Another one from BC here

Hi all. just found this site but this is my second year of formal SFG. I love gardening but SFG is awesome. My favourite part is how easy it is to get your garden ready for winter or for planting in spring!! No more hours of back breaking digging! Bless your heart Mel for coming up with this idea.

I first learned about SFG a number of years ago when my brother lent me a book about it. I was so intrigued with it that I bought my own book. Then a couple of years ago we bought a house that had a small garden plot in the back yard. It had not been taken care of very well and the soil was poor. Row gardening is just more work than I could handle after a long day at work and I was dying to give SFG a try, so I divided the plot into six 4x4 squares and of course each of those into sixteen 1 foot squares.

Old hippie that I am, I love to recycle. I used some old venetian blinds for making the grids. An old baby gate someone threw in the dumpster at work became a trellis for peas last year. For weed control between the planting boxes, I put down cardboard then a thick layer of wood shavings that I scrounge from local mill work shops or my husband's workshop. It is cheaper than buying bark mulch! In the spring I take up the old stuff and put it in the compost bin (made out of old pallets) and put down fresh cardboard and shavings. It works well and actually looks quite nice. We set up rain barrels which I use for watering.

Last year we ate fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, beans and peas right up until the end of Sept. I had carrots in the fridge that lasted until December and tomatoes in the freezer. The slugs ate every scrap of lettuce and spinach that I planted and for some reason I could not grow radishes or dill to save my life. However, the one 4x4 plot that I planted to strawberries did great as did the one that I planted to flowers. A third one was my herb bed and other than the dill it did pretty well.

This year, I was able to get a jump on the growing season because the soil warms up so much quicker in raised boxes than in a regular garden plot. I got started in April with radishes, mesclun mix and green onions. The oregano, chives, garlic and thyme in the herb plot were growing before all the snow was gone. We have harvested green onions, two crops of radishes, dill, mixed lettuces, beans, cucumbers and strawberries. The beets and carrots will be a while yet but show lots of promise. Potatoes and tomatoes are not in the SFG. Instead of flowers I planted tomatoes in the front brick planter on the south side of the house. They love it there and should be able to harvest some by the end of the week! I am trying some short season corn this year just for fun but not sure how that will turn out. It does have tassels but we will see if it develops full ears or not. We have had some nice hot weather so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

This has got to be the best way to garden. It is totally amazing how much you get from such a small space. Just goes to show you that you don't need a huge space to grow a few veggies, flowers and herbs.

Happy gardening to you all.

GK

I loved reading about your garden!
Do you have any pictures of it to post? I love being inspired by others' creativity.
We tried to use all recycled materials in our garden too, here's a link if you'd like to take a peek. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/showcase-of-gardens-f6/our-freecycled-sfg-alberta-canada-zone-3-t2990.htm

What a totally awesome garden you have! Great job!

I will post pics when I figure out how to download them off my camera and into the computer. Then I have to figure out how to post them on here. I am fairly technologically challenged and would rather be gardening than computering so it could take me some time to learn all that. LOL!

Don't you just LOVE Freecycle?!?!?! I thought Craig's List was the best until I found Freecycle. Dang! My old hippie heart could hardly stand it! Hippie scrounging in cyberspace just opens so many more doors and possibilities!

GK

You're garden sounds great!! Sounds like you are getting some really good harvests.

A belated "Welcome" to the forum to you.

Thank you BlackRose!! Some of my harvests are great and some are not. The garlic and onions leave something to be desired but there is always next year! LOL! Basically, gardening is my therapy and my excuse to not do my housework. Gardens and weeds don't wait but housework will always be there when fall comes.

GK