Square Foot Gardening Thread

[redhen]

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great job!! I showed hubby that brick firepit.. hes jealous..

 

[krcote]

Thanks redhen! It is coming down at the end of the season though. It was built in the 60's and is no longer structurally sound. We are looking to build something lower to the ground for better heat distribution to many guests. And also, the design would work better for us if guests could be seated all of the way around

 

[krcote]

As promised, I am posting the details of my hot chicken manure experiment. We had some less than perfect boards left from our raised bed construction, so we built a 4' x 8' box right next to the chicken run. I wanted something I could grow things for them in. I decided on sunflowers and lettuce. Easy things that require little to no work. Everything that I read tells me not to use any manure (besides rabbit) fresh from the source because it will "burn" my crop. I say poo on that and thought the chickens' box would be a great place to experiment. Besides, I needed volume for that box and I always have lots of used litter to spare! I am most interested to see if at this ratio, crops grow well. If so, I will use litter straight from the coop in the people boxes next season with no worry!
The first and second photos show the partially mixed contents to the box: 7 bags of 40lb/bag cheap filler soil (less than $2/bag), 1 cubic yard peat moss (less than $5), and finally 4, 5 gallon buckets of the dreaded heavily pooped on pine shavings bedding... shoveled straight from the coop. Gasp!!!

Here are two photos of the box mixed and of what we planted

 

[Wildlife]

I love the way gardening is very often "EXPERIMENTAL" It seems to be the case almost every time for me!I also love the way these experiments usually turn out, with outcomes very much better than expected.Here's to hoping you have one of those Wildly successful outcomes! You are a SMART gardener with a healthy dose of common sense.We are all learning a lot from you. Looking forward to updates on your continued SUCCESS! javascript:insert_text('

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[Two Creeks Farm]

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Every two years I clean out my beds, dress half way with fresh manure from the cows and top dress with well aged compost or good topsoil. I make sure to plant things that thrive on nitrogen and they sure do produce. What I take out of the beds usually ends up as the top layer on the next bed im working on. We prefer the beds....much easier to handle and maintain albiet they can get pricey depending on what you design and build. All of my new beds will use boards that I mill myself. Rystic looking for some, functional for me.

 

[Turkeyrangler]

Here are a couple pics from my garden about 5 years ago. It is a raised bed and I planted wide rows using things from the square foot gardening book. I think it does extremely well for being in Northern Minnesota. With the coop compost it should do even better.

Sorry for the poor quality..it's was an old digital.

 

[Wildlife]

WOW Turkeyrangler that's a really NICE Garden you had! Isn't it AMAZING just how much you can produce in a limited space using these methods? LOVE IT!!!

 

[Kassaundra]

Here is how my potato tires looked today

 

[NanaKat]

Looking good. Will be interested in seeing the production. I have a 4 x 16 foot bed planted with potatoes. We can compare the outcomes.

 

[ChickyLaura]

Well, I am ready to prepare my beds tomorrow. I bought 4 beds approximately 4' x 8' x 8". DH bought a ton of mushroom soil (since we live near mushroom houses), and we bought plenty of peat moss. The weed barrier is down, so all we have to do is transfer the soil mixtures to the boxes, well, and level out the boxes prior to filling them.

I bought a lot of plants at the greenhouse today, so this weekend is it! I can't wait!!!