Hello from Nashville

Hey all. I have been SFG'ng for 15 years, but just now found the website. We have 3-4'x8' beds and a 4'x20' bed along the back. We manage to grow 75% of the vegetables that we eat. We also have a greenhouse where we have an aquaponics system with 14 grow beds that I plant as square foot as well. I am will try and post some pics this weekend.

glad to meet you Ribarr4

Glad you finally found us!!!!

I can't wait to see pics of your hydroponics, I've always been fascinated by those.

Welcome!

Hi Ribarr, welcome!

I second Trustinhart. Love to see some hydroponics. Might be a good addition to the SFG. Hope you enjoy the group.

Howdy neighbor - I'm outside of Chattanooga. You'll be busy here answering questions from me regarding gardening in this neck of the woods.

Welcome from California! glad you found us!

Thanks to everyone for the welcome. My greenhouse system is actually an aquaponics system which is a mix of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (a soiless method of raising plants). I have about 60 fish in a 275gal. tank and they are the only nutrition source for the plants and the grow beds clean the water for the fish. I have 14 grow beds made out of 55gal. barrels cut in half and filled with pea gravel. Each one is basically a 3'x2' square foot bed.

dixie wrote:Howdy neighbor - I'm outside of Chattanooga. You'll be busy here answering questions from me regarding gardening in this neck of the woods.

Just let me know. I hope can help.

WardinWake wrote:

ribarr4 wrote:Hey all. I have been SFG'ng for 15 years, but just now found the website. We have 3-4'x8' beds and a 4'x20' bed along the back. We manage to grow 75% of the vegetables that we eat. We also have a greenhouse where we have an aquaponics system with 14 grow beds that I plant as square foot as well. I am will try and post some pics this weekend.

Howdy Ribarr4:

Welcome to the SFG forum. Can you give us some examples of the things that you have learned in the past 15 years with SFG? What do you do differently now than when you started? What do you make your boxes out of and how long do they last? Do you have any Table Top boxes as well as ground boxes? If you have table top boxes how do they compare with your ground boxes? Lots of questions, but, we would love to learn from your experiences.

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

What a big question. I guess the biggest thing is that I started focusing on the health of the soil instead of the plant. The better job do taking care of and preparing the soil the better the plants do. I have to weed less and have less pest problems.

I started with Mel's second edition of his first book and originally followed his method at that time pretty closely. I use to till my beds down a foot every year, but now I aerate as deep as my fork will go and only till the top 6". I use a pipe to layout my grid by pressing it into the dirt to make an impression instead of stringing the grid permanently.

When I first started I was just following instructions and that is a great way to start. For me The more I learn the more I realize I don't know, but little by little I started grasping growing food on a more conceptual basis.

Until 2 years ago I used pressure treated lumber and it lasted around 8 years. Now I use regular lumber but haven't had them in the ground long enough to see how long they will last. I know that I will need to replace them sooner, but I want to get rid of the pressure treated stuff.

All of my soil beds have always been in ground so I can't help at all with any of those questions. My barrel beds in the greenhouse are filled with only pea and are more like hydroponics.

I will be glad to share what I know, but I will probably do better with specific questions.

Here is a picture of the configuration that we have now. This was taken after I pulled up everything a couple of weeks ago. The back bed is new and replaces a row of 3-4'x4' beds that we had along the back. I am planning to convert the 3-4'x8' into 3-4'x20' beds that will run parallel to the long bed in the back between now and spring.



Below is a picture I took when I was reconfiguring the garden which shows the clay we started with on the left and the soil we have built up over the years on the right. I had forgotten how bad the soil was when we started

WOW, what a difference you have made in the soil there. I remember the clay from the East Coast and how it stuck to the shovel when wet and became hard as concrete when dry. Keep up the good work and be sure to post photos as your garden changes.

Richard, I am really enjoying your posts and the photos, thank you so much for sharing!

I have a 15x24 home made pond in my front yard. It has a pond liner.
The center of the pond is 3 feet deep. The pond was raised 20 inches above ground.
I have wanted to try aquaponics for a few years now. But it is out in the open--everyone can see it---and I didn't want to make a mess in my front yard----and I didn't want to try
something and look stupid to the public when it didn't work out. So--yes I want to do it--But I doubt myself. And don't know how to make it look organized and eye appealing.

The one thing I have always wanted to grow hydroponically was a Watermelon. I want to grow a giant. Now if I can figure out how to use my pond---

The pond use to be koi and goldfish. They are gone now. I want to stock it with Talopia cause we can eat them when they get big.


You should start a TOPIC on aquaponics and SFG.

I think there are people using ponds. I thought if your pond isn't too far away from your back yard you may be able to run two garden hoses to and from your pond in front to grow beds in the backyard.

I will probably start an aquaponics topic at some point.