It's Almost Garden Time!

It's almost garden time! Last year was my first year trying to grow a vegetable garden. I used the square foot garden method. You can read all about my adventures in gardening here. We made a 4' x 4' garden which equals 16 squares. We made a wagon garden, which worked well but we wanted to make a few changes. We had some drainage problems so this year we are making raised beds that sit right on the grass (on top of a weed mat). We also decided to expand to 24 squares.

Take a look at the design that David and I mocked up. The back of the house comes out a little where the fireplace is so we thought we'd frame it out around there. We have a few more weeks before we plant, but we will be reusing some of the wood from our garden wagon and the dirt mixture. We will have to buy a bit more, but will be nice to reuse. I have also saved most of my seeds in an airtight ziplock in the refrigerator.

I did a lot of research and learned that you want easy access to your garden on all sides. If you are backing it up to a fence or a house you only want to go 2' deep so that's is why you only see 2 rows deep in our garden plan. The next few photos I used for inspiration are from google images.

This is an example of how you can just set them in the middle of your grass (with a proper liner). 

One day my whole backyard will look like this, just kidding! It is fun to see though. I will share with you my plan on what is going where in the garden soon. One other thing we are going to do different this year is to use transplants for difficult things to grow. I will do this for tomatoes, peppers and onions. I can't wait to get started and there will be more to come. Anyone else thinking of starting a garden this year?