Hi from Northern VA!

Hello everyone! 

I’ve been combing through so many wonderful threads on this forum for a few weeks now and finally actually signed up so I can introduce myself


We have two littles at home (2 and 2 months) so I feel like a bit of a crazy minority who decides to start a garden while chasing toddlers! Growing up, my parents had a garden just one summer but it made a permanent impression on me. Every year Id ask my parents to garden again. Gardens are magical I think, but especially in childhood! I’m excited to share the experience of a garden with my own children. If you garden(ed) with little ones around I’d love to hear about it!


We live in the burbs on a 1/4 acre lot - our HOA allows gardens in the backyard so we will be taking advantage of that! Last weekend we built our four beds (4x6) and this weekend we’ll be working on the garden zone. I love the peastone look so we’ll be prepping the area and putting that down and then hopefully we’ll be ready to mix the MM’s next weekend to fill the beds!  


A question for all of you…how far would you drive for compost? $10 a 50 lb bag for rabbit poo….it’s an hour away….what about free composted horse manure? 45 min away? Or is it worth it to just spend the $$$ at the garden store around the corner?

Looking forward to sharing progress pics throughout this first year of our SFG! 


A “before” of our garden corner. The fence on the “left” here is the northern edge of our yard


My helper

Nova, Welcome to the Forum from California.    Hopefully you have a copy of ALL NEW Square Foot Gardening.  It is invaluable.

Involving your children at a young age is a blessing.  The 2-year old might like his own 2'x2' or 2'x3' bed.  Leave a spot for baby to someday have his own bed.  

Square Foot Gardening with Kids - Square Foot Gardening

How far to drive for compost?  I drive 200 miles to visit kiddies and pick up bags of different composts because my area is a compost desert.  Be careful about animal manures.  You want all manures COMPOSTED, not aged, which is most horse manure.  Bunny manure should also be composted.  Look for real composts, not soil amendment, raised bed mix, planting mix, etc.  No added fillers like peat moss, sand, perlite.  You will be making the Mel's Mix with 1/3 fluffed peat moss so you don't want extra from the bagged composts.

Mel's Mix. How strong is your backbone? (forumotion.com)