Anyone grow veggies? Compost?
 

Getting into the idea of "square foot gardening"... still need to put my raised beds together and start my plants from seed.

Also, my Dad got me a composter... but he got the vermicomposter (using red wriggler worms) :blink:

I guess now I need to order worms. Anyone have any experience with this kind of stuff?!

~Christine

my husband did a square foot garden this last season and what I can REALLY suggest is to build the square foot boxes because his raised beds eroded over time and the garden got all mixed up....

Vermicomposting Here's a link with a lot of information on vermicomposting. You need to get your 'home' started now, before you add the worms so they'll have something to come home to and eat, etc. So give it a few weeks. If you live near a lake or fishing community, you can get red wigglers from a bait shop to save on ordering online. Which composter did he get you? We just built one from rubbermaid storage boxes, but I drool over a couple of the hotels I've seen online.

You can easily make your own compost bin for regular compost from heavy duty chicken or cow wire, pallet frames, buckets or just a pile. Though this one is on my wishlist LOL

The All New Sq. Ft. Gardening book is a great tool to have, but there are tons of resources online you can do when you google it. It's usually available at any library - (most probably carry the older edition of Sq. Ft. Gardening) This is the guy who is the 'guru' of Sq. Ft. Gardening. Here's his website .

Here are some good sites:

Tim's Sq. Ft.

My Sq. Ft. Gardening.net

I could go on - google sq. ft. gardening or raised bed gardening and you'll get a wealth of information. We've done both..raised bed works fine if you keep it up during the year, but I do prefer frames for us - maintenance is just a lot easier, though it's a bit of an investment up front. Check surplus building supply stores for non-treated wood cheap compared to going to a DIY store and paying full retail. Or get scrap. Or use pallet wood.

We actually built ours 4x8 feet because it works better for our space and it took a little less wood to do it. Grab used cardboard to use as a weed deterrant if you can't afford weed blog material. You can get it from bookstores or grocery stores or even nursing homes :) (they toss TONS each week). It won't be a permanent barrier as it will degrade, but by then, your seeds may be buried deeply enough that it won't matter. Ours lasted about two seasons.

Before HGTV completely goes bonkers and quits showing even his cancelled shows, Paul James' Gardening by the Yard on Saturday mornings is a wealth of information. He's got the only real-world gardening show there (they've forgotten what the G stands for in their name), that was cancelled this last year, but they're still showing the syndicated shows. You can still find his shows online @ HGTV and youtube. He endorses using natural/organic methods first and is a home gardener, not just landscaper. And he's funny to boot!

Eh - I could go on. We're in the middle of planning the expansion of our beds and are sowing directly to the gardening this year or buying transplants. Our lives have been so busy, I didn't prep the seed stuff well enough, and because we have relatively mild springs, we're just going ground first. Our seed order should arrive any day and we're excited!

We've been vermicomposting for years but we don't have any fancy containers, we use Rubbermaid bins and they stay in the bottom of my pantry. It took us a little bit to find out what works best, because of the weather here, we keep our bins inside. We (my DH ;) ) have a garden too but it's a small plot in our backyard, 15ft x 15ft, not square foot gardening although I know several people that have had good luck with the square foot gardening. Have fun!

Now that's something I didn't know, Keely! How come we've never talked about that before?!?! LOL

We do square foot gardening. My boxes are 2x4, 4x4, 4x6, and 4x8: I was trying to get the best use of my space which presents several challenges (trees, horses, etc.). I also have a couple of 1 x 12 beds around the outside to define the space a bit better: I keep herbs and flowers in those. One thing I learned after the first year is to leave adequate spacing between the boxes. I didn't leave quite enough room between the first boxes that I did. Making the boxes is fairly easy, but it is expensive. We used the formula in the book for our soil mix. It is good, but I think it is very expensive to make. Of course, I made tons and then I top them every year.

I don't know about anybody else, but I have had mixed success with what grows well in the beds. My corn never really does well, but tomatoes, sweet peppers, herbs, hot peppers, cucumbers, kale, and chard do well. I have had mixed results with carrots, watermelon, cantaloupe, and onions. My strawberries do well. But I really don't have a green thumb, and this is the first time I have had any success with gardening.

oh - this thread makes me so inspired! i so want to get into gardening!! we're moving this summer ... so hopefully we'll have a nice backyard and can implement some of this :)

We compost and sort of garden here. Surpisingly, it's actually kind of tough to garden in Arizona because the seasons are all screwed up and you have to start things at weird times and it's too hot in the summer and the soil is awful and . . . . I could go on and on. But, we try to compost all our veggie kitchen and garden waste. And we grow vegetables in raised beds (well, really mostly large pots).

i wanna know all about this keely hook me up w// some pics and details pwease! i've been meaning to start my sq. ft garden since last year, but am hoping to actually get to it this season.... and was also wondering about composting since down here our yards are um on the conservative side.. so it's not like i can make a big ol pile out in the way back corner of the yard where no one will see it... ;)

and thanks darcy for those links. i do have my sq ft book, but it's nice to have more links!

xo

Awesome!!! Thanks ladies! :thumbup:

I am building 2 4x4 beds at first. I have a black thumb so hope this will work out! I am excited about growing organic veggies for my family!!:)

My dad got the Wriggler Ranch vermicomposting bin. Thanks for the tips re:fishing worms! The shipping for those buggers is kind of high! :thumbdown:

So excited to get this started!! I want to grow tomatoes, peppers, peas, radishes, onions, summer squash, arugula, leaf lettuce, spinach, basil, cilantro, thyme, parsley, chives, and whatever else I can manage to fit in there!;)