Welcome to the GRS Garden Project. Every month, my wife and I track how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for February 2011. (Here are the results for 2008 and the results for 2009. We rested in 2010.)
Spring is around the corner. I think. After spending three weeks basking in sunny skies and temperatures of 20-30 degrees (yes, I’ve taught myself to think in centigrade!), it’s something of a shock to return to Oregon’s five degrees and rain. Still, I know warmer weather is just around the corner — and that means it’s time to garden.
Ordering Seeds
Kris has already started to think of the garden, of course. Her mind makes the leap just after Christmas, when the first of the seed catalogs starts to arrive.
In January, she went through her seed supply — her leftover seeds and seeds saved from last year’s crops — to determine what she needed to order. In the end, she chose:
- Green beans
- Beets
- Turnips
- Peas
- Pickling cucumbers
- Pumpkin
- Zucchini
She spent a total of $24.15 on seeds, ordering mostly from Territorial Seed Company, which sells seeds specifically targeted at “the maritime Pacific Northwest”. (If you can buy your seeds from a regional company, do so. You’ll get plants better suited for your growing conditions.)
Kris has a system for buying seeds. If it’s a new variety she’s trying, she buys the smallest package possible. If it’s a kind she knows she likes, she buys enough to plant for the next two to four years. She saves the extra seeds in the fridge (in an air-tight container).
We’ll plant more in the garden, of course. As usual, we’ll pick up tomatoes, basil, and peppers at the Master Gardener sale at the end of April. These plants will have a good head start, and will let us try a few new varieties.
Kris estimates the seed-buying process took about two hours.
Early work
While Kris was buying seeds, I spent some time getting the garden ready. With the help of the boy we hired for a weekend, I tore out some of the old plants, weeded some patches, and — gasp! — cut our blackberry canes to the ground. (This won’t kill them. It’s like pressing the reset switch. They were out of control, and this will give us a chance to guide their growth. But it does mean we won’t get many berries this year.) We spent maybe two hours total doing this. (Meaning, I spent two hours on this, and I paid Ian $20 to help.)
This weekend, Kris intends to plant the peas — if the weather cooperates. The ground is very wet, and there seems to be more rain on the way. (What is this? Oregon?). She’ll also start seeds indoors for her flower garden (nicotiana, zinnia, cosmos, marigolds, and so on). The flowers are mostly from seeds saved in previous years, though the flower-garden costs aren’t included in this project. (Flower gardening is one of Kris’ favorite hobbies.)
Next month, Kris will start seeds indoors for food crops: cucumbers, pumpkin, and zucchini. She times when she plants the seeds based on when she intends to plant them outside (which is May 1st), and counting backwards to get the weeks needed according to the seed-packet instructions.
At the end of April, we’ll attend a “garden exchange”. This is the third year our friend Rhonda has organized a plant swap. Everyone brings their extra plants and seeds, sets them out for others to see, and then takes home what they want or need. In anticipation of this event, Kris will plant extra flowers and vegetables for trading. (She’ll also dig out some perennials to share.)
A garden exchange is a fantastic, frugal way to share plants, but now is the time to organize this if you live in a cool climate. Don’t wait until the last minute.
It’ll be a while before we have fresh berries, but we’re still able to enjoy the fruits of last year’s harvest. In fact, Kris has been using our supply of berries in yogurt smoothies. Here’s her recipe:
- 1.5 – 2 cups plain low-fat yogurt (homemade, if you have it)
- 1 banana
- 1-2 cups assorted berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, or a mix)
- juice from one orange
- 2 Tablespoons of berry jam (or honey)
We don’t grow the bananas or oranges, of course, and we don’t harvest the honey. But we grow the berries, make the jelly, and, thanks to Jolie Guillebeau, we make our own yogurt. And in just a few months, we’ll have fresh berries to use in the smoothies.
Monthly totals
With the cold weather and our trip to Africa, the 2011 garden project is off to a slow start. (It’ll pick up over the next few weeks, though.) We’ve spent a total of 4.0 hours and $44.15 on this year’s food-producing garden ($24.15 for seeds and $20 for hired labor).
For reference, here are the totals for the previous two years we did this project:
| Month | Time | Cost | Harvest | Month | Time | Cost | Harvest | |
| Jan 09 | 3.0 hrs | $131.15 | — | Jan 08 | 4.0 hrs | $27.30 | — | |
| Feb 09 | 12.0 hrs | $36.67 | $10.00 | Feb 08 | 2.5 hrs | — | — | |
| Mar 09 | 4.0 hrs | $1.00 | $5.00 | Mar 08 | 3.5 hrs | $130.00 | — | |
| Apr 09 | 3.0 hrs | — | — | Apr 08 | 5.5 hrs | $28.51 | — | |
| May 09 | 15.0 hrs | $98.55 | $5.97 | May 08 | 5.5 hrs | $110.89 | — | |
| Jun 09 | 7.0 hrs | — | $78.37 | Jun 08 | 7.0 hrs | $0.79 | $50.83 | |
| Jul 09 | 7.0 hrs | — | $243.10 | Jul 08 | 11.0 hrs | $20.94 | $123.68 | |
| Aug 09 | 12.0 hrs | — | $186.33 | Aug 08 | 8.0 hrs | — | $123.94 | |
| Sep 09 | 2.5 hrs | — | $151.97 | Sep 08 | 2.0 hrs | — | $152.75 | |
| Oct 09 | 8.0 hrs | $84.00 | $129.01 | Oct 08 | 5.0 hrs | — | $152.77 | Nov 09 | 0.0 hrs | — | — | Nov 08 | 0.0 hrs | — | — |
| Dec 09 | 0.0 hrs | — | — | Dec 08 | 0.0 hrs | — | — | |
| Total 09 | 63.5 hrs | $351.37 | $809.75 | Total 08 | 54.0 hrs | $318.43 | $603.97 |
It’s interesting to note that there’s really no “typical” year so far.
- In the first two months of 2008, we spent $27.30 and 6.5 hours on our garden.
- In the first two months of 2009, we spent $167.82 and 15.0 hours on our graden.
- In the first two months of 2011, we’ve spent $44.15 and 4.0 hours on our garden.
If you had ask me to guess before I started this project, I would have thought that each year would be much like the year before. Apparently, that’s not the case. I’m eager to see how this year’s costs and harvest unfold…
An actual weekend harvest from August 2006.
Final word
This garden project is not a formal experiment. Kris and I are long-time hobby gardeners, and we have set ways that we do things. We’re constantly incorporating new ideas from GRS readers, but most of the time we’ll do things the way we have for nearly 20 years.
We’re not trying to be 100% organic (though we are mostly organic through our normal practices). Nor are we trying to be 100% frugal. Instead, we’re trying to see just what our garden costs and produces based on our normal habits. We hope the results of this experiment will help us find new ways to economize and to improve our crops.
You can read about my goals for this series in The year-long GRS project: How much does a garden really save?
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We’re thinking about ordering form seedsofchange.com this year. It would be really neat to have heirloom tomatoes. I do wonder if there’s a local catalog… we will have to look into that. Our uni has a garden fair twice a year, but sometimes their selection is better than others, and I’ve never seen heirloom tomatoe plants there (though the grown tomatoes do show up at the farmer’s market and locally to the city when we go to Whole Foods, so there must be some that do well here).
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@#1 Nicole,
Seeds of Change is a great catalog and once you have heirloom tomatoes you will never want store bought ones.
I love your garden projects JD! I have a small greenhouse and what started out as a hobby has turned into a small business as well as a way to do something good for people in my community. I normally plant over 40 tomato plants in my backyard (all heirloom seeds) and start over 1,000 seedlings in the greenhouse to sell and donate. I’ve found it has been very rewarding to be able to recoup my expenses (making my garden completely free), and then to donate plants to those who are new to urban gardening or are having a rough time and could use some healthy food from their backyard.
I should start tracking my yields this year. Usually I just figure out how many laundry baskets of tomatoes I bring in (not very scientific). Vertical gardening has allowed me to grow lots of food in a small space, I had corn, watermelon, cucumber, squash, pumpkin, and more in New England on less than .2 acres.
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@Supporting Parents, I’d love to hear more about your vertical gardening tactics. I live in an urban rowhouse and I don’t have much space, but I am sure I could maximize it with some creativity. Perhaps you’d consider a guest post or something?
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My wife and I are actually heading out today to get some things (her first weekend in the US ever), and some of those things will involve the garden. I still have quite a few seeds from previous years, but we need a starter (like the one you showed, JD) and some other seeds.
Just curious…in your collective experience, is there a big difference between buying seeds at Target or Lowes in comparison to buying them from a specifically gaden center or seed catalog?
Happy gardening!
-j
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I have the blackest of black thumbs. I am the human herbicide. But with the price of heirloom tomatoes, and considering how much I love basil, I might give this one more try… If it works, great, if it doesn’t, nothing like futility to keep one grounded (is that a vague accidental pun?).
Anyway, if someone knows of a good site, book or manual for ultra-beginners, kindly post a link. Relevant information: I’m in a weird climate region (Southwest USA) and have very little outdoor space available (probably a good thing, considering the odds of success).
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Growing up on a farm, the end of winter when the seed catalogs start arriving was always a special time for me. There’s nothing like thinking about all the possibilities in those pages
My husband and I live in an urban townhouse now, and while we do have a little backyard, we prefer to do most of our gardening in containers now. Using trellises and compact varieties of vining plants, you can really get a lot of use out of your space.
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Do you include water costs in your expenses? Every year we grow vegetables but end up losing money due to water costs. We live in OH, not the desert, so it is disheartening. We’re considering setting up a rain barrel to help with these costs when we try again this year.
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@Supporting Parents
I would also like to hear about your vertical gardening– DO tell!
@El Nerdo
I think the best approach is to jump in. Fail better is my motto. And, every year my garden teaches it to me– but I’m getting better and those small little wins mean the world. I don’t know of any links for southwest gardening but a quick google turned up this: http://www.amazon.com/Garden-Guy-Seasonal-Gardening-Southwest/dp/0970501617
You also might want to think of growing both the basil and tomatoes indoors if you have good sunlight in your home. I used to grow tomatoes in the window in a past apartment and had friends with successful basil pots.
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This sounds wonderful – and yummy. I’m trying not to be too depressed that where I live (Alberta), people are advised not to plant a single seed before the May long weekend…and that still doesn’t guarantee your garden won’t be snowed on. Woe!
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To answer a question above:
No, we do not include water costs. We are fortunate to have very low water costs in the Pacific Northwest. When I examined it, I discovered we only spend $8/month more during the months we water the gardens than in the months that we don’t. And that $8 would be spread among fruit trees, berries, flower garden and vegetable plot.
We have a huge lawn that we let die off each summer. We choose not to water it to reduce our water use, not because of the cost. Therefore, by August it’s pretty crispy! Fortunately, we both like a lawn with clover, moss and lots of biodiversity
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Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew is a book recommended to me frequently.
Thank you for the update. I like seeing the cycle and what you do to make a garden work and produce for you. I’ve never managed to do more than have tomato plants on the back patio for more than a season. (Animals seem to take care of the rest and I would give up..)
I see houses with vegetable gardens and flower gardens and think that the owners must be prospering as well.
I am envious, but still not doing anything to make a garden happen at our house. Feel like failure is a forgone conclusion–how lazy, whiny, and self defeating is that? Oh well, we pick our battles….
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I inherited a beautifully shady, woodland style yard, so I don’t do vegetable gardening for the most part.
However, my highly recommended exception is radishes. You plant them in the cold ground. They germinate in less than a week and produce eatable radishes in less than a month. I started growing them each year after my nephew’s grew them at preschool.
When they are done, it’s time for some annuals from the garden center or herbs in pots in that spot.
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One of the things I used to do when living in the Pacific NW (and actually still do if it’s wet when I want to plant peas) is sprout them in a paper towel before planting. That way they won’t rot in the ground, and you can get them in as early as you want.
Now if I could figure out a way to avoid squash bugs, which is a new pest for me, I’d be a happy woman.
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We’ve spent most of our garden time in the last two months planting fruit trees and bushes – I definitely agree with what you said a few weeks ago JD – that fruit trees/bushes are a long term investment.
I’ve also started off some seedlings – things that need a long growing window (eg bell peppers, squash, cucumbers) and things that we can start eating as earlies (lettuce, carrots). My potatoes are mostly chitted and ready to plant too so I think that’ll be my next project. My seeds are a combination of bought-on-sale at the end of last year, saved seed, leftover seed (from last year) and a few new heirloom varieties.
I’ve also been starting to make planters out of scrap wood to increase our growing space this year — so even though it’s just the start of March, I’ve already put many hours into the garden!
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My husband just emailed me (I’m at work for an event):
We went to get seeds for DS, but then they had all this great stuff. So he and I both spent off our allowances.
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This year I purchased cold frames after reading up that you could grow cold weather crops even in the winter. I planted at the end of January during some nice weather in the 50s-60s. It has snowed for the last two weeks and most of the seeds are growing. We had lows around 12F and they stayed alive. I am excited to be thinking of harvesting greens and radishes in April and then beets, broccoli, carrots, and some others by May. Then I will store the cold frames and put in warm season crops in May.
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Since our apartment doesn’t have any outside areas (or direct sunlight) I’m constantly killing plants. Still I find buying a live basil plant from the market is much more cost effective than buying fresh or dried basil. I actually just bought a little rosemary plant today. So I have basil, rosemary, thyme, and oregano sitting on my window sill right now.
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Thank you for doing the Garden Project again! They are among some of my favorite posts and I can’t wait to see what happens this year.
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We live in an apartment that’s bright, but has no direct sun, so outdoor gardening is out. I’d love to grow balcony vegetables in our next apartment, but for now I’m content with a little container indoor herb garden.
I have basil, oregano, parsley, and cilantro growing in little pots under a grow light that I got from a local Indoor Gardening place. I’m only a few weeks in, but I have a ton of strong shoots with the second sets of leaves budding. It’s exciting, and I’ll definitely be saving money when I make my tomato basil soup
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Love the garden posts!
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@shash – thanks for the encouragement. “fail better” made me laugh– good motto (reminds me of churchill)
the basil by the window definitely sounds doable. we have a south-facing window, but in the summer the sunrays fry us from the north. i guess we’ll figure out by then (move it to the north windows?)
if the windows don’t cut it, valerie’s system (#19) sounds manageable too.
then and only then i’ll research an outdoor box as the next step. i’m thinking i don’t want to go big, spend lots of time and money, and then forget all about it (it’s been known to happen!) :/
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I’m going to try a couple of Square Foot Gardening boxes this year. Last year was our first year with a house and a yard, but we had a newborn, so all I managed was to plant a few tomatoes and peppers, put newspaper down to keep the weeds at bay, and I hardly watered them. We got no peppers, and some tomatoes.
This year I’m not pregnant nor taking care of a newborn, so I’m really looking forward to doing a bit more gardening, though I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew. So we’re just going to do two boxes.
Last fall we signed up for a late-season CSA shipment just to see what we might like to grow ourselves in the future. We fell in love with kale and hakurei turnips, so we will definitely be planting lots of that in our boxes. Also tomatoes, basil, and lettuce.
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Oh, and this will be my second year keeping bees. Hopefully they will fare better than last year’s bees.
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We still have snow on the ground here in Chicago, but I’ll be planting onion seeds pretty soon, then kale, chard, spinach, and salad greens. I can’t even think any further ahead than that, I’ll get too stir crazy!
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So this endeavor nets about $7/hr?
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Something I was pondering today was planting an Apple, Pear, and Peach Tree, along with Blackberry and Raspberry bushes, in order to reap the long term rewards of fresh fruit without having to put in a great deal of effort. Any thoughts?
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I have loved reading your GRS posts! My husband and are really trying to be smarter about our money and have talked about growing some of our food. We started going to our local farms for u-pick berries, peaches, apples,tomato, and pumpkin. I love going to the farm so much i even took our daughter out to the fields on a hundred degree day while i was 8 months pregnant. I dont know what i was thinking, but the blackberry cobbler we made was worth it! I found your posts the other night as I was up with our five month old in the wee hours if the morning. Since that night/ day I have literally been dreaming of starting a garden. You and your wife inspire me! I crave a simpler life ( is that possible with two under two?) and though a garden sounds like a lot of work, I truly believe it is the next step for our family. We have full sun in our backyard- I had no idea that would be really helpful for gardening! Do you have any suggestions on good veggies and fruits for a first time gardener? I’m thinking about growing some in pots on our deck for easier access. Any advice or suggestions are appreciated! Thank you again and may the fairies of the garden be with you always!
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@Pat S. For the trees be sure that they’re either self-pollinating or that they are paired with a pollinator that blooms at the same time.
We put in a pair of cross-pollinating Apple trees last year. This year we’re putting in a cherry tree, but that one is self-pollinating so we can just put in one.
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Mine is ready to go. I doubt it will be profitable but fun anyway.
https://picasaweb.google.com/aace.2001/Garden2011#
Haven’t decided what to plant yet.
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#5 – Warm Climate Gardening, by Barbara Pleasant, is the best book I have ever seen for beginners in a southwestern or southeastern climate.
#7 – Good idea but you’ll need a whole battery of 4 or more rain barrels to get you through the kind of dry weather that requires you to use supplemental water, based on the experience of my brother and a friend here in a similarly temperate/humid climate. This is expensive if you buy rain barrels, cheap if you use old, clean, grease receptacles that you can obtain from restaurants or other 2nd-hand sources.
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I’ve been thinking about my garden too – but it’s still got about a foot and a half of snow on it. It’s been a cold winter here (Alberta,Canada). I usually try to get my peas & lettuce in early (end of April) – but nothing else goes in untill June 1 to be safe.
Temperature today was -18 Celsius. Sigh.
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Hi JD,
Lovely pictures =)
We have a community vegetable growing programme in Singapore.
It is scheme where people living in a housing estate can grow vegetables on a common plot of land and share the profits.
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@26 I’d say the endeavor nets lots of anticipation, hours of wholesome/healthy activity, delicious fruits and veggies with a clear provenance AND some leftover cash as a reward.
There aren’t too many hobbies that you can say that last part about!
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I went over to that website you linked and can’t find the yogurt recipe — can’t find a search box and searching the name and yogurt together brings me right back to you!
Could you put up a direct link?
Thanks!
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My husband and I live in Klamath Falls Oregon and we get almost all of our seeds from Territorial too! Love them!
We start our seed sprouts in the house in February. We transplant them to bigger pots and baby them with heat lamps and in south-facing windows through the winter- we just got another snowfall this morning and more is expected through the entire week
We set up rain barrels two years ago and saw a $60 reduction in our water bill overall from May-October.
We also plant a lot of extras when we start seeds to donate to the Master Gardener Spring Fair. I completed the Master Gardener Program last spring and I really learned a LOT about gardening in our very unusual Klamath Basin area. I’d highly recommend it- you make great friends who have gardened locally for years, you get awesome opportunities for local seed and plant swaps, volunteer opportunities, social opportunities, and you get to know who has delicious local eggs, honey, extra apples and plums that they give away for free!
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J.D. I really enjoyed these posts previously and look forward to seeing this year’s.
This is my 3rd year of raised bed veggie gardening. It’s amazing how much you can harvest from less than 100 sq ft.
I manually track all costs (except water) and track pounds of produce harvested. That allows me to figure cost a per lb of produce. Water cost is minimal since I largely use laundry water and now captured rain water.
One thing I’ve found is that there is always another capital investment I want to make. 1st year it was cost of beds, soil, compost bin. 2nd year I bought rain barrels, electric fence (skunks and raccoons) and another compost bin. Now its more rain barrels, heat mat, grow light and…well you get the idea. It can add up even when you’re being frugal, e.g., compost bin from garage sale, rain barrels were recycled food containers.
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#34 Jen – Google “homemade yogurt” and you’ll find recipes. It is really very easy. Basically heat milk to 200 degrees, cool down to 110, stir in a bit of yogurt containing live culture (check ingredient label) and leave it alone for several hours/overnight.
Don’t get suckered into buying a special yogurt making appliance. The only special equipment you need is a cooking thermometer.
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I make yogurt without heating the milk. You don’t need to heat it to 200 unless it just came from the cow. 200 is a sterilization-level temp that’s totally unnecessary.
Just add the yogurt culture to any pasteurized milk from the store, and let it sit, covered with a cloth, at room temperature until it’s yogurt – about 12-24 hours.
Warming the milk a little first, like to 80 degrees, will help the culture get started multiplying faster. But it’s not necessary.
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I’m 26 years old and my wife and I are starting our first garden in Texas. I started growing some seedlings indoor about 3 weeks ago. We’re growing onion, corn, tomato, basil,green pepper, jalapeño pepper and some garlic that started sprouting in the fridge so I just put it in some dirt and it started growing. We bought some jiffy green houses at walmart and bought our seeds at a local nursery. If everything sprouts we’ll have 190 plants to plant in our garden.
What we’ve learned so far:
1)Ho’ing is hard work especially on this dry Texas soil. So next week we’re getting a tiller instead of doing it manually.
2) apparently you have to mix in compost into your garden to get it ready.
3) we didn’t pay attention to the seed package and planted several seeds into each seedling pod. So now we have this cluster of seedlings growing together. Next time we’ll stick to only 2-3 seeds per pod.
4) this is fun
We’re excited to see how our first harvest goes.
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working in the yard is therapy for me, there is just something that relaxes me, moving dirt around and seeing things grow, watching the bugs and worms do their thing takes away the bad stuff from the day,
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Really looking forward to see how things go for you guys this year. I’m getting pretty excited about my second year of serious gardening here in western PA…if only the snow would go away for good.
I started some onions seedlings indoors a few weeks ago and now I’m looking to plan out the next few months to come. So many decisions to make, so little time. I’m going to make a serious attempt at growing more fruit this year (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, cherry trees, peach trees) so that should be a good learning experience – especially caring for fruit trees.
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Maybe it’s too late to ask, but: I was given a mini greenhouse of sorts this year–a three-tier shelf with a clear plastic jacket that wraps all sides but the bottom. I’ve started seeds indoors with it, but am eager to put it outside. Any thoughts on when it’s save to do this? The jack wraps all sides and top, but the bottom is open to the air.
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Growing a garden with your kids is a great bonding experience. Its also a nice way to teach lessons about life and hard work. I know this because my dad had me grow a garden with him for many years while I was growing up. Tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, and various other plants. I’m almost 30 now and my wife and I just had a son of our own in January. In a few years we’ll be out in the yard getting our hands dirty together, and hopefully a few months later eating the fruit (or veggies) of our labor.
I have a question for the raised bed gardeners. What are the advantages of building the raised beds? The only things that come to mind for me are: less bending over once the beds are built, and potentially better soil for growing. However, it seems like there would be a lot of additional costs involved.
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Aaron #43 – It’s the better soil thing.
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Actually up here as your northern neigthbor in Western Washington, today I am going to be planting the peas and onions, garlic, and swiss chard outside today.
Also need to plant all the warm and hot weather plants inside today so that I can transplant them once the temperature warms up a bit.
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@J.M. #7
If you live in Ohio, you definitely get enough rain in most years to not irrigate your garden at all – IF you garden in the extensive style (i.e. the old-fashioned way.) This requires a lot more room than the modern style of intensive gardening (Mel Bartholomew sq-foot gardening etc.) but some people think it’s superior. I highly recommend Steve Solomon’s book “Gardening When It Counts” if you’re interested in trying this. He wrote the book for someone who has very little money or resources and really needs to depend on his or her garden. (He’s also kind of a curmudgeon and it comes across in his writing style, but if you can get past that – great book. He was the guy who started Territorial Seeds, btw.)
RE: Aaron #43
Raised beds tend to get warmer faster, allowing you to plant seeds a week or two earlier. You can control the soil quality more easily. And if you happen to live in an area with very thin topsoil (parts of New England for example. The granite bedrock bulges through into my front yard in a couple spots! Average soil depth is less than two feet in my neighborhood) raised beds let you grow vegetables that really need deeper soil. (Most require at least 3 feet to be really happy and productive. You can grow a lot of stuff in shallower soil – container gardening for ex. – but the plants never get as big or productive.)
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Baker Creek Seeds is a wonderful company based in Mansfield, MO that specializes in heirloom plants. Their online shipping charge is a very reasonable $3.00 per order. Great choice for Midwestern gardeners.
Heirloom plants are just as productive as others, but usually take a little longer to mature.
These gardening posts are really exciting! Love it.
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Save even more $$. To to http://www.youtube.com and search for “Newspaper seed pots”. Use newspaper to create seed pots to start your plants inside! I’ve never tried this before, but I will this year!
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JD,
Can you tell me where the Master Gardener sale is and when? You always mention it here but I cannot find any info.
Thanks,
Charlotte
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As an experienced gardener, I cannot say enough good things about the Square Foot Gardening approach – especially for beginners. I have worked with this approach both in the US and here in Israel – it simplifies gardening, and the grid-shaped beds worked beautifully both with “Colonial” and “Mediterranean” house styles.
I noticed your photo of seed-starting “mini greenhouses”. That kinda stuff can get expensive. We get the same effect using the clear plastic boxes from the produce section and spring clips from Office Depot. Another advantage of the “square foot” approach is that is cuts back the number of seedlings you have to tend…
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