardener with lots of babies! :)

Hoping some other Tulsans are out there?  My family and I just moved to the area and are still acclimating, big time.

We have 2 little boys nearly 2 and nearly 4 and a little girl due in two months!  I chose square foot gardening because I'm so very tired of trying to find/afford/locate healthy food for our family, we just need to be in control of our own food source.  My other traditional gardening efforts have turned out to be not much more than an expensive hobby--- certainly not something that can sustain a family of 6!  So hopeful for this effort and VERY excited!!

Kelsey,  Welcome to the Forum from California!   Growing your own food is the best way to get fresh produce and, the best thing, the children can be involved!  Looking forward to watching your journey through your posts and photos.

Advice:  Roll out commercial weed fabric in the whole garden area (at least the part you will be doing this first year).  Make the beds 4' x 4' out of 2" x 8" lumber and set on the fabric with 3' isles between them.  Using 2" x 8" will leave a little space at the top for mulch in the summer.  Cover the isles with wood chips (tree trimmers will often deliver some free).  Now you have an area that you can walk on even during the rain and have full access to all sides of the beds.  Other sizes of beds can be added next year.  Some folks like 2' x 8', 3' x 8', etc. for trellised beans, peas, winter squash, etc.

Make four beds 3' x 3' for each of the children to have their own beds.  They can experiment right along with you.  Maybe they want to paint the outsides of the boxes, or stick in a windmill or flag.

Finding 5 different sources or types of compost is sometimes hard.  If you have a question about something, just ask.

Hi Kelsey and welcome!

I'm not in Tulsa but close by in Northwest Arkansas and am also starting my first garden since moving here. 

Although we've built raised beds using lumber, we're using snap-together plastic raised bed kits this time around.  Several years ago, we planted tomatoes, peppers, squash, zucchini and cantaloupe in 5-gallon buckets and potatoes in a large trash can when my hubby was recovering from surgery and we didn't have time to build frames for a raised garden.

A SFG is a great classroom for children... counting how many seeds or plants go into a square foot, measurements for planting depth, tracking how many days until the plants sprout, and simply the process of planting, watering, watching the plants grow, and harvesting the produce.

What are your garden plans?

Kelsey
from Janice in British Columbia.

Good for you in thinking of feeding your children healthy food, I am sure you will find success.  Start small the first year, many of us say two 4 x 4s to start.  Myself, as I am a small person, would rather have the 6 x 3 size as it is easier to get into the middle square from either side without falling into the soil.  If you are six foot tall, ignore my last sentence. Look forward to following your progress.

Hi Kelsey. Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Glad you've joined our party!

Congrats on the new little one. And I totally understand about wanting to control what goes in the food supply.... and with SFG, you'll be able to grow plenty!

Thank you all for the welcome, very exciting!!

I appreciate so much the recommendations too, I should have gotten on this earlier! We already have a few boxes built, only one that was 8inch....guess we''ll have to just pile on the mulch and wait for it to settle....that extra 2 inch was good thinking.

1. I'm gathering compost now--   There's a local family that picks up food waste from restaurants and composts that with wood mulch.  Since it's not a bagged single source compost-- agricultural byproduct like what Mel discusses, I THINK I can use all of that, rather than finding other sources...correct?  (it's super expensive, but an investment and I believe will pay off in the long run given our monthly grocery bill...!)

2. I would really really LOVE to be able to grow greens throughout the summer.  His tips are to provide a shade for its square and to just keep clipping every night, which sounds wonderful.  Are there any other tips yall have as I start out regarding how to make that priority happen?--especially from my hot summer (GA/FL, etc friends)?

3.  For the vertical growing with the tomatoes, can I REALLY do 1 (indeterminant) for each square (on the north side) or with your experience would you space that out a bit.  Note: I know you don't put them next to each other, so with an 8x4 on the north end it could go 1 indeterminant, a marigold, another indeterminant, basil, etc.  I'll also want to use some of the vertical climbing area for other crops, and the tomato and another crop like peas, squash or cucumbers can share the space??  Boy, sure seems crushed, so appreciate your knowledge from your experience.  Lastly, on the tomatoes-- he really doesn't give much guidance at all with the bush/determinate varieties.  What has your experience told you on that?

There may be one more question, but these are the top three (largely the compost one) as I'm hopeful to procure that today or tomorrow...and the boys are starrrrving, so much get them food!  


Thank you again all!!!

Recap:  Planning on most compost supplied by a local family that composts restaurant food waste + wood mulch.  Other potential could be some loosely composted chicken manure that came from a farm whom we absolutely trust.  Their chicken brooder coop sat empty all winter.  There's still some smell but it's not fresh.

I need a total of 16cbft of compost and was planning on dividing that up by about 12 cbft from the true compost and 4cbft from the chicken manure.  Does that sound about right or would you do all from the true compost and hold on the chicken manure until it's completely and fully composted?

THANK YOU!

Thank you!

Kelsey, welcome to this wonderful forum. I wish you much success with your gardening efforts.  

Kelsey, Regarding the veggie compost, are the wood chips completely composted? If not, I would suggest screening it with 1/4" hardware cloth to remove most of the chips. Regarding the chicken manure, you could gather it and dump it in a pile at home to continue composting. If it sat dry all winter, there would have been very little activity. It needs to be moist for the organisms to do their job.