The First Official Day of Gardening in 2010!

The gardening gods finally smiled upon us yesterday! The weather was perfect and everyone was available for a day of fun and gardening. In the photos above are our friends, Chad, Beth, and their dog Josie. Chad and Beth live in the house that we used to live in, and that's how we know them. To make a long story short, I was going to move my garden boxes to my new place, but Beth was basically going to do the same garden that I had done so I decided to leave my garden and share it instead of moving it. It worked out for everyone and was a lot easier than moving a ton of dirt (literally).

I do a method of gardening known as "Square Foot Gardening" (http://www.squarefootgardening.com/) which is a very efficient way of gardening. Essentially, you get the most product out of the smallest amount of space with very little work. Each square foot gets a certain amount of seeds or seedlings based on what area the plant will need to grow into. I do raised beds which basically eliminates the need to weed, but also needs more water than the conventional method of gardening directly in the ground.

Yesterday we started the spring garden. Spring gardens have cooler weather crops like lettuces, cabbages, and peas- think green veggies. The beds had been covered for a few weeks and were nice and warm. Beth has been doing a great job adding to and turning the compost, so we even had some new dirt to add to the newly awoken beds. We first added the grid to our square-foot garden to mark where each square was by tying string back and forth. We then planted seeds or seedlings in each square and labeled thoroughly (you don't want to confuse your Romaine with your Arugula!). We ended up planting Romaine lettuce, Arugula, Sugar Snap Peas, Broccoli, Spinach, Onions, and a Mesculun Mix. After we finished planting, we mulched each bed with straw and the men helped us cover the beds with PVC hoops and plastic sheeting for cold weather protection. All in all, a very productive gardening day. I can't wait to see what comes up!

-Mrs. Growbot