Saturday, March 28, 2009

It's The Other Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

This morning I am teaching a Square Foot Gardening class as an enrichment activity for my ward.

Let me know when you stop laughing.

And then I will tell you that last year I was quite successful with my SFG. Considering I didn't plant until mid-June, I was able to grow a few things. This year is a different story. This year I have four boxes instead of one, a designed layout, and a calendar that I have developed with what I need to plant each week to have a staggered harvest. Everyone will be green with envy. Pun Intended.

This year I am going to grow: strawberries, raspberries, leaf lettuce (several varieties), spinach, radishes, carrots, tomatoes, summer squash, zucchini, cucumbers, bell peppers, basil, cilantro, and bush beans. I am going to plant both cherry tomatoes and big tomatoes. I just did cherry last year and while I loved them for my salads, I want the bigger ones, too.

I also may try corn again - we'll see if I have room. If not, I may add another box to my garden next year just for corn. I already know I want to add one just for strawberries.

This year in my little greenhouse I have planted leaf lettuce, strawberries, and a few other things to try out. Basically, this is the year of experimentation - to see what grows and what doesn't grow in our conditions. It's so fun! I'm excited to get the kids involved. Josh wants to build his own box and grow a whole mess of stuff. I'm totally on board with that. I envision him learning all of this and going to a third world country on his mission and teaching them how to do it. Lofty, eh? Maybe I should make sure he can read first.

3 comments:

Allison said...

LOL at that last line. I think it's awesome that you are gardening. I LOVE to garden. My biggest problem right now is that I was an idiot and bought a dog. Which I have now banished outside during the day and who would eat anything I planted. Darn dog!

Lisa said...

I'm not laughing at all! I think that's an awesome Enrichment activity. The last one I went to, we learned how to make giftbags out of brown paper grocery bags. (Hint: Use a hole punch and ribbon.) Square foot gardening would have been much cooler.

Jenny said...

I am a fan of the strawberries, you buy them once and they come back on their own again after that. We bought like 4 of them and those 4 have now taken over an entire 4'x 8' garden box. Hmmm...I am thinking maybe lettuce might be a good one for us to try this year, too.