I managed the energy to get our first 4′ square foot garden yesterday. It wasn’t even that hot out but I was done by the time I was done. Today is going to be 3 times hotter than yesterday, so I got out into the backyard really early and have the second one dug up already.

I think I might just have to take a nap to get my energy back, well maybe not. I can’t stand taking naps, it seems like I am losing hours of my life, so I will wait until my heart rate comes back to normal and I cool off a bit and then I will go for a nice long walk and take lots of pictures of our neighbourhood gardens and flowers.

I use our trusty little spade to do the cutting and digging. It was so much easier than using the round mouth shovel I usually use for digging.

First I measured two four foot squares with a few feet between them for ease of kneeling and mowing.

I used a few bamboo rods I have for staking up plants like tomatoes and beans.

Then I measured from the right side of our garage to the property fence on the same side, found the centre and from there I just made two four foot squares and marked them with string to make it ease to dig the outer edges.

The rest of the job of digging wasn’t that hard, it’s just the limitations I have from heart medication that makes it hard on me. I just have to do it small bursts. It takes me longer but I do get the job done.

Jenny will be so happy to see the second one done as she thought it would be way to hot for me to work in the backyard garden. We can do our happy dance, or maybe we will have to a square dance. Ha Ha

Now that we have all the digging done it doesn’t look too square but once we bet the 2×8 boards around the outside it will square up pretty good.

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If you’re getting ready to go on a new garden venture, you need to prepare your soil to ideally house your plants. The best thing you can do in the soil preparation process is to reach the perfect mixture of sand, silt,
and clay. Preferably there would be 40 percent sand, 40 percent silt, and 20 percent clay. There are several tests used by experienced gardeners to resolve if the soil has an acceptable composition. Take some soil and squeeze it in your hand. If it doesn’t hold its shape and crumbles without any outside force, your sand ratio is probably a little high. If you poke the compressed ball with your finger and it doesn’t fall apart easily, your
soil contains too much clay.

If you’re still unsure concerning your soil content, you can determine each ingredient by using this simple method. Put a cup or two of dirt into a jar of water. Shake the water up until the soil is suspended, then let
let it sit undisturbed until you can see 3 separate layers. The primary layer is clay, the next is silt, and on the bottom is sand. You should be able to look for each component within the soil, and determine what best action to take.

After you’ve analyzed the content of your soil, if you decide that it is low on a certain ingredient then you should definitely do something to fix it. If dealing with too much silt or sand, it’s best to add some peat moss
or compost. If you’ve got too much clay, add a mixture of peat moss and sand. Wetting your peat will help your new ingredient to allow the mixture to be infiltrated better. If you can’t seem to manage to attain a
acceptable mix, just take a short trip to your local gardening center. You should be able to find a product to solve your problem.

The water content of the soil is another important thing to consider when preparing for your growing area. If your growing area is at the bottom of an incline, it is most likely to become way too absorbent and over-water your plants. If this is the case, you should probably elevate your garden a few inches (4 or 5) over the rest of the ground. This will allow for more drainage and less saturation.

Enriching your soil with nutrients is also a cornerstone of the process, in that urban soils have little to no nutrients already in them naturally. One to two weeks prior to planting, you should add a good amount of fertilizer to your garden. Mix it all together and allow it sit for a time. Once you have done this, your soil will be completely ready for whatever seeds you want to plant.

Attention to the soil is till an issue even after your seeds have been planted. At first, your seeds are very nutrient hungry around them to sprout into a real plant. If they run out of food, how are they supposed to grow? About a week after planting, you should add the same amount of fertilizer that you added before. After this you should maintain your fertilization, but not as frequently. If you add a tiny bit every couple of weeks, that should be plenty to keep your growing area thriving.

Basically, the entire process of soil care can be compressed into just several steps… ensure the makeup of the soil is satisfactory, make sure you have proper drainage in your sowing area, add fertilizer before and after
planting, then keep your fertilizer on a strict schedule. Follow these simple steps, and you’ll have a plethora of healthy plants in no time. And if you still confused about any particular details, just go to your local garden center and enquire there. Most of the employees will be more than happy to give you advice.

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Does size matter when it comes to starting your own garden in your backyard? Well if you learn to start a garden in such as way as to make the best use of your available space then no size doesn’t matter so much.

It truly amazing me when I remember back to weeding the garden as a kid. It didn’t amaze me then but today when I think back to how huge our garden was and how much wasted space there was I am sure they wasted far more than half the space they had.

Now I am not saying that was a bad thing. We lived on a 100 acre farm and had plenty of room to waste space but today we live in cities and towns and it can be quite costly to have extra space to just waste.

My wife and I bought the property we now own along with the lot beside it specifically for starting a vegetable garden. We are now converting a big part of that second lot into flower gardens. What??

Well Jenny and I have been learning about square foot gardening, which my wife and I refer to as square metre gardening as we are proud Canadians, and see the benefits. Now we don’t need nearly the space we thought we did.

We have also been using containers for some of our vegetables because it allows us to move them around so they get the best possible growing conditions. Last years, crop of tomatoes was great, this year we will have even more varieties.

This year we are even planting our potatoes into big containers, it’s going to be an interesting summer I believe and most likely a learning experience.

So if you are thinking size does matter when it comes to starting a garden in your backyard you might want to think again and check out container gardening as well as square foot gardening.

We are so excited about our vegetable gardens this year. We decided to go with two square foot gardens. Each are 4 feet square with a strip of lawn between them wide enough to mow. They should look great.

SFG tend to make it easier to reach into the center of each garden for weeding, adding compost or harvesting. Plus if for any reason we need to erect a fence to protect against unwanted critters it won’t take long as the gardens are small and compact.

By the way the major point that attracted us to SFGing is the lack of weeds.

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Choosing the right kind of plant to make your garden look great can be difficult, and trying to arrange the garden using different types of plants can be difficult as well.  Many people would like to make their garden their own small nature preserve, but they do not want to spend a great deal of money for the plants.  Many of these people seek out plants that can be used in their gardening that are less expensive but can still last for a number of years.

There are many places available where a person can find plants that the person would be comfortable placing in their garden.  Knowing where to look for these varieties is half of the battle because a place that sells gardening supplies may be difficult to find.  Because these places are not generally listed in the phone book under the heading “gardening tools”, people that would like to find the absolute best price on plants that are good for gardening will need to look in places that are more unconventional.

Check Nursery Websites To Choose Plants For Gardening

For most people, the best place to find plants that are good for gardening is on a nursery website.  Many of these online websites are run as small businesses and the low overhead of the business ensures that the company can keep their prices low while making a profit on the plants that they sell.  Some of the most unique plants you can find are found at these stores.Plants are packaged in such a way that they are not affected in transit to your home by nursery websites after you order them.

Many people prefer to find plants that are good for gardening online because it allows them to compare many varieties from their own home.  Consumers should read all of the terms of the stores that they purchase from because some have a minimum dollar amount that you will need to spend to purchase plants that are good for gardening.  If you are not looking to spend much on the plants or cannot find the plants that you want on the website, you should look somewhere else for the plants for your gardening.

One of the most important things to take into consideration when purchasing plants for gardening is whether the website has a fair return policy for plants that arrive damaged or dead.In absence of any such policy, you may face difficulties in getting your money back for items that are not as described on the website.

Organic vegetable gardening is now a super fast growing market and commodity all over the entire world. We are all becoming more and more alert of the dangers in regular farming and gardening, people are becoming more conscious of the merits of the organic vegetable gardening. When we say Organic vegetable gardening, what does that mean? well it means that during the growth period of the vegetables there was very little to no chemicals used. Farmers the grow organic gardens must use certain herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides to promote organic gardening.

Raising an all organic vegetable garden is a very good way to try to change any negative effects that people and the environment may have by using other substances and chemicals in the garden. When deciding use organic vegetable you are a consumer who knows about safe gardening along with the farmers/workers who grow them.

The way to organic vegetable gardening ; it can be done is a lot of Various ways, The Way to Grow Vegetables Organically. For people who do not have a lot of room or don’t have a back yard, your in luck because you can plant your vegetables in small flower boxes or little pots and put them all over your house, you are now doing your very own organic vegetable gardening. If you want to focus on a small scale organic vegetable gardening sometimes its better because you can really focus your skills and attention of just a few plants. That is a what is good for the full time working people who don’t have a lot of time to attend to there plants.

Many people are under the impression that planting vegetables in pots and small flower boxes will not bear good sized vegetables, this is absolutely not the case, if you give them just a little care and attention they will thrive in that environment. Flower boxes and small pots have limited room for vegetables they leave the plant with limited nutrients which sometimes makes it necessary for organic fertilizer to be added to the soil.

Organic vegetable gardening is great especially for vegetables that thrive in small pots For those individuals with enough space for plots in their garden, this may be a great opportunity to have your very own organic garden. Everyone wants fresh organic vegetables in there yard all you need is the right place in your yard. Organic vegetable gardening can be very enjoyable and beneficial if done properly and with no traces of chemicals and other harmful sprays

If you do not have alot of yard space you can take full advantage of a hanging garden in which you don’t even need soil. These organic vegetable gardening methods may need more care than any other methods mentioned here. The plants will need you to regularly supply them with nutrients this is just because you need to. When deciding to go organic,organic gardening methods have a lot to be gained from. The benefits will not only affect you they will affect you and your family and they will also affect the environment.