big country's garden; First year Square Foot Garden

[big country]

This post was originally posted for the SFG forum, if there are questions or terms I used that they understand (since everyone there is doing the same thing...) but you don't just ask and I will explain the best I can. I cannot plant until around May 15th for most crops, but my seeds have all been ordered from Bountiful Gardens (http://www.bountifulgardens.org/). They are all open-pollinated (some Heirloom) and do not have seed coatings or anything like that. Absolutely NO GMO's. They are doing research on "BioIntensive" growing techniques which are perfect for Square Foot Gardening as it is very closely packed plants and biointensive.

In the beds I will be planting beets, green beans, green peppers (hybrids), carrots, onions (hybrids from sets), and lettuce.
In my traditional tilled patch I will be planting tomatoes (hybrids), corn, and winter squash.
I do not plant GMOs. My goal with gardening is for canning, not for continious eating throughout the summer so all plants will likely be planted at the same time for maximum harvest at once for the canner. I'm hoping to get 2 plantings of beans and maybe carrots this year. Both beans and carrots are "early" varieties for this reason.
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I'm new to SFGing. I bought and read the book over a year ago, and I just finished reading it again about a month ago. We finally bought a house so I decided it was time to actually DO and put in a garden.

I decided on a location, sunny all day until the sun settles over the mountain (around 6:30-7pmish). The beds are pointing to the south and run "longways" north to south. I originally bought wood to build 3 4'x8'x8" beds, but after seeing the costs associated with this I'm only going to put in two of them this year I think. I have the wood for bed # 3 and will likely put it in next year if all goes well this year.
The beds are pressure treated, but the chemicals they use now aren't nearly as bad as they used to be so I'm just going to deal with the minor leaching issues. I didn't want to deal with remaking the beds every 2 years if I used pine, and the cedar was more costly then the pressure treated. I think the treated will last the longest so that is why I went with it.

Before you see the pictures, I need to mention that the backdrop is my neighbors property (the only neighbor I can see...). That is his junk, not mine.

Issue #1: The ground was no where close to level. I had to level the ground and the beds. I used regular topsoil for this since I didn't want cheap fill in my yard (rocks and all!). The topsoil was $40/cubic yard. I needed 2 cubic yards to level the two beds. It seems like a lot in the truck...and disappears fast once you spread it!
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0034.jpg
The first scoops of dirt. You can see the outlines of the beds in the grass behind me. Don't worry, they are 3ft apart, they just weren't sitting in their actual spots when they killed the grass!
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0036.jpg
Leveling the bed, 1 cu.yd of topsoil is already on the ground. This bed was completely leveled with the dirt from the first load. The top left corner was the high corner and all the others needed soil built up under them and around them.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0001.jpg
Getting closer to level, got a helper camping out on the new dirt. Most of the first load was put into a hole on the left side of the picture. This is where bed #3 will go next year. I will need another load of topsoil to level that spot out as well as it still isn't even close.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0038.jpg
Bed #1 is leveled and the truck is moved top go get load 2 of the top soil. I found out an S-10 truck really doesn't appreciate carrying 1cu.yd. of soil. I think I exceeded the rated capacity of the truck by about double.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0003.jpg
Load 2 is here and bed # 2 is leveled. Sweeping out the last of the dirt in the VERY low spot where bed #3 will go next spring (and possibly this one if I still feel like building another bed I suppose)
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0007.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0006-1.jpg
5 Types of compost that will be going into the beds and the vermiculite and peat. Here is a link to my post regarding the makeup of my compost (http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t11130-finished-my-mm-compost-was-a-headache). It is sub-optimal, but I live away from major civilization and options are limited.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0005.jpg
When I was unloading the peat from my truck I tossed the bail on the floor and this came rocketing out of the bag. Luckily I was the only one in the garage and I was standing in my truck. It was quite a shock.
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0018.jpg
I had to put this picture up because it was incredibly cute. I'm wetting and fluffing the peat before I measured it out for the Mel's Mix. My daughter wanted to see what was going on.

[Heimdhal]

Now thats a nail!

Good on ya for the garden man! Watch your water with raised beds. They tend to take a little more frequent watering, even in more hospitable climates than down here, especialy in summer. If you can hook up a rain catchmet from a few downspouts or something, that will really ease the burden on your well when the heat starts rising.

It looks like you got a really good mix of soil, vermaculture and peat, that will help a LOT. Looks like you'll get full sun out there too, which is nice.

You'll be alright with treated lumber. Some of the more hardcore raised bed folk will talk about it leeching, and honestly, it might, but I personaly wouldnt over worry about. PLENTY of square foot and budget gardners have used it just fine. Hell, I had to use bricks for my little bed and that cost adds up QUICK, so its good to save money where you can.


Keep us updated man. What do you plan on putting in for the spring and summer seasons?

[osoab]

I wouldn't go with the concentrations of plants per square foot that they say in the book.

I didn't have good results when the plants are packed in as suggested. You need to look more into what your area and specific site will tolerate.
I'm not disparaging the book, but your results may vary.

What kind of ferts are you using? What are you planting in the beds? How are you going to protect the beds from critters? Yes, the critters can be a son of a bitch.

I also like this garden tool for the beds.

http://www.agrisupply.com/images/l/24026.jpg

[big country]

Over the beds I plan on doing like they do in the book. I'll be building PVC "hoops" that slide into a larger piece of PVC attached to the sides of the bed. This way, hopefully, I can remove the hoops quickly and easily for tending and storing. I will cover the hoops in the black plastic "deer netting". Its cheap and works. I plan on putting a "notch" in the larger PVC holders so that the netting will come down below the sides of the bed to keep the smaller critters out. I'm hoping this will work for the rabbits and deer...and the neighbors horse.

For fertilizer I bought "Chickity Doo Doo (http://chickitydoodoo.com/)". Its organic 5-3-2.5 fert. It is mixed in the "soil" already to let it evenly disperse and "cool" for a month before I plant. I was able to fill one bed today with 5 different kinds of compost, peat moss, and vermiculite in 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 proportions like the book said. The Chickity Doo was one of my "composts" as I was struggling to find 5 different kinds. I read that since it is a "composted product" that the manufacturer said it was impossible to over fertilize with it according to the folks on the SFG forums. I'm hoping it will be enough.

That's a bummer to hear that you say you cannot plant as closely as they do in the book. That is one of the major draws to this style of gardening. I'm going to give it a shot this year "by the book" and see what happens. I will of course learn from everything I'm doing. I'm in Zone 5 (or some say 5B). In the foothills of the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia.

[big country]

Here is the rest of the post that I made at the SFG forums. Its descriptions of my 5 mixes of compost for the SFG soil mix as well as info about my compost pile:

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Well I finished gathering my compost tonight. It was quite the headache trying to find 5 different kinds (looks like a common complaint after reading down through this board). I tried my best and visited every big box and greenhouse/garden store within 25 miles of me. It is a little less then ideal, but I think I will be OK.

Here is my mix:
Vermiculite (of course...)
Peat Moss (easiest thing for me to find...)
Compost:
Mushroom Compost - Wheat straw, Gypsum, dolomite, Crushed Feathers, Cottonseed Meal, Peanut Meal, and "other" select ingredients
Cow Manure Compost - Didn't say exactly what was in it...I presume mainly cow poo and some sort of carbon
Composted Manure - Cow manure, Poultry Manure, Sawdust, wood chips, and excess silage
Compost & Manure - Bark fines, Poultry & Other Livestock, potash
Chickity Doo Doo - 5-3-2.5 Organic Fertilizer from composted poultry poo

I had a very hard time getting away from the cow and poultry manure...that seems to be all that was available. I tried to make sure the ingredients were different, even if the bags were similar. All were from different brands (and different composting companies...I checked to make sure two bags weren't from the same company just branded differently for different stores). I know my Nitrogen is coming from mostly Cow and Chicken droppings, but I couldn't find anything else. I couldn't find horse, rabbit, or worm castings even.
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My compost pile:

Yes, I forgot to mention that I have already started my own compost pile but it won't be done this year likely. I'm doing "trash can composting" and I have fashioned one can already and it is about half full. We are still working on filling it and then I will make a second can to fill while the first can finishes. I drilled 2 1/4 inch holes with a hole saw all over the can and then used a plastic pop-rivet gun to attach fiberglass screen over the inside of the holes (to keep critters out and allow good air circulation)

In the first can compost can:
Mulched "forest floor" as my carbon source. --- Basically I took my yard rake up in the woods and raked the "floor" into a pile, bagged it and dragged it down to my mulching push mower. I mulched this and am using it as my bulk carbon source. The composter is about 3/4 of this mix of mostly leaves but also small sticks (mulched) and whatever else happened to have dropped there in the woods. Mostly dried leaves though.
The other 1/4 is kitchen scraps and leftover food. So far there have been lots of tea bags and coffee grinds and filters (We make LOTS of iced tea so we have a lot of tea bags...we go through about 3 gallons a week). Also there has been veggie scraps, left overs from spinach lasagna (no meat), some leftover biscuits and various bread/noodle left overs, Apple cores and peels, and about 6 shovel fulls of Horse manure (The neighbors horse "free ranges" in our yard and leaves us lots of surprises...I was mad at first...now that I'm composting I'm more OK with it. HA)

[Korbin Dallas]

Great pics! I look forward to progress updates. I started a couple of SFG beds this year, and I used this planner:

http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KGPJS

[big country]

Update on the gardening. I bought seeds from "Bountiful Gardens" and I have been disappointed in some of the seed I got. I was less then impressed with the germination rates on the carrots that I purchased (both varieties). And the beets and lettuce germinated at a passable rate. I ended up planting carrots (2 seeds per hole) and then having to go back a month later and fill in the places that didn't germinate either seed. It was more places then I would have liked!!! I was hoping to have all the harvest at once for canning/storing purposes but it looks like I'm going to be spaced out on the carrots with two separate harvests. The beets I planted did OK, but suffered from germination issues like the carrots, I'll have two distinct harvests from those as well as the second planting is 30 days behind the first.

We've been eating fresh lettuce everyday and it is growing faster then we can eat it. No complaints there! though I did have an ENTIRE SQUARE of lettuce not germinate...but the other squares did OK. I got 2.5 out of 4 squares that filled out nicely with lettuce...and it looks like I didn't even plant the other half....not sure what happened there.
One of the varieties didn't germinate at all, not one plant in any of the 4 squares I planted it in...though I decided that was fine and that I didn't need 8 sqft of lettuce! We've been eating out of 2.5 sqft everyday for the last to weeks and its growing as fast as we eat it.

No issues with the green beans germinating and growing (bush variety)...though I never have issues with those.
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Not Sq ft Gardening related, but I also have a traditional garden as well, I got it all put in finally. I'm about 30 days behind in getting it in (last frost May 15thish) but I still have plenty of growing season left I think and it will all be OK.
I had some issues and it was tons of work getting it done, but its in as of today.
The ground where I put the garden hadn't been broken for a long time was all weeds in a field. I get the weeds cut down and started tilling with a Troy-Bilt Pony tiller from the 1970's, unfortunately after getting the ground broken and 2 passes with the tiller done (about half the depth I wanted) the transmission belts went out and I took it into the shop to get it fixed. There hadn't been maintenance done on this tiller in a long time so I had them replace the belts, tune it up, replace the muffler (it had rusted off...) and shim and seal the axles as the gear oil kept leaking out. They did a great job and I got the garden finished. While the tiller was in the shop the neighbors horse had been in my tilled patch!!!!! so I decided the best way to handle it was just to build an electric fence around the garden for the dogs, deer, and that dumb horse.
Fence is poly tape horse fence, and I have a 3 mile solar charger powering it...plenty for this small garden. Fence went up easy and it was the first real fence I have ever built. Not too bad.

In the traditional Garden are 8 tomato plants (better boy), 5 Winter Acorn Squash plants, and 4 rows of corn (Country Gentleman). The squash vines will be trained to grow towards the corn and underneath it "three sisters" style.
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Now for pictures!

Shot of both beds, I designed and made the fencing for these myself. It was super easy and works awesome! I can go into detail about it if anyone is interested. I decided not to build PVC "hoops" as suggested in the boox and just built panels. These come off in about 2 seconds and go back on just as quickly. They were my own design and worked out REALLY well so far.
Lettuce in the front, beans down the middle two rows, and carrots on the outside rows lengthwise. Beets in the rear 4 sqs.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0009.jpg

Front of the bed
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0015.jpg

Rear, close up of the beets, and the poorly germinating carrots.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0016.jpg

Traditional Garden, Tomatoes in the front two rows, squash there in the third row. I added leftover compost I had from the Sq. Ft. Gardening mixture (no peat or vermiculite here...) to the rows for nutrients and moisture. I have hard clay soil so these compost should help. All natural organic "Chickity Doo Doo" fertilizer is also in the holes with the tomatoes and on top of the rows of squash and corn. The corn isn't planted yet in this pic, but takes up the rest of the garden. There are 4 rows of it planted behind the squash there. You can see the fence charger in the post behind me, that faces pretty close to directly south. Basically the sun is rising on the front right corner of the garden and setting over the rear left corner.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0028.jpg


I like this picture, really captures it all. Beds in the front, traditional row garden nearby with the fence. And my Meyers Lemon tree in the pot in the left of the picture. If the neighbors junk wasn't in the picture this would be a pretty shot. The countryside out here is still nice in my opinion though! If the raised beds do well this year I'm planning on putting another one in between the bed and the clothes line next spring. If They start doing really well there will be another set of 3 in front of the ones I will have there already, but we'll have to see about that. The "mels mix" soil in the beds is pretty expensive to mix up, not sure I want to pay for that again :(
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v89/maverick2003/IMG_0019-1.jpg

[Heimdhal]

very nice!

[singular_me]

Hey, congrats on your gardening endeavors...

if you dont have it yet, you might consider this farmer bible: The Encyclopedia of Country Living...

[big country]

Just wanted to give another update on the garden.

The lettuce is done, but provided us a lot of food.
The green beans have been pulled and replanted. We harvested 13 quarts of green beans from the first planting. I hope to have a similar amount from the second harvest.
We got 4 quarts of beets from the first harvest, we ate them all though so none got canned. I expect to get 5-6 quarts from the second harvest.
We're getting ready to pull carrots this week and I will probably replant that area in beets for a late fall harvest for canning.

Tomatoes are doing well, going to have a good amount of those.
Winter squash is going INSANE. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all of the squash...
The corn is doing well, I've honestly never seen corn plants so big. These are huge, not sure if it is just favorable weather or if it is the variety (Country Gentleman). They are starting to form ears with the silk just emerging.

[chad]

that happened to us last year on the squash. i think we ate it every night for something like 1 1/2 months. looks good!

[osoab]

Just wanted to give another update on the garden.

The lettuce is done, but provided us a lot of food.
The green beans have been pulled and replanted. We harvested 13 quarts of green beans from the first planting. I hope to have a similar amount from the second harvest.
We got 4 quarts of beets from the first harvest, we ate them all though so none got canned. I expect to get 5-6 quarts from the second harvest.
We're getting ready to pull carrots this week and I will probably replant that area in beets for a late fall harvest for canning.

Tomatoes are doing well, going to have a good amount of those.
Winter squash is going INSANE. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with all of the squash...
The corn is doing well, I've honestly never seen corn plants so big. These are huge, not sure if it is just favorable weather or if it is the variety (Country Gentleman). They are starting to form ears with the silk just emerging.

You must not be in a drought area.

[big country]

I'm in West Virginia.

We've gotten so much rain that its causing my leach field for my septic to have issues handling the water.

[ImaCannin]

In the fall when you pick the winter squash, put it in your garage in a box . As long as your garage doesnt freeze, your squash will stay good. We still have some in our garage since last OCT. I had one on my counter from oct to April and I finally opened it up and used it in my dogs food. Nothing was wrong with it. I grow Waltham and they dehydrate very well. My dogs love them as snacks!

[big country]

In the fall when you pick the winter squash, put it in your garage in a box . As long as your garage doesnt freeze, your squash will stay good. We still have some in our garage since last OCT. I had one on my counter from oct to April and I finally opened it up and used it in my dogs food. Nothing was wrong with it. I grow Waltham and they dehydrate very well. My dogs love them as snacks!

Our house actually has an "inside" root cellar. It is fully insulated on the inside with a tight sealing door. There are small vents I can open to the outside to let in cold air if it is getting too warm. That part of the basement is 90% underground. It works awesome as a panty and has nice large wooden slat bins to keep the items off the ground yet still allow air to circulate.

Thanks for the idea! These are acorn squash, I prefer them over butternut.

[ImaCannin]

Nice... I wish I had a root cellar.... I checked on getting one and the concrete guy wanted over 12,000.00 for his part!