Hello from The Lou..

Just a quick greeting from St. Louis, MO. And, a Merry Christmas to whom it applies.

To introduce myself, I'll try to be quick. I am a 36yo father of 3....and with a "boss." She keeps us in line rather well. I take lots of pictures, love birding, nature, science, outdoorsy stuff. I am getting into gardening, too. I own a lawn/landscape company that is always looking to add new designs to my arsenal. SFG is perfect to add to my pictures, love of nature, and blog concept of showing people it's ok to mess up while trying new things.

My grandfather followed Mel in the 80's and built his own SFG the old-fashioned way. He kept it going into his early 80's with tomatoes, gourds, herbs, etc. I have taken the newer approach this past year and built my first SFG last spring. Things went so well my neighbor across the street asked me to help him build one. Both of us had great first seasons.

However, I never got to my fall crop because we bought a new house in August and moved about a mile down the road...lol. So, I start from scratch yet again in early spring. I, also, have learned a few things from last year about the importance of planning and organizing when it comes to getting 2-3 seasons of veggies. I hope to be better next season. My goal is to get a spring, summer, and fall crop past Thanksgiving with the installation of hoop houses....something I never got to because of the move. Of course, I will draw from your experiences here, hopefully.

Thanks for the time, and I'm sure, like you, I can't wait for next spring!

Chip aka BackyardBirdGardner

to the Forum Chip!!

Hey Hi Chip

Last year was my first square foot garden too. This year I also hope to get some organization but I tend toward seat-of-my-pants planning. All the best to you as we head toward season 2.

Happy New Year!
Deborah.... birding in Western Washington State.

Welcome to the forum, Chip!!

I get to start over again this coming year, too. Kind of exciting, in its own way. Not looking forward to making more Mix, but at least I can re-use my trellises.

Welcome, Chip. I'm about two and a half hours south of you, 30 miles west of the "throwed rolls".

We had a successful year of three-season gardening (our first as SFG'ers.) We've replaced our entire row-style garden with SFG boxes and raised beds planted in SF grids, and don't plan to ever go back to rows again.

We'll look forward to seeing photos of your newest garden.

Not that this is the place, but I seem to have a small ear to speak to right now.

First, thanks for the welcomes. And, Ander17, I have a great friend through our church that grew up in Sikeston....right down in your neck of the woods. And, I played a lot of competitive high school golf in the same district as Poplar Bluff, Sikeston, Jackson, and Cape East. Poplar Bluff gave me fits. They had some great golfers that always seemed to get in my way up the leaderboard...lol. Nice people, though, all of them.

Here is my plan for the new area, as I was out scouting locations this morning....

I have two locations I can choose from that get sun. One up against the house and deck. The other is along the back fence about 75 feet away from the house. Well, Mel says to keep things close, and I want to keep the yard mostly open for wiffleball and the like for the kids. So, I decided we will go up against the house.

I measured out a 20' X 20' area to work in over the next couple years. This year, I will build a 2' X 10' bed right up against the wall of the house and dedicate it annually to tomatoes, pepper, cucumbers, and possibly something like radishes and carrots in front. That way my vertical stuff is unobtrusive to the rest of the yard. Obvoiously, the rotation will come in sliding the vines over from year to year and/or putting a fall crop in like lettuce, etc, when the tomatoes are spent.

I will also run a 2' X 13' bed along the first 20' of side-yard-fencing. I don't know what will go there, but it's a tremendously efficient space that I can't bear not to utilize. The other beds will be 2, 4' X 4' or 4' X 6' beds between the deck and side-yard-fencing. The overall 20' X 20' space will be well underutilized and provide plenty of room for future expansion. I would ideally like to close it all off and install a gate to keep my boxer out.

The 2' runs will be the first ones installed because they keep the yard open. My only issue will be the 2 x 13 run because I want to go well into autumn around here. I need to get a hoop-house of some sort over that bed, but think 2' may be too narrow.

The primary crops will be: Tomatoes (duh), Lettuce, Cucumbers, Carrots, Potatoes, Beans, Snap Peas, and, hopefully, Asparagus. I will sprinkle Marigolds in for color, and can't wait to get started!

Thanks for reading.

Howdy BYBG:

Welcome to the Forum. Looks like a landscaping business would be a wonderful source for compost material! Leaves in the fall should be in abundance as well as many other types of compost makings. I am a nut when it comes to gathering compost material so I am always on the lookout for new "stuff". Many forum members have written on their compost mixes and it is a great learning tool for them and the rest of the forum members. Currently I have access to horse and goat stuff, leaves from several areas, municipal compost at $20.00 per truck load and grass clippings. Other compost sources have included chicken, rabbit, cow, and I just missed buffalo.

Compost is 1/3 of Mel's Mix so do tell us where you get yours and if you "make your own".

Another 1/3 of the mix is vermiculite. Vermiculite has proven the be the hardest for most new SFG'ers to find in bulk bags to the point that a Vermiculite Sub-Forum was created that lists sources. If you know of sources for vermiculite in your area please add those locations to the database.

Again Welcome and God Bless, Ward and Mary.

WardinWake wrote:Howdy BYBG:

Welcome to the Forum. Looks like a landscaping business would be a wonderful source for compost material! Leaves in the fall should be in abundance as well as many other types of compost makings. I am a nut when it comes to gathering compost material so I am always on the lookout for new "stuff". Many forum members have written on their compost mixes and it is a great learning tool for them and the rest of the forum members. Currently I have access to horse and goat stuff, leaves from several areas, municipal compost at $20.00 per truck load and grass clippings. Other compost sources have included chicken, rabbit, cow, and I just missed buffalo.

Compost is 1/3 of Mel's Mix so do tell us where you get yours and if you "make your own".

Another 1/3 of the mix is vermiculite. Vermiculite has proven the be the hardest for most new SFG'ers to find in bulk bags to the point that a Vermiculite Sub-Forum was created that lists sources. If you know of sources for vermiculite in your area please add those locations to the database.

Again Welcome and God Bless, Ward and Mary.

Gladly...

Composting is very easy for me because of what you mentioned. I just moved into a new house...one where the previous owner wasn't very outdoorsy apparently...and, I have had to do almost everything from complete scratch, including setting up a new bin. Instead of spending a fortune on mulch, I just gathered all the leaves I could this fall and tossed them in my bin. I must have done 20 clients worth of leaf removal before getting to these bins. I run over my leaves and leave most in the grass for my clients (free fertilizer/winterizer), but what my bagger does pick up, I haul home and dump in my beds. What was left is what I started the compost piles with. I plan on doing this each year. I also have a client that pays me to bag her grass, so those clippings also come home each week. The trick will be to carry two bins of 3X3X3 or 4X4X4. This way I can empty one and fill the other to turn it weekly. (Honestly, I plan to have the kids do it for me as punishment when they act up. Imagine how much they would look forward to the sentencing of turning the mulch? I know as a kid I would have HATED that.) Anyway, that is where I get my compost. It's free. However, I didn't have the opportunity to do a lot of this last year in my old house, I bought a few bags of it from a local store. It honestly worked fine with the peat moss and vermiculite. If I need to add some this year, I will buy several brands....as Mel says.

Vermiculite? I will add this to the db when I get over there. But, just to keep it in the same thread, I can find 4 ft^3 bags at my Lowe's and Home Depot here in St. Louis. So, it isn't a challenge for me to find....thank God.

BackyardBirdGardner wrote: Anyway, that is where I get my compost. It's free. However, I didn't have the opportunity to do a lot of this last year in my old house I bought a few bags of it from a local store. It honestly worked fine with the peat moss and vermiculite. If I need to add some this year, I will buy several brands....as Mel says.

Be sure you buy five "types" not brands so you get a good mix of ingredients and nutrients for your mix. Examples of types include Mushroom Compost, composted cow manure, composted chicken manure, etc.

When making your own compost, mix multiple types of ingredients for better results.

Hope this helps and .

Helps tons. Thanks. I don't know why I assumed "brands."