The next step in my new veggie garden is what to plant and where. According to Mel, the Square Foot Garden is not a true square foot garden unless it has a grid. I loved this idea, hence why my mom calls it the “Anal Garden”. It really makes the garden look organized and pretty; just my style. He is so clear on what goes where and how many to plant, that it makes the whole process so simple. But my garden is not a perfect square foot, so we cheated a bit on the whole grid system. In the end we ended up with 24 squares, each measuring 10 x 12, close enough right? I used hemp string and nailed it across to form the grids. Here is an up close picture of the squares.
Now what should we plant? I anally mapped out all the nice veggies I wanted and then mapped out where to plant them based on a companion planting chart I found. But in the end it was a waste of time. Since I started so late getting the box built and since I am a novice gardener, I needed to transplant most of my veggies at this stage of the game. Next year I look forward to starting my own seedlings. But for now transplanting is fine, BUT I was at the mercy of the garden shops so my garden map went right out of the window. I just kept an idea of the veggies I wanted and made several trips to all of the garden stores/nurseries in our area picking up plants here and there whenever I had the chance. I took my time and slowly planted each square accordingly. There were a couple of veggies that had to be seeded; carrots and radishes. Here is what I finally ended up with.
8 x3 Raised Bed Square Foot Garden—Each Square is 10 x 12 (not quite a square foot)
Here are some great shots of my green thumb mom helping with the gardening! She pretty much did most of the transplanting! Thanks mom!
Mom loved that she was planting lettuce!
The zucchini looks like it’s off to a rough start.
After just a few days the radishes sprouted!
The bell peppers, parsley, and tomato plants transplanted easily and are doing well in the first week!
The leftover plants I had went into some extra containers I had lying around! I will be curious to see how the containers do vs the square foot!
Here is the final look at week 1 of planting done. I added the other veggies listed in the table above as well as the marigolds during the second week!
