Home Gardening For Everybody!
(Yes, even you!)
Did you know that a home veggie garden reduces your carbon foot print and reduces global warming. It also decreases your weekly grocery store bill (who doesn’t like saving money?) and increases your activity level (who doesn’t like to shed a few inches around the midsection). The perks of getting your hands dirty have never been more rewarding either, with varieties of fruits on and veggies on the market that are hard to find or super expensive when you try to find them in your local market.
The problem has always come up and told to us here at the nursery “I would garden, but I have a black thumb“. Rubbish, we say, nobody has a black thumb! The answer to your discolored digit is finally here, Square Foot Gardening. Although it has been around since many of you even pondered stepping the first foot into the garden (the book came out in 1981) it is now gaining popularity again. The whole idea behind the practice is to be able to have a garden that flourishes even if you don’t have the ideal soil in your yard.
In comes the super hero of our story, a raised bed garden. Instead of breaking your back digging, amending, plowing, repeat if necessary, why not build your own little farmland above that back breaking stuff we call Red Dirt?
Size doesn’t matter either, you can be on a small tract of land on the side of town with only 3’x3′ to play with or you can have acres and acres of farmland at your disposal. Thats one of the beautiful things about square foot gardening, it works for almost everyone (provided you have enough sunshine, not even raised beds will help you get a crop in the shade). Part of the logic behind the smaller beds is it creates an area that is accesable from all sides, which makes harvesting, weed pulling and fertilizing incredibly easy. Easy especially because you don’t have to bend QUITE to far to reach the ground.
Typically, the first garden is suggested to be 4’x4′ (again, size doesn’t really matter). This will be enough space to give you a good variety of crops and give you a taste of the process, of course if you like it you can build as many as you like. The filler for your box is an easy calculation of 1/3 Peat Moss, 1/3 Vermiculite and 1/3 Compost. This will mimic the perfect growing medium and reduce the plants water dependency on you, very little water waste occurs. Planting of companion plants is also greatly suggested, attractive flowers such as Marigolds and Mints deter many garden insects and give your garden a more pleasing look.
Here at South Pleasantburg Nursery, we sell a variety of different products to aid in the success of your garden including:
“Square Foot Gardening Blend” by Ladybug Natural products. This is the actual growing mixture that the creator of Square foot gardening endorses. The Ingredients: A blend of five superior compost, Coarse Vermiculite, Coir Fiber in a 2 sqare foot increment.
“Tost Compost” is the best soil amendment we have ever found for our difficult clay soils. It is the best way to grow newly planted vegetables, flowers, trees, and shrubs. Even better than Mushroom compost, Tost will not burn or add weeds to your new plantings. Includes fully composted and dehydrated cow manure, leaf mold, Granite meal, and “Kricket Krap”. It is the “Clay Soil Solution” and “Breakfast for Flowers”! You would have to purchase both peat moss and vermiculite, but this is really the best compost on the market.
“Tomato Thrive” is a concentrated natural microbial treatment which will become your solution for tomatoes with less watering. It is an earth-friendly living microbial treatment for the health of your soil. Not a fertilizer, Tomato Thrive restores biological activity and improves the rooting of your plants in the soil. Of course this is for use AFTER your garden is flourishing.
For more information about Square Foot Gardening we encorage you to pick up the book or stop in and let one of our staff help you plan a winning garden plan!
Don’t forget, we carry a full line of starter plants and seeds in both conventional and organic!
