I also planted my last square two days ago, a variety of baby carrots
that don't require a lot of space. They are in the square with new straw. The other squares of carrots are starting to come up so I'm slowing taking the straw off of them. I don't want to injure the new growth. In the lower left photo you can see peas that were planted on October 15 emerging.
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( 2.9 / 131 )These photos were taken on October 13, 5 days after planting. In the top left photo you can see the squares where I planted carrots are covered with straw. I decided to cover them to keep the seeds moist because the afternoon sun in Ramona is still pretty hot. The two middle photos show the green leaf lettuce seeds starting to sprout. The bottom photo is the cabbage and brussel sprouts outside the raised bed. They are doing awesome!
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( 2.9 / 144 )The following photos were taken the morning on October 9, 2006. This was
a day after planting. It looks dark outside but it was just a dreary morning.
As I said, I am using the methods outlined in the book Square Foot Gardening. You can see where I outlined one-foot squares. From nursery starters I planted lettuce and onions. From seeds, I planted 2 varieties of beets, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cilantro, and peas. The area covered by straw is where the cabbage, brussel sprouts, and beets are planted directly in the ground.
I also added chicken wire around the outside to keep rabbits out. And, I have bird netting over the top to keep birds out.
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( 2.9 / 144 )After living in Ramona for 3 years, I decided it was time to start a vegetable garden. This is my very first garden and in order to be successful, I have relied heavily on advice from my friend Susan, as well as my neighbor Robin, who turned me onto Square Foot Gardening. I also read library books, some of the best being Vegetable Gardening For Dummies, Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening, Soil and Composting, and Square Foot Gardening. I combined bits and pieces of advice and information from all of these books to plan my garden.
Due to gophers and ground squirrels as well as heavy clay ground soil, I decided a raised bed would be best. In order to prepare the soil and make it easier to work with, I started watering the area heavily for about a week prior to my planned work day. I then borrowed my neighbors front-tined rototiller and tilled the entire area. I added gypsum and fertilizer and tilled again. Gypsum breaks up and loosens the clay and helps create better drainage but it takes a few years
for it to make a difference. I was impressed with how the soil was after tilling... it looked great! I found an old white spike that once was in a plant but was too faded to tell what it marked. Perhaps this site used to be a garden for a former owner. I also found an old can pop-top, the kind that you completely pull off the can. I haven't seen those since the 70's.
Next I dug out an area 3 feet x 6 feet and about 1 foot deep. I lined the bottom with chicken wire and started adding soil amendments over the wire. I put some well-aged chicken manure on the very bottom then layered it with ground soil, natural fertilizer, and compost and bagged soil I bought at Walter Anderson Nursery. I mixed the soil layers well with a pitch fork until it finally reached ground level. Then it was time to make a trip to Home Depot to buy materials for the raised sides.
I had originally planned on lining my bed with pressure treated wood, 2"x12". When I got to Home Depot, I had second thoughts. First of all, although they say pressure treated wood is safe there's really no guarantee the chemicals won't leach into my veggies. Second, the wood is quite expensive. I then considered using cinder blocks. I could've done this at about 1/4 the cost of using pressure treated wood but they are heavy and seemed to complicate the whole project. I finally found some 1"x12" pine boards that were cheap and easy to carry. I
bought some other stuff like screws and wood to anchor my corners and that was it.
The next day, I put together the sides for the bed. I stapled-gunned the chicken wire to the boards and then started adding more layers of ground soil, compost and natural fertilizer. I mixed it well and when it finally reached to top of the wood, I watered and let the soil settle.
Because I had also tilled an area outside of the raised bed and added a small amount of gypsum and fertilizer, I decided to plant brussel sprouts, cabbage, and beets as sort-of an experiment to see if veggies grow better in the amended soil or ground soil. There is no chicken wire in the soil so these plants could be dinner for gophers and ground squirrels.
The following photos were taken September 26, after I tilled the soil and created the raised bed.
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