Square Foot Gardening Thread

[wyoDreamer]

Here are pictures of my Squarefoot gardening "growhouse" that my husband built for me.
It is almost 5' x 8'. The raised bed inside is 3.5' by 7' and 8 inches deep.

The top is 1/2" machine fabric covered with greenhouse plastic and screwed in place. It faces south, mostly.
All the side panels come out so that I can work in it. It is 3' tall in the front and 4' tall in the back.

Here I have one of the front panels removed. I will have another set of panels that are just machine fabric to keep out fuzzies who eat everything green around here. I am hoping that the bottles of water along the front of the house will help to expand my growing season this fall.

 

[krcote]

Quote:
AWESOME!!!

 

[NanaKat]

Quote:
Your hubby did a great job. nice window inserts too. Might want to switch to milk jugs for your solar water heating system. They will fill the space between the inside bed and the outside wall better and can be stacked.

 

[ContessaKris]

The growhouse it wonderful! I'd love to have something we could plant in all year. Keep telling hubby we need to gather old windows at garage sales and such to build a greenhouse but so far... nope.

It's so hot out this week, even into the late evenings so my garden has been neglected. The weeds are so high! Thankfully it's rained a couple times and I've watered. I just don't want to get out there and expire, trying to weed the garden! lol Anyone else having this problem!

 

[wyoDreamer]

Quote:
Your hubby did a great job. nice window inserts too. Might want to switch to milk jugs for your solar water heating system. They will fill the space between the inside bed and the outside wall better and can be stacked.

My experience this spring was that all the milk jugs got too brittle over the winter and shattered when I tried to pick them up. I spent a couple of days picking plastic off of the garden soil.

I still use milk jugs to water my potato bags, I'm just going to have to get new ones each year. I poke three little holes in the bottom of the jug and then fill the bottom 2" with rocks that just barely fit through the mouth of the bottle, this keeps them from blowing away after they drain out. I place them in the center of my potato bags and every morning fill with water. It drains out of the milk jug slowly so the roots have time to take up the water before it drains away.

I am going to fill around the bottles in the front with rotten granite ( the native soil around here

). I may sprinkle a little DE on top of that to see if it helps with the moths which like to hide under the jugs.

Question: If I put the soaker hose on top of the oak-lathe grid that I have, will the water get to the center of the square foot and water all of the plants? I have 2 rows that have 9 plants in each square, so I need to make sure that I get all the way to the center of every square.

 

[ContessaKris]

Oh no.

Went to the garden today to check it. Most of our tomatoes are GONE! Had all these lovely little green toms and now they're gone. We have a 3' rabbit fence up, so I guess it must be birds or squirrels? Any suggestions on how to stop this? A spray a net or something? Help.

 

[galanie]

Quote:
Oh No. If they are gone, it's squirrels. You'll have to use netting. Birds will only peck holes in them but leave most of it on the vine. Squirrels take off with them still green, eat a bit, then let that one rot and go back to ruin another one. Wasteful, destructive little monsters!

 

[ContessaKris]

i guess they think my garden is their own private smorgasbord. Buying net today!

 

[Kassaundra]

Two squirrel chasing dogs seems to work for me!

 

[ContessaKris]

I have two dogs but they are inside dogs and only go out to go the bathroom. They chase squirrels a bit but they're lazy shih tzus so they quit after a bit.