Monday, May 12, 2008
Gardening Time!
I've been using Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening technique since 1993. I have four 4'x4' squares up by the pool, that have yielded quite a bit of veggies (that usually get shared with various groundhogs).This year, I planted the entire garden with asparagus and garlic, meaning I needed more garden space. I was going to dig up another section of yard, but I noticed that Uncle Mel had a new edition of Square Foot Gardening out, and so I gave it a read.
He's now advocating raised beds filled with Mel's Mix potting soil with a semi-permanently attached grid, so I decided to give it a whirl.
The new 4'x4' box took me about two hours to construct and fill. The only annoying part was that I couldn't find vermiculite anywhere locally, so I had to substitute perlite in the potting mix. But it doesn't look too bad, and is right outside the kitchen window where we can keep an eye out for thieving groundhogs. I'll probably make a critter cage this weekend to permanently exclude freeloading rodents.
Right now, I just have some lettuce and broccoli transplants in, but it will soon sport cabbage, chard, radishes, bush beans, eggplant, beets, cilantro, basil, oregano and peppers. Tomatoes are going in patio containers this year. So we'll keep you posted on the results.
If anyone knows a local source for vermiculite, please let me know.
Labels: gardening, groundhogs, spring, square foot gardening, vegetables
