Square Foot Gardening

As the sun was setting last Tuesday night, Mr. Man and I were working hard to get the raised beds put together. We bought our cedar beds from Farmer D’s, but you can build them from any outdoor, non-treated wood. We have four 4’ x 4’ beds with a depth of 10 inches.

Saturday, I put down a weed barrier under each bed, measured out the paths (3’ on all sides to give us room to weed and harvest), and then we added 20+ bags of Farmer D’s organic compost. Take a look, isn’t this beautiful looking dirt?

We mulched all the paths with cedar and Mr. Man made the grids for the beds.

We planted organic Jerichco Romaine and Sunset Lettuce seeds, 4 per sq. ft.; Cherry Belle Radish and Danver Carrot seeds, 16 per sq. ft.; and white and yellow onion transplants, 16 per sq. ft.

After thinking about it, we decided we’d better fence off the area as Marley will literally eat anything. We added a 3’ fence and Mr. Man will make a gate this weekend.

We plan on planting drought tolerant grasses in front of the fence, and we still need to move the cypress trees to make room for the chicken coop, but we are on the way. We’ll plant beets, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, beans, potatoes and cabbage as it warms up, as well as a variety of herbs, interplanting some flowers, such as Sweet Alyssum with the lettuces which attracts lacewings and syrphid flies, which according to Michael Pollan (Ominvore’s Dilemma) eat aphids that eat lettuce.