Green thumb

I have been thinking since the fall that I wanted to grow a small garden. All of my grandparents used to garden and it was always fun to help them. I wanted my child to have the same experience of eating something she had helped grow. Plus we have a hard time getting her to have variety in her diet (she mostly only eats yogurt) so I thought this might help.

We have a rather large back yard for a house in a neighborhood, but it's all sloped. I started reading on the internet and decided to do raised bed gardening. Think a box filled with dirt. The soil warms up faster, making your plants grow faster. With that narrowed down, I started trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to do it. All of the forums kept mentioning this book called Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew. I found it at our library and am now going to buy it. Following his method you can grow enough vegetables for 1 person in a square that's 4 feet by 4 feet. The only tools you need are a bucket, a trowel, and a small shovel. It's not about making long rows in a garden that will overwhelm you; it's about tending a small space efficiently to make the amount you could realistically eat. You can read more here.

While I was researching I also found this tool at Gardener's Supply Company. The garden here is set up to be 3 feet by 6 feet. You can either look at and edit a premade template or you can make your own. You can print it out and it includes information about each vegetable its particular needs. It is very helpful if you don't know exactly how much room a pepper plant will take up (about 1 foot). They have plans for making a salad garden, one with all salsa ingredients, etc.

So far I've spent $16 dollars on the lumber to make 2 4x4x8 beds. At Lowe's they'll cut the wood for you and each piece was 16 feet long. I also bought some linseed oil to seal the wood. Lots on internet sites said you could use landscape timbers which are a little cheaper, but there was some conflicting information about whether the chemicals were safe for growing food. I'm trying to do it all organically (we'll see how that goes), so I thought it would be better to stay away from that. I've also bought some peat moss that was $10 for a huge bag of it. I bought 12 cubic feet of Jungle Grow organic gardening soil for about $40. I'm not sure if that's going to be enough to fill the boxes or not (I kind of doubt it) but it will certainly get me started.

As for what we are going to grow, I think we've decided on tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, onions, carrots, marigolds (they keep pests away), and a couple of other things yet to be determined. It's too early to plant about half of those things, so I'm not in a big hurry to get it planted. I oiled to lumber yesterday so it should be ready to nail together today. I'm pretty excited.

I would like to encourage you to give it a try. If you start with just one 4x4 box and you hate it, then you're out just a little time and money. If you like it, it's very easy to add to. It's not too late to get started; in fact, it's just the right time. If you're not sure about growing your own food, you should check out Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It's one of the best books I've ever read.

Embrace the spring fever and plant a garden!