Tuesday, May 20, 2008

New Garden

I'm so excited! A friend and her husband gave me three 3'x3' squares to do a square foot garden. They had them in their front yard, but decided they didn't want them any more, and gave them to me. woohooo!

For the last 5 years, we've had a pathetic "container" garden. Not much grows in them - there's just not that much space. With these three squares, I can plant 27 squares of stuff.

It's gotten too warm for things like sugar snap peas and carrots. We'll put those in in Aug or Sept. It's time here for the summer plants. I already 2 types of tomatoes, one kind in the container and the other awaiting transplanting. I also have some yellow squash, chives, sage, 1 jalapeƱo plant and some mint in the containers.

In my new squares, I will be transplanting the tomatoes I was given. Then my friends are giving me some heirloom seeds. I'll be planting pole beans, bush beans, cucumbers, some pepper plants, zucchini, and butternut squash, I also want one watermelon plant. (All the "crawling" things will be taught to go UP some fencing so I don't go outside my squares.) I'm so excited.

Now I need to do something about some soil. I'm not allowed to dig up the soil here, so I'm going to have to shop around/ask around for some soil. I know that last choice is to go buy some compost, vermiculite and some peat moss and mix it in 1/3 proportions. But I'm trying to same myself some money, not spend it. So I'll check with a friend that has some animals to see if they have any manure that has sat for a while. I'll ask around to see if anyone would give me any soil that they have. Problem is, North Georgia is full of RED CLAY. It's impermeable and not good to grow in. The nice thing is, I have some options.

The other nice thing about these squares are that if I move, I can just move the soil along with the frame - which is bottomless. (I would just scoop the dirt into a container/wheel barrow, and pick up the frame. Move it to my new location and refill it with the soil.)

If anyone has any ideas I've missed on getting some soil, let me know.

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