This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Seeking opinions...

Square Foot Gardening List - http://www.flinet.com/~gallus/sqft.html

Okay, I have this beautiful garden plan all laid out (on paper) and then my
dh tells me we can't even afford to build the beds I have drawn out, that I
need to pick just a few to start with, and we'll try to add some each year...  

Lets see if I can describe "the plan"...  About 30x50 is the garden area...
 Now, I want along the North end, to put in Raspberry brambles....  so I
chopped off the first 12x30 for brambles...  the next 10 feet is for a
clothesline (multiple reasons for taking up valuable garden space with a
clothesline, first, it is the only sunny spot in my yard, second, I'm
hoping that moving it out from under the trees, will make it less of a
target for the birds...  third, I am concerned about deer trashing my
garden, and I'm hoping that having lots of human scents out there will make
them steer clear, and finally I'm hoping the fluttering laundry will
accomplish what the human scents don't, as far as frightening the deer
away...  Okay, on the West end of the clothesline, up against the fence,
I'm thinking I'll put an herb bed and a potato bin.  South of the
Clothesline I have two 8x2 beds for upright supports (that will give me
room for 4 Mel-style uprights) then I have 8 beds, 4x8, in two rows...
then again on the West fence, in line with the other beds, I've drawn in 3
4x4 beds, one each for vining things, squash, cukes, etc...  I know I could
get a little more space from those beds, if I get desperate, by training
the vines up the fences...  Then, in the south west corner, I have a
Rhubarb bed, about  6x6,  along the southern fence, a 24x4 strawberry bed,
in the south east corner, (which may be partially shaded for at least the
morning hours) a compost bin, and then just north of the compost bin, a
15x4 asparagus bed.  Oh, and each bed is separated from the others by 3
feet of grassy path, wide enough to run the lawnmower down the paths, and
provide a living mulch in the paths... I've thought about the woodchip
paths, but I really don't want to do anything that will encourage the
slugs... everytime I've ever grown tomatoes, the slugs got the ripe ones
before I did.  

Okay, now I KNOW I'm trying to do WAAAYYY to much, so don't lecture me
there...  Which should I build first on a limited budget?  My leanings at
this point are for the 2 8x2 beds with the uprights, where I can grow early
peas, then tomatoes, and then, maybe even a late crop of peas on one, and
pole beans on the other.  I also want him to do at least one of the 4x8
beds, so he can put hardware cloth or screen, or whatever on the bottom, so
my root veggie will be safe from the moles & voles...  I also want him to
build the compost bins, put up the clothes line and fence the whole mess...
 (Okay, so now I guess I can see his point...)   Anyone with any opinions
here, please tell me what you would do differently, and why...  Thanks!!

Dawn

P.S.  Kids and I started Broccoli in vermiculite yesterday...  we used
"sprouting seeds" so who knows what we'll get, but we started some broccoli
sprouts yesterday too, I figured I could show the kids what the seeds in
the jar were doing since in the vermiculite, they can't see it until it
sprouts!  Probably ought to put some cabbage seeds in too, if we are going
to have cabbage this year!  How sad, it's only April, and I can't even
think of planting out until the first of June, and here I'm already behind...


______________________________________________________________________
To unsubscribe, write to sqft-unsubscribe@listbot.com
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index