New to from Newnan, GA

Hi folks -

I am just getting started with SFG though I was originally introduced decades ago. I tried an in-ground vegetable garden back in the early 90's while I was unemployed. Back then I just needed to put my energy into something and I really don't recall must of a harvest. I did burn a lot of hours digging and sifting our rocky soil.

Fast forward to the era of the Topsy-Turvey planter; going from unemployed to trying to achieve true work-life balance. I started with two Topsy-Turvey planters in 2009 that did not seem to produce very much. In 2010, I built an A-frame type rack which held 14 planters. I built an irrigation system that was driven by a fountain pump. We would run a hose to the pump in a 5 gallon bucket in our kitchen sink ... twice a freakin' day. Again the yield, mainly tomatoes and some hot peppers, was low but I had figured out that it was the soil I was using. It was an organic soil amendment that was never intended to be used by itself or in a container (it even said so on the bag, duh).

Having realized my error I prepared for this year's crop by modifying my rig to accommodate 20 Topsy-Turvey planters (obsess much?!). The irrigation system was also replaced with drip irrigation kits and a timer faucet purchased from Lowes. This time the yield was great, the birds loved the all you can eat buffet!

Realizing that the gentle south western slope of my yard is perfect for raised bed gardening. Raised bed because the soil is pretty much red clay, like the stuff they use to make bricks. I have built two 4' X 4' boxes from Western Red Cedar one of which was just populated with Broccoli and the other awaits Mel's Mix. I look forward to growing what is needed rather than feeding the local bird population.

- Wayne

Wayne from Newman.



It was nice of you to feed the birds this year but next year should be for you.

May I suggest you make your SFG frames from bricks from your soil. LOL.

Seriously, you will find that SFG is soooo much easier to manage than any other kind of garden, once you have your system set up.

Advice often offered is take it a bit at a time, do as much as you comfortably can in readiness for next season so that if you make any mistakes in the beginning, you can rectify without having to do an enormous amount of work.

for myself, I now realise I made a mistake in not using the correct amount of vermiculite which is expensive and which I will rectify as each square becomes vacant and that perhaps I was not as generous as I should have been with the quantity of compost.

Put another way, I realize I have too much peat.

My other failing was not to prepare for voles which ate a row of my runner beans.

Wayne,

Have you read Mel's new book? You will find so much great stuff in there. I'm so glad you found us. I want a drip system most of the time I spend in the garden is spent watering.

Kelejan wrote:
May I suggest you make your SFG frames from bricks from your soil. LOL.

Now that's a good idea! Dare I say ... really "outside the box" (my apologies)

Kelejan wrote:
My other failing was not to prepare for voles which ate a row of my runner beans.

I have been concerned about our cats using the beds a litter boxes (blech) but perhaps they will keep the rodent population down.

- Wayne

I have read Mel's new book. After carrying around the old book for decades, I wanted to read it however while searching my bonus room for it I realized that it was given to Goodwill with the last house cleaning. I downloaded the new book for Kindle and read it that weekend. I'm glad I lost the old book because the new one was perfect. My wife has been guiding us down a path of organics after we learned about all the horrible things that the food giants are doing with blessings from the FDA. In addition, we have recently began stock piling emergency food and water in the not so unlikely event of economic collapse. This primarily powdered food will serve as a back up to any screw up with the gardens.

I used two Mister Landscaper kits for potted plants from Lowes for my Tospy Turveys and am considering re-purposing them for the SFGs. There are also kits for vegetable gardens that look tempting but are more expensive. None of these include a timer which really makes the system foolproof. You can also purchase the pieces you need to build a custom system.

Everything about the new SFG works for us!

- Wayne

Wayne,

Welcome to our forum!

You seem to have a good grip of the SFG process.

Best of luck!

We'll have to see what kind of results I get. The nice thing is the mistakes are easily corrected.

- Wayne