Square Foot Garden

I broke a few rules of the square foot garden - one being you should be able to access it from all around.  I can access/reach most of it without "climbing" in.  Will need to just for peas and beans, but that's not for a while.   There is a space between fence and raised bed with sweetpeas that are a couple inches up now, and the back has delphiniums, hollyhocks and poppies - we'll see what grows.  Not much sun down between them.  Thought it'd be stunning to have all the flowers behind.  We'll see!   Kids filled planter pots with all kinds of seeds, will move then to deck as soon as they do not need such babying and frequent watering.  PLanted dill, irish bells, nastursiums, poppies, and other assorted mysteries.

Spinach on the left front here, with peppers behind then peas.  Centre row I think is carrots at front, then maybe beets then the Magic Beans (came in a magic bag as gift to son - they will be a surprise!  Cannot say for sure without reading marker what is next.  Maybe rainbow chard?

Check out the corn in the barrel!  It is loving it so far!  I did cheat and plant this already at about a six inch height, but it's well over a foot now - or 30 cm :)

How Does Your Garden Grow?

We tried a new approach to our raised bed this year. We had to move it's location on account of the dogs...

and giant holes in the lawn...anyways!  The beautiful garden is now at the front of our yard, away from the pups who have their own huge run area filled with pea gravel and the kids play gym they like. (yes, they even go down the slide sometimes!)

The lawn is looking fantastic, providing enough oxygen for my family for the year (hehe).

The garden is being approached in the "square foot gardening" method.  Dividing your garden into plots and planting this way instead of rows increases your yield alot.  I think (read :hope) it cuts down on space available for weeds.

I read on line not to use soil mix, but vermiculite and peat and?? sand maybe??  I cannot remember what else, but alas I already had lovely soil, so we kept with it.  I did find some sites where people had success with soil as well.

Here are some images of the kids helping plant.  It is already growing, and as soon as the sun shines I'll get some picks of it growing.  So far so good.

One planting peas and beans, one writing the markers out.  TEAMWORK!!!!

I love this sweet baby's face when he got to put his hands into that soil!!!  HAPPINESS!!!!