What is your motivation for SFG-ing?

Sherryeo reflected my feelings on this so closely, that it nearly brought tears to my eyes! I couldn't say it more eloquently. I agree with all of the reasons she stated, with two differences in my case. First, it is my mother that SFG has brought me even closer to. We enjoy the time we spend together visiting with her "grandbabies" who live in the SFG, and are creating new memories at this stage of our lives (I'm 52; She's 71), which is really precious to me. Second, I was warned by my doctor that I am extremely deficient in Vitamin D, and the time outdoors in the sun tending or just visiting my garden provides more than enough sunlight to help my body regain its balance!

It's the most relaxing part of my day - gotta love that!

Ya know, I never get tired of sharing my reasons for this SFG-ing that Al and I are doing...and if you've read our main thread about our Apollo Garden then you already know my reasons...but just in case you haven't, here they are again!! Also, like many others, this is a tribute to my dad. This year has been very rough for him, the first year ever that he hasn't been able to plant his own garden...so while he's been in and out of the hospital Al dug the area and planted the garden...SFG style, not row style like Dad normally does! Maybe we'll have a new convert! We gave him a TT garden last year and he's enjoying that one right now too!

1. To figure out how to avoid the weekly shock at the grocery store and to assist our rapidly dwindling food budget!
2. To grow more stuff than we ever thought we could.
3. For the pure enjoyment! Digging in the dirt is great, at any age!
4.To meet our neighbors and share gardening secrets. Competition is great, at any age!!
5. To donate to others with even smaller food budgets.
6. ...and to enjoy the super high we get after sharing the stuff we're growing with our friends and neighbors, and hearing them absolutely go nuts over the flavor and quality of things fresh from the garden, often still warm from the sun.

Read all about our Apollo Garden here:
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t2996-modesto-central-valley-ca

Main reason: age. We've row gardened for most of our adult lives, eaten our produce fresh and canned the rest. Now we're retired and with some health issues. PapaVino finds it difficult to wrestle the big Troybilt tiller around the large garden plot, and weeding is hard on both of us, being arthritic seniors. On a trip to Powell's new and used books last January, I stumbled on Square Foot Gardening, 1981 edition, bought it, stayed up late reading it through. :idea: realized this could really work with our lifestyle. Yes, it's been difficult building or converting raised beds to SFG, but we're starting to see excellent results. Even the all-et-up-ugly hay bale bed of corn has shown superiority to row gardening: it was planted two or three days after the two traditional corn rows in the old garden, but sprouted two days earlier, and is growing faster. In addition, I've never before had tomato plants set fruit at the same time the iris are blooming--but this year we have 14 or more little green tomatoes just a short distance from the blooming iris garden. With the aforesaid results, on another trip through Powell's, I bought the All New Square Foot Gardening "bible." Can't wait for the onions and garlic to be harvested so I can convert that bed to SFG, too!

nancy wrote:Last year I read Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and it changed my life.

I have this on hold at the public library. I am looking forward to reading it.

I started out SFG on a city girls whim, and ended up with a sanctuary outside my back door that feeds my soul more than any sermon from the pulpit ever has. In my garden I can hear myself think. I can be still. I can recharge my batteries. The yummy results are the icing on the cake. Growing pesticide free food is more icing. Being another step closer to a independent food supply is yet another layer of icing.

1. fresh veggies
2. making memories with my children.

being a military family "planting roots" is not a easy thing. So having bought a house ( at last) we could finally ding in the dirt. It make us feel simi normal to be able to paint our wall, plant a garden and dig a hole in the middle of our yard if we want to (not going to but the able to do so is a HUGE thing)

This is our 3rd garden ( first sfg) in 21 years. The first one was to help our oldest child at 3 ( he just turned 18) deal with daddy being deployed for a year. Last year we turned our "flowerbeds" in to a garden with beans, peas, and tomatos, to help our children deal with there dad being deployed for just over 6 months. Both times it really worked. Each time our littlest ones were sad ( our children are 18, 12, 6 and 2) we would good look at there tomatos ( they each got to pick one out at the store ). Our 12 year old would weed the garden when she felt sad. I even cought our oldest child looking at the garden at times when he was sad.

Who knew a garden would help heal a childs sad heart for missing there daddy!?

My reasons for starting a SFG are the same as many of you. First I've become concerned with where our food comes from and what's in it or on it. I started buying Organic produce and quickly realized that I was spending a small fortune. I mean $3.99/lb. for heirloom tomatoes??? Plus I wanted tomatoes that tasted like tomatoes. So fresh, nutritious, quality produce at a fraction of the cost (after the initial cost of set up) are definitely high on my list but I've also created a little oasis in my yard where I can sit in the sun with my cat Tommy and just take it all in. Listen to the birds and insects and enjoy the breeze and just be quiet. Middlemama said it well:

In my garden I can hear myself think. I can be still. I can recharge my batteries.

I've found a place of such joy. I can't wait to go out an see what's sprouted and what has gotten a 1/2 inch taller or bloomed or what have you. Just wait until I can start harvesting tomatoes and zucchini. Then I'll have something to brag about......or share with others.

I wish I'd started my SFG years ago.

middlemamma wrote:

nancy wrote:Last year I read Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" and it changed my life.

I have this on hold at the public library. I am looking forward to reading it.

I loved tht book. I also just read Farm City, the education of an urban farmer, by Novella Carpenter that I really liked.

1. Relaxation
2. Fulfillment
3. Flavor
4. Quality
5. Nostalgia

I started SFG'ing because of space. My hubby is a pastor and we live in a parsonage provided by the church(es). The year I started SFG'ing our yard was nothing more than a small grassy space walled between church and house -- but it was sunny. We built one 4 x 4 so we could have fresh tomatoes, lettuce and herbs. This was before Mel's new book and his new method was only on his website. That little garden box produced so well, was so easy to take care of and looked so nice that I knew I was hooked.

Now we have a huge yard and have 12 SFG boxes of varying sizes + planters and pots. I have 33 tomato plants! Enough to preserve & can for the two of us and my daughter's family who live in a yardless apartment.

I grew up in a gardening family and have never not had a vegetable garden. Thanks to Mel, the tradition continues. And it a lot less work!

pattipan

I started a very small SFG last year because I wanted a few of the home-grown fruits and veggies I remembered from my childhood, and was unhappy with the limited varieties and mediocre quality of the fresh produce available at our local stores.

Then in December a routine medical exam, disclosed that my husband has high blood pressure that is "medicine resistant". The doctor recommended a diet and exercise program. The exercises went fine. Unfortunately, my husband doesn't like most fruits and veggies so the diet was a bit more challenging.

Since I was already trying my hand at SFG's, we made a deal - if I can get it to grow, he'll try it. As of now, (6-months from diagnosis) his bp has gone down by 60+ points and we've found healthy recipes for eggplant, swiss chard, kale, beets, cucumbers and butternut squash, that he likes.

I'd like to exchange my reason and replace it with this video.... haha

krazikandiland wrote:I'd like to exchange my reason and replace it with this video.... haha

:dancingpepper:

I so love that one!

My reasons for SquareFoot Gardening:
I hate to weed!!
I hate to hoe!!!
My knees and back are bad! So NOT doing those things really helps!
I can get a lot more food in a lot less space for a lot less effort!
And NOTHING tastes as fresh as eating straight from the garden!
I know what is used on the veggies.

There are soo many reasons I could go on for a long time!

And my hubby won't till for me!

I've mostly used raised beds for years which are much easier on my joints and back to tend so my motivation for SFG is to see if MM has advantages for me over improving the soil in my new garden.

My motivation for gardening and growing fruit and veg is probably it is in my genes to want to be outside and produce something.

To me too it seems senseless to pay an excessive price for an often inferior quality product when I can get all the satisfaction of producing my own fresh food at low cost and I know what's gone into it and what hasn't. I also prefer that my veg isn't grown, harvested, packaged, refrigerated and shipped at an unnecessary cost to the environment.

It's also very sociable becuase I pass my surplus plants and produce on to friends and they pass theirs or something they don't have a use for on to me. I grow mostly from seed but plants like fruit bushes and asparagus take time to grow before they crop and I don't have the space to grow them from scratch so I don't mind the extra cost of those if they don't come to me in the exchange system we have going.

My motivation for gardening? Well the source started when I finally FORCED myself to watch the documentary, "The Earthlings." I had put if off for years becuase I knew it would change me. I was not wrong! To add more reinforcement, I watched, "Supersize Me" and "Food, Inc." Here is a link to watch the first: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6361872964130308142#

However, I have always wanted a garden. When DH agreed and offered to fence off an area of the dogs' play area, I was ecstatic! I have 3 SQF beds that are 4' x 16' each. In addition, I have the perimeter of the 24' x 27' area lined with 1' x 2' boxes.

The main goal was zucchini and tomatoes, but I am growing so much more than that!