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Square Foot Gardening is by far the most hassle free way to grow food. Read on and see why!
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Successfully Making Mels Mix
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
How to Make Your Own Professional Growing Soil: Mels' Mix
Peat Moss, Coarse Vermiculite and Blended Compost
Mels Mix consists of these 3 ingredients |
Mels Mix production in Pleasant Grove, Utah |
Mels Mix available in 1.5 cubic ft bags |
Friday, April 10, 2015
Conserving Water by Square Foot Gardening
"Here’s WHY ? The water right from a house faucet is cold, and filled with chlorine and any other chemicals the town uses to treat and purify home water. I learned this when raising tropical fish at home. You never fill a new aquarium tank with tap water and then put the fish right in. They will turn belly up and die from the cold water and
chlorine. Best to let the filled tank sit overnight and all the chlorine will evaporate into the air and then the water will be room temp and chemical free for the fish. (See now why we use a bucket of sun-warmed water instead of hosing down our SFG?)
Same thing goes for your precious plants in your SFG. That’s why the official-correct way to water a Square Foot Garden is from a bucket of sun warmed water. Besides you are using only 10 % of the water needed to water a traditional row garden and best of all, your hand watering gets you close to your plants, and just like children, you are nurturing your plants.
In addition, sprinkling the plant tops is just wasted, unneeded, and sometime s detrimental so in SFG, we hand water with a cup of sun warmed water right to that slight saucer shape you created at the base of the plant so all the water goes right to the root structure where it is needed. Doesn't all that make sense?
No other method of gardening tells you that. Stick with SFG and you can’t go wrong." -Mel
Friday, April 3, 2015
Best Materials for Your Square Foot Garden Grid
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Let's Get Growing!
I've planted a number of seeds already, some outside and some in my greenhouse. The outside plantings have been lettuces, carrots, spinach, cilantro,and potatoes. The winter was so mild my parsley is still alive. My chives are getting stronger,they are perennial and I really enjoy them in my salads and other dishes for a mild onion flavor. In my greenhouse I have started several varieties of tomatoes,zucchini, butternut squash, peppers, and pumpkin. I won't transplant these until the middle of May here in my climate zone.
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Today's Harvest
The sun was out today and I decided to grab my large basket and see what I could gather from my Square Foot Gardens. I've had a great season with tomatoes this year,
especially Roma's. They are the best for making thick tomato sauces. I wash them and blend them uncooked, skin and all then store in a ziplock bag in the freezer. Sometimes I'll add garlic onion and basil as well. My bell peppers have been the best ever for me. I've learned that they need a hotter soil (more nitrogen) so I made sure they had plenty of my composted chicken manure. I let some of my carrots (growing in a 12" deep box ) get a little too large and they may be a little tough to eat raw but should be okay steamed or add to a smoothie . I've heard the carrot tops are edible too and could be tossed in the smoothie as well. Then again, my chickens really like them too. I thought I better dig up some young onions before colder weather set in. I still have zucchini and crooneck plants thriving under the eave of my front porch as well as lemon cucumbers. Butternut squash is one of my new favorites to grow.
And we can't forget our beloved pumpkins for the month of October. I'll set them out on the front porch for a little while and then bake and purée them for the freezer to add to smoothies or for homemade pumpkin pie.
homegardenstogo.com
homegardenstogo.com
Friday, September 5, 2014
The Portable Garden
Here is a photo of my garden layout that I took about 3 years ago. It got plenty of sun at this time and the boxes were retaining their nutrients well for optimal vegetable growth.
This photo was taken today. As you can see the red maple tree nearby has gotten very large. It now shades my garden area too much during the day. I found that the trees roots were also find their way into my garden beds and using nutrients meant for my vegetables. I decided it was time to relocate these boxes to a sunnier spot away from the tree. Luckily I have a good space on the south side of my house.
It's a pretty simple process to move the gardens. This photo shows the soil still intact after lifting the box right off. I do that first and place the box in the new spot. Then I fill the wheelbarrow with the Mels Mix soil and take it to the new location and dump it in the box. Mels Mix can be used year after year and only needs to be replenished with 1/3 compost each season. I even tried to reuse weed cloth or landscape fabric that I had down here if it was still intact and of course put that down before the box. The brand of weed cloth I bought from Costco was in very good shape and worked fine. I will shovel up the bark chips too to place in the aisles of my new setting.
Here's the new location in process. See the little volunteer apple tree between the boxes? I'm going to let it grow a while there then transplant it somewhere else.