My First Vegetable Garden with Photos

My first vegetable garden, please click below to see photos. Helpful suggestions and comments are welcomed. This is not strictly SFG since I followed an Australian guy's book. His web site is called food4wealth.com. I used newspapers as the base, followed by alfalfa hey, followed by composted horse manure (I got free from a stable), followed by chicken fertilizer, followed by straw hey, and finally a top layer of the same composted horse manure. Click Here to See the Photos of the Garden

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EDIT: Lurkers and Guests please note: We recognize that there are many successful ways to garden; be advised that this method is not SFG.

aboard bijan to our forum from a fairly new newbie here.

It sounds as the system you use is known in some place as lasagne gardening.

Have you read the latest edition of Square Foot Gardening (2006)? I started off with the 1981 edition and I am waiting for my copy of the 2006 edition which I am told is updated and makes thiongs easier.

Kelejan

Bijan,
I'm glad you found us. Your bed looks very nice. I too started SFG in the 80's and have now switched to the new method. Before you build another box, and if you are like us you will, please read "The All New Square Foot Garden" it is full of great info. The people here are happy to help but we are no replacement for Mel. In the book you will find instructions on how to make what we grow in it is called Mel's Mix. It is a combination of 1 part vermiculite, 1 part peat moss (fluffed), and 1 part a mix of composts from 5 different sources, that is if you don't have your own home made compost. It is by far the best growing meidum I have ever used.
I live in north Florida and it has been a hot dry summer here this year. What is it like were you live? In your photos everything looks so nice and green.

Kelejan I found this system first and SFG later. After I had set up the garden I went and talked to a local gardener who introduced me to a book called High Yield Gardening, while I was checking that book online at Amazon I came across SFG. I ordered a used SFG book on line and I think it is the latest edition as it stated first printing revised edition 2006, and I saw what seemed an identical book in Borders Books. I found this forum when looking through the book.

It is interesting that the method I used is called Lasagna gardening, I will search that phrase in Google to see what comes up. If you have any more information post it, thanks.

BTW thanks for posting a reply to my post, it is interesting to see what other think of the garden.

shannon1 I am in Northern Virginia. It seems pretty hot now, we have had some rains. Google it and see the weather if you like that way. I am not sure how it compare to Florida.

Please read my reply to Kelejan regarding the SFG book. I am not an expert gardener (if I was I probably would not have done it this way like Mel states in his book, the experts seem to want to do it the hard way). What appealed to me was the concept of setting it up and then basically forget about it (except for occasional watering which can be automated also). Mel's method is similar or the Australian guy's method is similar. It cost me about $200 to set this up, most of that (over $100) was for the seeds that I have yet to put in the garden and seedlings that are already in there. The rest were for screws, a sprinkler hose, $25 for a trailer from Uhaul to move the compost from stable to the house, about $15 for the chicken fertilizer and a good portion of the money was also for the van's gas to move things around. The wood was free and I got it from several people who were giving wood they did not need.

I like to add a cover with plastic over it to make the conditions for the plants humid as the seedlings I am growing seem to like being under plastic. I have a lot more free wood enough to make a frame for a cover. I talked to a local gardener and he says this is a good idea as long as there is good venting. The garden is under the shade of a tree so I like to help it along a bit for a faster growth rate. I am also experimenting with what I found on line called "compost tea" I made something similar and put it on on one of the seedlings and put that one under a plastic bag. It was a couple of days ago and the 2 leaves of this seedling seems kind of bigger, at least the compost did not kill it.

With respect, it's rather audacious to be promoting another gardening method on the only forum that specializes in SFG. For the benefit of those unfamiliar with SFG, I agree that it's important to make it clear what is and isn't SFG.