Oldest SFG

So who has the oldest SFG
I am curious to see how you upkeep it year after year

Mel! LOL.

Chopper wrote:Mel! LOL.

Except he no longer has one. He lives in a condo.

Hi,
I am sure I do not have the oldest squarefoot garden, however parts of it are 8 years old. Last year and this year is the first time I have had to replace 3 of my boxes. That was when I decided I was an experienced gardener. My boxes are a mixture of painted, unpainted, treated newer materials, old recycled fences, 1x6 or 2x8. I have been very happy with how they have preformed. This year I am trying cheap yarn with the hopes it will rot over the winter, to make spring clean up easy. In the fall I plant carrots, swiss chard and spinach (they will over winter here,) then I set up a cold frame around the lettuce plants. Those two task fill 2-3 boxes. The rest of the boxes get leaves dumped on them for mulch. That is it until spring. Spring clean up gets the boxes uncovered, cleaned, paths weeded and mulched then the fun part about planting. Forgot about the addition of 1 cubic yard of compost from our county dump and the random application of bone and blood meal. That is it. What questions do you have?

Patty from Yorktown

I started with two boxes four years ago and have added a couple each year since.

I cover my boxes at the end of the season with plastic. First, to keep them clean of fir needles when we get our fall winds. Second, to prevent loss of nutrients. (I'm speculating here; I don't know if it's true or not) I get well over 20+ plus inches of rain from the end of one growing season to the beginning of the next. Many sources say that 'nutrient tea' can be made by either soaking compost or laying compost on top of soil around plants and letting the rain/watering carry nutrients into the soil. If this is the case, then all the rain I get is removing nutrients from my soil. In the top and out the bottom. This is just my own theory; I cover my boxes regardless.

This year, for the first time, I removed the top couple inches of MM in my 3 and 4 year old boxes, and replaced it with 5 way compost. The only reason I did is because I have a compost surplus this year.

I use PT wood so I don't have rot issues.

Those are the only 'annual' things I do.