A New Cycle Begins

It’s January.

It must be January because my mailbox tells me so. All the many catalogs that had so recently filled it, enticing me with ‘the perfect Christmas gift’, are gone. In their place are the seed catalogs, and each year, those are so much more irresistible to me. Each year, I thumb through pages and pages of beautiful pictures of promise. Each year, I make a long, long list of what I would like to grow. Each year, I buy too many seeds and seedlings and start my little garden afresh. And each year, without fail, my little garden, planted with enough seeds for several acres, gets ahead of me and becomes a jungle. An unruly and totally unmanageable jungle. And so the cycle begins again…..


Well, maybe…..



This year, I am planning to try out the Square Foot Gardening method as described in Mel Bartholomew’s book by the same name. I heard about this book and this type of gardening while listening to the Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast. Okay, just because I can’t manage my own garden doesn’t mean I can’t live vicariously through other gardeners. I discovered that Mel has written a new book now, called All New Square Foot Gardening. In this version, he has updated some of his ideas from the first book, among them the idea of using raised beds. My garden is already a raised bed affair so it seemed a perfect fit. After reading the book, it all just seemed so….possible! Step by step instructions as to how to set it up….guidelines to keep me from planting too much….inspiring potential yields….tips to keep the gardening season running smoothly.



I think this just might work!

Welcome to my first year of Square Foot Gardening, and welcome to my blog.