Winter Garden

Here is our Winter Garden!!!  We decided to build raised beds and try out the square foot gardening method outlined in Mel Bartholomew’s book.  So far I really like it.  It is so easy!!!

Drew built three raised beds out of Cedar (cause we could get it for free mostly).  We used the Mel’s mix talked about in the book.  1/3 Peat Moss 1/3 Vermiculite and 1/3 Compost (which we make ourselves).  And for now we just used string to divide our beds into square feet (it was fast and easy and I did not have much time).

I bought Burpee organic seeds at Lowe’s for about $1.88 a pack.  Next season I am going to order from Seed Savers I think.  I spent WAY too much time deciding what square to plant everything in, but that’s just me.  I used Numbers (Excel for all you PC users) and created visual of my beds so I could move things around till I got everything where I wanted it.  I soaked the seeds in water for 30 minutes.  All I could find to use was tupperware, next season I will plan ahead and get some small paper dixie cups!

For some plants like cauliflower, I planted 1 seed per square.  Others like radish you can plant 16 per square.  I used my fingers to draw grids in my boxes for 1, 4, 9, or 16 smaller boxes.  Used a pencil to make holes and then dropped in a pinch of seeds.  Then I sat back a minute, and I prayed asking the Creator of the Universe to bless my little garden!!!

I added a few edible flower plants in each corner of the raised beds.

Here is what we planted so far in the first 4×4 box:

• Swiss Chard (2 kinds) – 2 squares/4 per square
• Spinach – 1 square/4 per square
• Bush Beans – 1 square/9 per square
• Lettuce (2 kinds) – 2 squares/4 per square
• Cauliflower – 2 squares/1 per square
• Broccoli – 1 square/1 per square
• Cabbage – 1 square/1 per square
• Radish – 1 square/16 per square
• Beets – 1 square/16 per square
• Green Onion – 1 square/16 per square
• Cilantro – 1 square/1 per square

A few days later I added a few vegetable plants: Kale, Butternut Squash, Bok Choy and Cucumber (Kevin atBuchanan’s suckered me into them :).  I also have a few potted herb plants that I am going to make a separate herb garden with soon.

We are staggering our planting, so in two weeks I will plant the second box with mostly the same things.  And then in two more weeks we will plant the third box. 

You can do this… if you need some encouragement or instruction email me or give me a call.  We are new at this, but we will share what we know!

As always, come on over and I will have a cup of tea waiting for you!