It was really slow going. We had to cut back blackberry bushes, pull morning glory and take out plastic pots, plastic bags etc. Once we got down about 6 inches, we realized there was really good soil there. The only problem was all the weeds and plastic garbage in it. We continued to dig away when all of a sudden a RAT ran out of a hole my daughter was digging and it ran under the fence. It was about 8 inches long. She decided she didn’t want to dig there any more – haha.

I took over and continued digging and pulling for a while, when all of a sudden I noticed a baby RAT! It was about 2 inches long, just a new born. Then another crawled out. I scooped them up and put them under the fence. I dug a little more and MORE Babies! There were 7 in all. They could hardly move, they were so tiny. We were so worried about them. My daughter posted an ad on Craigslist but everyone who contacted her wanted her to deliver them! Uh, NO!

We finished getting all the weeds and garbage out but there was a lot of good soil to move still.  We figured we should leave that area so Momma Rat could find her babies so we went to another part of the garden to put some of this beautiful composted soil we had put in a wheelbarrow. While there, my daughter noticed the mother Rat had come back. Every time someone spoke she took off. We decided to clean up and clear out of the back yard to let her rescue them.

We sat in the front yard for about an hour and my daughter kept checking. Sure enough, she said they were all taken care of. I sure hope so!!

My only wish was that I had taken a picture of these tiny, cute little guys!

I will post a picture of what it looks like when we have moved the rest of the soil. Stay tuned.

My green slats were not long enough for 4 x 4 so I am just ignoring the last slat on each grid. It is not worth the time and money to go and buy, let alone find, another green venetian blind. The last square of each 4 x 4 will be left open.

I dug up the paths around the first mound. I laid the grid on it and realized that I took too much soil for the path. I had to try to rebuild them a little. I found some really nice pieces of wood for the paths at the Garden. (It seems they get a lot of things in for the gardeners to use!). I did the second and it worked out really well. The third did not work:(!!! There were potatoes and strawberry plants that I tried to place the grid around and I dug up too wide of a path! I will have to go back and fix the third one and work on the fourth.

I am really happy with how one and two look. If I can get three and four to look good, then I just need to figure out what and where I want to plant everything in this garden. My husband and I really want a lot of tomatoes so I think I will plant most of the Romas there, as well as some peppers, cucumbers, basil, rosemary, oregano and maybe some carrots.

Grrrrrrr! I went back to Value Village and they had no white venetian blinds left so I bought dark green ones instead. I proceeded to cut them up and lay them out. I then cut 24 of them to 3 feet long. I went to staple them like I did the white ones, only to find that they were METAL blinds and my stapler would not go through!!! Needless to say, I was very disappointed. My husband took pity on me and away we went to Canadian Tire to get some self tapping screws. It was going to be a very long, tedious process with these slats compared to the plastic ones :(!

I found a piece of wood outside. I measured 12 inches and I drilled the holes in the end, at 12 and 24 inches I figured it would take me a very long time to put these together as I had to hand screw each one in. My husband showed me how to place the end of the screw on the screwdriver, screw it into the first blind, line up the holes with the second blind and screw. Voila! Not near as long and tedious as I thought. I took them to my daughter’s and laid them out too.

Finally, I was ready to plant. Saturday, I started with one grid. I planted it like so    

4 Swiss Chard        Cucumber          16 carrots

9 spinach                 1 Kale                  Nothing yet

16 Onions                 1 Nasturtium    16 Leeks

The second grid, I planted on Sunday. It goes like this (picture at right):

4 Arugula                1 Nasturtium     4 Lettuce

9 Beets                     4 Mustard          9 Beets

4 Lettuce                 16 Radish           4 Arugula

Behind Grid # 3, I planted Sunflower, Peas, Beans and Zucchini.

Now, I am off to my Community Garden tomorrow to lay the grids and paths.

Much easier and quicker and they are very sturdy. Here is how they look stapled. I made six 3 x 3 foot squares. Now I need to get another venetian blind to make 3 more for my daughter’s garden and most likely 4-6 more for my community garden.

It may sound like a lot of work and initially it is. However, I never have to make these again!!

Tomorrow, if it does not rain, I will rake the beds, make them good and flat and lay down the grids. I will keep the grids in place by placing the many rocks I dug up, on the corners of each grid and one in the middle.

It looks like I may be able to begin planting this weekend, Sunday maybe. I will most likely put the transplants in first and then some seeds on Monday.

Tomorrow I will explain how I transplant based on the great information I got from Mel Bartholomew’s book. I have been gardening for years and did not know some of the things he wrote about (but that is for tomorrow).

Again, I will keep you posted with pictures.

I do not believe in Sunscreen full of chemicals. If you wish to use sunscreen, buy natural sunscreen without chemicals. Your skin is your largest organ. Slathering it with Sunscreen full of chemicals amounts to drinking a glass of chemicals. Would you do that? I wouldn’t.

I agree with the rest of this infographic: no tanning beds, wearing protective clothing and seek shade. As far as avoiding exposure between 10 am and 4 pm, it is VERY important to get 15-20 minutes of sun exposure with no sunscreen when the sun is high in the sky, in order to get  your Vitamin D.

We proceeded to cut up the strings and separate all the slats. I then measured one 3 feet long and cut it. I then used that one to cut all the other ones. I laid the slats like a tic tac toe grid on the soil beds in my daughter’s garden just to see what it looked like. I had enough for 5 grids.

Tomorrow, I am on the hunt to figure out exactly the best method to stick this grid together so it is sturdy and doesn’t move. I will see about glue, staples and or plastic screws. I will let you know.

I also need to find some more wood laths to cut some 4 foot lengths for four 4 x 4 grid. With those I will screw the slats together, I think?! If not, I will buy some more blinds at Value Village to finish this off.

Once these are made and are in place in the garden, I will soak the garden this weekend and then plant something in each square foot.

Stay tuned!

When planting in a one foot square, you only plant 1, 4, 9 or 16 seeds. Drawing lines in the soil like tic tac toe and you will know pretty much where your seeds are versus your weeds. Being as I am not using Mel’s Mix this year, I know I will have MANY weeds! so I need to know where my seedlings will come up versus the weeds.

The mounds I dug are too big for these grids and they were made before I knew about the 4 x 4 and 3 x 3 so I realize that I can now make paths behind the mounds as well. The only reason I will do this is because of all the morning glories coming out of the rocks on the west side.

I have been gardening for years but this book has taught me so much about thinning, planting only a few seeds (not rows!), how to lay tomato plants and vertical gardening. As each one of these come up in the garden, I will blog about it.

If you can get your hands on this book, All New Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, you will not be disappointed! Believe me! It is well worth the price. (I wish I was getting a cut for this, lol).

It is a little too late for me to step back and redo my daughter’s entire garden using this method so I will start little by little. I am afraid I am in for a lot of weeding this summer. With square foot gardening, there is very little weeding, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Basically, you build a 4 foot x four foot box (or 3×3) 6 inches high. You fill it with Mel’s Mix which you make up with 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite and 1/3 compost. This is where the cost comes in but it is only once. You use the same mix every year after that.

You make a grid for the box by using wooden laths or old venetian blinds. Each square is 1 foot x 1 foot. In each square you plant 1, 4, 9, or 16 seeds depending on the size of the plants. No more rows, weeds and enough produce for one person in one box for the entire season!! Here I am planning on planting four 4x4s and five 3x3s! We are going to have veggies coming out our ears!

When you harvest one square, you add compost and plant a different plant. Pretty amazing, right? I am now looking for old venetian blinds or wooden laths. Fun, fun, fun!

I got too busy in the garden last week while babysitting my grandson, so did not have time to blog. Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

This is my Community Garden. It is two rectangular plots. Right now there are peas, potatoes, onions and forget me nots from last year.

I need to finish digging and when the rain stops, I want to make it into a square foot garden. If you have not read about the advantages of square foot gardening you should. You plant 1, 4, 9 or 16 plants, depending on size, in one square foot. I have to measure it today and figure out if it will be 4 x 4 or 3 x 3.

I really want to grow a lot of tomatoes in this garden but I need to figure out what else I want to grow there as there is already so much room at my daughter's garden. Once I figure it out I will let you know.

Today, I took out the forget me nots and took them to my daughter's house. There were 4 large ones. I planted them in the front yard. They look really nice there.

For now, I will leave you with a picture of some of the other garden plots there. I noticed no one is using square foot gardening.

On Sunday we loaded up the truck with all that we dug and took it to the landfill. 440 pounds!!! No wonder we were tired. I know we are going to have to fight blackberry plants, dandelion plants and morning glory plants all summer but it is worth it to grow your own vegetables and fruits.

I have formed beds that are about three feet wide. Tomorrow I will show you the finished beds. I can’t wait to get started on planting!

We are planting Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Arugula, Chives, Onions, Corn, Potatoes, Beans, Peas, Peppers, Calendula, Hot peppers, Sunflowers, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, Oregano, Lavender, Nasturtiums, Dill, Strawberries, Blueberries and more! I have researched Companion Planting quite a bit. I will share with you the way we will be planting these seeds to maximize their growth. Until tomorrow!