Some thoughts on watering

I know, I know, how difficult can watering a garden be?

The thing is I currently have three criteria I am trying to meet while setting this up. First, because this is my lazy square foot garden I want a system that requires very little work on my part once it is set up. Second, I want to be as conservative in my water usage as I can. Third, it needs to be cheap.

One of the most conservative methods I have run across uses pottery vases called Ollas which are buried, filled with water and slowly feed the plants as water seeps through the pores of the vase. Combine that with rainwater harvesting and you have a good lazy way to water while conserving water at the same time.

Unfortunately, the Ollas are too large to work in a square foot garden. That and I am not set up for rainwater harvesting. The expense of setting up for both is beyond my budget at this time.

Another method that somewhat meets the lazy criteria is similar to hydroponics. As long as you keep the water reservoir full the roots of the plant suck up as much as they need. As the water level lowers the roots grow keeping in contact with the water.

Here is a video showing how you can build a self watering system for individual plants. Similar to hydroponics except instead of the roots growing to meet the water they use twine to suck the water up to the plant from below. This is also a great way to recycle old water and soda bottles.

I am working out the details to combine these methods to allow me to provide just enough water for the plants to thrive but to do so even if I'm out of town on a camping trip this summer.

I will post the details when we return from our trip in mid April. I still need to look at supplies and what I have laying around to see exactly how I will set this up. As I put it together I will take pictures to document my progress.

Until then check out the video and the link to the Ollas.

Photography by Patrick Bürgler

Getting ready for this years planting

I have been considering starting planting already this year to see what would happen. In fact the other day we topped off our two boxes with fresh compost and soil to begin getting prepared. Which reminds me, the first time you fill your boxes make sure to over fill them by an inch or two because when the soil settles it will be about an inch below the top of the boxes if you don't.

Anyway, when I got up yesterday the boxes were covered in frost and today we had snow mixed in with the rain. So now I will wait another week and hopefully I can start planting some things before we leave on our trip. My plan is to start the corn before we go and the sweet peas when we return. It may still be too early so I'll cross my fingers and hope for the best.

The picture above is of the garlic that is growing right now from the leavings of last year's garden.

The second one is the other box after topping it off. You can see the grid as well as a criss cross of string that is attached to upright poles that last years peas grew up.

Building the boxes

Once I decided on square foot gardening it was time to build the boxes. As I said before, I did not want to take up my yard space so what I did was to build four boxes on stilts hanging over my deck. Since I did this last year and do not have pictures I will briefly explain the process and show some pictures of the final product.

So far I have only used two of my four boxes so below is a picture of one of my finished empty boxes.



As you can see it is just a basic shallow wood box. If you are building them on the ground all you would need is the two by eights screwed together in a frame, laying on the ground. Once you've filled it with your soil mix, you would mark up the grid and plant accordingly.

To make two of the boxes shown above, you would need four two by eight's assuming they are 8 feet long, one sheet of plywood cut in half so both halves are 4 foot by 4 foot and plenty of wood screws.

Just cut the two by eight's in half and screw them together like a picture frame. Then lay the plywood on top and screw it into the frame. For the stilts I used four by fours, measured the various lengths, cut out squares in the corner of each box, slid them into the holes and secured with screws. Below you can see this from the top.



Once the boxes were in place, I measured out the grid and placed screws accordingly at the top of the frame to wrap the string around. In the middle of each square I drilled a drainage hole. Once I filled it with my soil and compost mix, I wrapped string around the screws marking the grid. You can just see the screws and grid in the picture below.



The boxes are pretty basic and straightforward. In all I spent around $150. That included enough wood and screws for four boxes, a jig saw and a rechargeable drill.

Just a couple of tips. If you need to buy a drill get a corded one. It will take you for ever to screw in the screws and drill the holes along with all the charging. Also, if you would like to save money, try watching Freecycle for wood and tools people may be giving away.

Good luck, and if you have any questions just ask.

Photos taken with Canon Powershot A570is

Getting started

About a year and 1/2 ago I started getting the gardening bug. I had been doing a lot of reading on alternative energy, alternative housing styles, healthier living and many other related topics. During this time of course I read many articles on gardening and the benefits of eating fresher foods. Once I got the bug, I began reading and researching as much as I could on gardening.

The trouble is I'm lazy. This meant I had to find something easy that would also produce food or I might never garden again. Enter Masanobu Fukuoka. His idea was to let mother nature do all the work, after all she has millions of years of experience. He would literally throw seeds into the fields, let them grow, throw down new seeds and harvest the previous crop while the new crop was growing under it. No plowing no weeding nothing. The plants took care of themselves much like they had since long before man had invented the plow.

How does that method fit into my small backyard? It doesn't, exactly. So I had to find something that would fit and still allow me to be the lazy guy I am. Then I ran into Mel Bartholomew's square foot gardening and found something that fit all my needs. Mel's system of garden boxes allows me to garden without taking up valuable yard space while limiting access to critters and weeds that would like to make the garden their own.

I slightly blended and modified the methods above to suit my needs. In future posts I will talk about the boxes and mixes I used and post pictures showing the results. Unfortunately, I do not have pictures showing the step by step process of building the boxes. That's OK, because between the pictures and Mel's site you should have no problem building boxes that can work for you. Feel free to ask questions and I will help where I can.


Photos taken with Canon Powershot A570is

My Lazy Square Foot Garden

My lazy square foot garden is where I will keep track of my experiences both good and bad as I set about proving even an average guy like me can grow edible food with little or no experience and even less space. This is one of many steps I am taking along my journey of going green.

My first experience with gardening was last summer where I grew a small variety of vegetables and showed my children that produce really doesn't come from the supermarket shelf.

Along with chronicling my crazy adventure, I hope to show there are more benefits than simply growing my own vegetables. For example, my children get to enjoy picking the produce eaten with our meals as well as watch the critters that are lured into our yard. In addition, I hope to lower our summertime air conditioning bill by shading our living room windows as well as our back deck preventing heat from radiating into our living room.

Because we have a small backyard I chose to use the square foot gardening method. As you will see I did not use Mel's Mix. Instead, I used a variety of soil and compost mixes that were bought in discount stores at low prices because the bags were torn. The garden boxes are on legs on my back deck so they do not take up yard space leaving that for my children and the rest of the deck for us.

Unless otherwise noted, all photos on the site are taken by me or my family. We're not professionals and calling us amateurs is giving us a bit more credit than we deserve. Chances are, if the picture turned out well it is because of the camera. If you like them, the camera that took them can be found here.


Photos taken with Canon Powershot A570is

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