To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul. .. Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are.
- Alfred Austin, 1835-1913

I have always been in love with the idea of a huge vegetable garden and all the tomatoes and beans and peppers and greens. In fact, I was in love with the idea when I didn’t even like vegetables (which would be all the years before the age of about 26). Even when I did start eating and enjoying vegetables, I would never have considered growing my own because I had, not one, but two very distinct and very large black thumbs. Everything I tried to grow died. Almost always sooner rather than later. House plants, annuals and perennials in the yard. Even the grass usually. All dead. All the time.

Shortly after we moved here eight years ago, I saw a notice about garden plots for rent in the provincial park nearby. Hmmm.. could I do it? Maybe I could, maybe I couldn’t, but most importantly, if I failed, my failure would be two kilometres away on someone else’s property and not mocking and throwing stones at me from my own backyard. The thought was appealing. So I went for it. Of course, I had no idea what I was doing, but that’s ok, because the process was the point: I had no expectation of getting anything edible out of my efforts. Anything that made it to the dinner the table would be an unexpected bonus.

A lot made it to the dinner table. A LOT. And every time I pulled up a carrot or an onion, or picked a tomato, I was in shock - I planted this, I didn’t kill it, and look what it made! I did kill lots of stuff, but the vast majority made it to the fruitful end. It was delicious, and more importantly, deeply satisfying.

Each year after, I had a garden there. I got better at planning, finding organic solutions to bug problems and preserving the harvest. But it became more and more difficult. After the first year and due to a clerical error, I was assigned gardens at the back and top of the field. Hoses are not allowed at these gardens - all water has to be carried. In my case, this was quite a distance, up an incline and with two years in a row of severe drought, it became impossible to keep my plots watered. It was heartbreaking, but I had to pretty much walk away. Of course, some things survived. Heirloom tomatoes seemed almost unaffected by the heat and lack of water. Root vegetables did fine, though yields were much smaller. The last two years, I have rented my plots, and then not planted them. I wanted my gardens, but couldn’t face hauling the water and the disappointment of other years.

But this year? We’re back :D
That time off left me lots of time to think and read and regroup and I knew what I wanted my next vegetable garden incarnation to be. I wanted to use raised beds, the square foot method, and I wanted my gardens at home. I had learned that gardening is like knitting: total strangers love to tell you that you are doing it wrong, or using the wrong tools or the wrong timing. And, just like knitting, there is actually no wrong way to do it. Gardening is a journey and while you can get advice from all the experts you can find, in the end, each gardener must make the journey herself. Failures are to be expected and embraced as learning experiences. Just as important, I had learned that I loved to be *with* my garden. Just there, beside it, smelling it, enjoying it.

I had experimented with Square Foot Gardening in my rented plots, and it just made way more sense to me. It worked better too. But I also liked the idea of raised beds for a bunch of reasons including keeping the dog and The Baby out of them. There are a lot of cottontail rabbits in my neighbourhood, so I needed some kind of fencing system and ta-dah… We’ve got a plan.

I had actually gotten all the wood and had my dad measure and cut it for me last Spring. So this year over one weekend, my husband and son assembled four 4′x4′ frames, filled them with garden soil, put up 2″x2 stakes and ran the netting around. We used a staple gun to stick it to the frames on the bottom, and nails in the tops of the stakes at the top. To work in the garden, I just unhook the netting from the nails and it drops down. It all feels so efficient and tidy. All that was left was to plant the gardens, which took no time at all, compared to the long rows at the rented plots. And it’s done :)

Another week and the weeds will be here, but the radishes are already up, the plants I put in are doing well and no critters have gotten in. In two weeks, and we’ll be eating :)

All New Square Foot Gardening

Cubed Foot Gardening: Growing Vegetables in Raised, Intensive Beds