Square Foot Gardening

We finally got our first garden planted! We decided to do a square foot garden because they take up less space and the results are supposed to be plants that produce a lot. So Mike bought a book and told me what we were going to do. First, we had to pilfer white stone from construction sites around the neighborhood to make the outline for the garden. We actually got permission to take the stone. Turns out, so did everyone else in our neighborhood. I've seen so many people walking around with wagons, and truck loads of unused materials lately. I guess that's a benefit of living in a neighborhood that's still being built.
After we laid out the stone, Mike mixed up some mortar to hold it together. Jake helped. (We actually put two four by four squares together for a bigger garden.)

Apparently, you can't just use any old dirt for these types of gardens. There's a specific mix called Mel's mix named after the guy who came up with this idea. It's compost, peat moss, vermiculite and I don't know what all else mixed together. The result is a very soft, fluffy rich looking soil.

Then Mike made our grid to lay down inside dividing the garden into 32 squares.

Then we planted! The sticks in some of the squares are to remind us that we still need to plant something there. Depending on the size of the plant, you could have anywhere from one to 16 plants per square. So far, we've got some tomato, peppers, onions, strawberries, cucumbers, watermelon, sunflowers, lavendar and different herbs. It's so exciting! I hope we can keep them all alive.

Hello future tomatoes!

Hello peppers! I can't wait to eat you.