Well, another Spring has come and almost gone and with it brings another garden. Well, at least the hope of another garden. I have been told many times that you can't grow kids and flowers at the same time and, up until this season, that old tale has proved itself true. In my case, at least. Ever since I was a small, my parents had a garden, a big, beautiful garden. Summer never passed without home-grown tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes and, in the earlier years, strawberries, along with whatever else we fancied to plant. And there just isn't anything much better than a home-grown tomato. Hands down!
Fast forward to last summer. As we danced on the edge of yet another planting season with great expectations, we signed up for and attended a seminar on Square Foot Gardening, leaving with the book, excitement and big, big ideas. My often pointed out and never diagnosed OCD thrived at the planning of organized grids, each perfectly square and with each plant in a neat, orderly and predetermined place.I got out the graph paper and labored with my handy, dandy SFG book. I planned a 10' x 16' x 2' L-shaped bed along the fence corner to attach a trellis for climbing plants like beans, cucumbers, sugar snap peas and mini pumpkins. (Yes, I said mini-pumpkins) Then there was the main bed, a 4' x 12' home for gargantuan tomatoes, lettuce, beets, carrots, onions...lions, tigers and bears, OH MY!
Needless to say, inspiration was very much dampened by the reality of my crazy busy life. After much effort, many trips to Lowe's, a seemingly endless search for Vermiculite, a tremendous amount of patience by James and trips all over the county for several different types of compost (required by the SFG method), we ended up with the 4' x 12' bed and the 10' x 2' piece of the planned L-shaped bed. Along the way, we also lost the weed fabric that is supposed to line the raised beds because it just was too much hassle and, no matter how much I wanted to believe it, I just couldn't see tomatoes or decent carrots growing in just 4" of dirt... um, I mean, Mel's Mix. Long story short, we had one and a half of the planned beds and absolutely no motivation left. And we still needed plants. We ended the season with 12 unhealthy, poorly producing tomatoes and 8 pepper plants that produced one lowly pepper. Another failure year in our gardening quest. The only highlight of our SFG attempt was that because of our failed garden, we spent many mornings at the local Farmer's Market, corralling our kiddos from one baked good booth to another, while picking up some of the best local produce and meat this area has to offer.
So, for those of you who are interested, here we go again. This season holds promise that no other previous season has held. The beds are already built, except for the final leg of our L, and the soil mix is already hunted down and in the beds. We just have to top it off with some more organic material, rake out the weeds and plant. I have great hopes and an iron-clad determination this year. And I'm going to do it my way. Yes, Mel, your SFG method is wonderful. I will take what you have taught me and sprinkle in a little of what I've learned from my mama, my brother (king of the garden) and my own experience. Add in some Osmocote, Miracle Grow vegetable soil, organic compost, some help from Mother Nature and a little good old fashioned elbow grease and I just might be the one holding the blue ribbon at the county fair!
