To Garden... Part One

When I was a young child we always had farm fresh foods to eat. Most came from our own land. I grew up on a small but working 18 acre farm. Be it eggs, dairy, meat, fruits or vegetables… my mom was the master of good wholesome foods. Today they call them “organic” or “natural” but she didn’t do it to be healthy as is the fad these days… she did it because if we didn’t produce our own food… we didn’t eat. That’s just how it was. Plain and simple.

Part of that farm fresh food came from a garden that was probably about ¾ of an acre. It was gigantic. Enormous to me at least! My mom grew everything imaginable in that garden. It would be easier to tell you what she didn’t grow that what she did. And while the food that came from the garden was plentiful and great… so were the chores. Hrrrpmh!

Oh how I detested that garden growing up. I really, really did. So much work to be done. Weeding and hoeing and turning and picking and digging and, and, and… it never ended. I never grew to appreciate what a beautiful thing it really was. I can still remember to this day begging mom to let me and my childhood best friend, Vicki, go swimming before weeding the garden. She always held steady though… chores first then swimming or creeking or exploring the woods behind our house.

Today I appreciate the foundation of ethics that hard work instilled in me but the memories of that chore ridden garden from my childhood will never fade. I loathed that garden so much that as I came into my adult life I swore I would never, ever, never garden and I held steady to that swear for nearly 15 years.

That is until last year…. last year, I put in a real garden. But my garden is not the old fashioned - in the ground, backbreaking, daily weed pulling chore pit that I grew up with. Oh no! I can never waste my days away like that. I have far to much to do! I wanted a garden where I could enjoy the fruits of my labors from… but I wasn’t about to sacrifice my life over it. As I researched I realized that Square Foot Gardening was for me. (Google it!) It’s a simpler – smaller spaced way to grow just as much as a garden 2 to 3 times the size… and there is minimal work involved! Plus… they said a sfg garden thrives and grows much faster than a traditional in the ground garden.

So I drew out the plans and hubby and I went to work building our new gardens. Two Beds. Each bed measuring 4 x 8 Foot. Framed into a simple rectangle and plopped directly onto the ground and filled with dirt.








And then planted right away!



They didn’t lie. The SFG garden is the simplest, fastest, most wonderful way to garden. You don’t have to break your back or spend all your time slaving away doing garden chores to enjoy a “share with your neighbors” bountiful harvest all year long! There is nothing to it and the only work involved is picking whatever grows!

I love our vegetable gardens!

~Kat~