Organic Garden by the Foot?

This is the salad I spoke about in my last post – it is also my first of three raised bed gardens.  A fellow volunteer acquaintance of mine lent me his Square Foot Gardening book (author, Mel Bartholomew) to get me started. It has been a delight to learn how to grow more in less space. I have plenty of yard, however the sunlight isn’t the best in many areas.  As the tomatoes grow, I’ll put up some poles and netting so the tomatoes can grow up, not out. Done correctly, even pumpkins can be grown vertically. If you ever get the chance to go to Walt Disney World, one of the parks has a beautiful garden that grows different types of squash suspended in the air in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears.

The idea behind square foot gardening is to plant a different plant in each square foot section. Example… 1 broccoli plant is allowed to grow per square foot, spinach and beets can have 9 plants per square foot, while carrots, onions and radishes can each have 16 plants per square. Another benefit to growing this way is you use a lot less seeds.

The benefits of growing your own garden are endless! A huge benefit to growing raised bed and/or square foot is you need less starting soil, so… it is possible to have your garden be organic from the start! No waiting years for yard soil to become healthy enough to be labeled “organic.”

Go green, get clean and stay lean for 2010!

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