Gardening from this Summer

I was reading over at another blog about a week ago about gardening and the problem of where their land is located. Well, I can understand that situation. You see, I grow my garden in the Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. My location there creates a host of problems.

1. Crappy soil...lots of huge rocks and clay
2. Short growing season
3. Unexpected temperature swings
4. Critters...especially White tail Deer

Critters like this girl here. She's cute but she's deadly to a garden.






So this year we decided to try out some square foot gardening. It was great fun and worked out so well. We built the boxes and made a chicken wire cover for one and fence wire covers for others. The boxes are only 4 feet by 4 feet and 6 inches deep. If you want to grow really long carrots and such you can build a 6 inch tall extention for the squares in which you intend to plant them. We also put the boxes on concrete blocks for ease of weeding ( which is minimal with this method ) and gathering the produce. This really saves your back and knees. Even someone in a wheel chair could tend this garden. You can also make smaller boxes. It just depends on your needs and space.

Here's our first box:





Notice we put handles on the boxes for ease of moving after the season ends. Here you can see the chicken wire cage we made to thwart the critters. Believe me, it was a pain in the butt to make but it worked well.





Here you can see the wire fencing cover we made for our other boxes that contained taller vegetables such as zucchini and tomatoes, beans and peas.





The vegetables grew like crazy! You get more veggies from less space. Plus you don't have to water as much because of the soil mixture you use. It retains water better and drains well so no fear of drowned plants. The only thing we had to do after we established the boxes was move one into more sunlight. After all, we are surrounded by trees and one box had too much shade.

I grew herbs, tomatoes, zucchini, tons of lettuce, radishes, onions, pickles, spinach, carrots and other things. We used heirloom seeds which I think grow a better product. One thing I noticed was that I did not have to use anything to keep bugs away...I didn't have any! We only made 3 boxes this year but next year we'll have 6. Here's some of my garden gifts.









The radishes were awesome and only take 4 weeks from seed to product. Carrots take longer but boy oh boy were they ever sweet. I can't wait until next year to do this again.

So, if you don't have a lot of space, have really crappy soil, hate the thought of too much gardening work but want fresh produce give this a try. It's well worth it and your taste buds will thank you!