My SFG garden (2012 edition) | Page 2 | Food Production and Preservation | Forums

Yeah, I've read that the "Mel's Mix" recipe is pretty expensive, I'm about to take the wife shopping today and I'm gonna try to sneak off so I can price some alternatives to use for the soil. I'm also gonna try to grab a plastic 55 gallon drum while I'm out today so I can make a compost tumbler. I'll use the compost I'm able to produce to supplement to soil as needed throughout the year.

Alright, haven't really updated through the process, heck, haven't even thought to take the camera with me when I've worked on the garden for that matter, but here are a few pics of the progress so far.

Got the beds built, then went through a few days with a "chance" of rain, which kept me from staining the beds. Finally after the third "chance" evening, I said screw it and stained into the night.

Picked up a tiller from my FIL, just to try to break up the area for the beds so I could "somewhat" level them. Also got the soil I needed to fill the beds. I went with mushroom compost, manure compost, and a blended garden soil that had compost mix and peat moss mixed in.

The beds in place with the soil added. The first pic is my 8x4 corn bed, a 4x4 with a 2x4 riser for tomatoes on the lower side, and onions, carrots, and radishes in the riser, and my little girl's 3x3 bed that has yet to be planted.

My other 4x4 boxes. These contain squash, peppers, okra, pintos, pole beans, black eyed peas, cucumbers, and melons.

A little better overview of the whole setup.

Got the seeds started a week or so ago, and I'm already seeing signs of life. The onions and radishes are starting nicely.

Corn starting to break the surface.

Cukes, black eyed peas, and pole beans are starting to come up.

My tomatoes, and the double stack with the carrots, onions, and radishes.

Overall, I've been really pleased with the progress so far. I used a good weed guard, and so far I've had to pull only one small weed. I'll try to keep this updated a little better in the future.

Got a nice lesson in anger management this morning. Before I left for my side job, I walked up to my beds to discover that my wife's bulldog (not mine anymore, I officially disown that dog), sometime during the night, developed a taste for seed potatoes and a tomato plant... Not very happy right now...

A quick update from this evening.

straw bed potatoes

Peppers and Okra

Banana peppers, pinto beans, and squash

Melons are starting to break the surface

From top to bottom: Cucumbers, Black Eyed Peas, Blue Lake Pole Beans, and Romano Pole Beans

Tomato, Onions, Radishes, and Carrots

Corn starting good

And finally, my wife's contribution to the garden... She named her Gertrude...