Welcome to Foodtopia!

Hey big family bigger bills! We finally made some progress! Big family bigger bills big daddy got a promotion at work, and we are being relocated about an hour south to Sarasota-Bradenton. This is great for us, not only because it comes with not only a raise, but we found a wonderful landlord that will allow us to put a vegetable garden in the back yard! We also found a community garden that is $20 per year for a 200 sq. foot plot. I have already ordered seeds of all sorts (my next post!). I ordered a various array of herbs for our first season, plus several of the basics, and a few of the not so normal.

Our "home" has a sand backyard with... sand! I am assuming at this point, grass will not grow in the areas where there is a TON of sun and fast evaporation... very fast.

I am thinking of designing a 5' x (as long as I can make it!) vegetable garden in the yard. With wood boards as the sides, I plan on making a square foot garden. I am trying to leave as much space in the backyard as I can for the little ones to play.

I am also not trying to spend an arm and a leg on this garden, it is not permanant! I am planning on digging 3" or so down, and conserving the sand. Then I plan on putting up a 6" wall on every side, and putting a very thick layer of newpaper just below my 6" wall. I will build it at a slight angle and put a mesh covered hole at the end for the water to escape to, with something to catch the excess water to be reused. In our permanant home, I hope to make this space some sort of an area that has plants that love wet feet. Above the newspaper, I will add the 3" of sand from the yard, 2" of manure (from Craigslist, it is actually $2 per bag, and goes toward supporting rescue horses, which works for me!). On the very top, I will add 1" of normal compost, and an inch of hay (or straw, whatever I can get my hands on).

Throughout the year, I plan on adding compost from grass cuttings, mushroom compost, kitchen scraps, etc. I will add this as the seasons go by, but I want an immediate start to my vegetable garden on the cheap.

I hope it will not go as poorly as my "1 gallon grow bag experiment". Yea, great for starting trees, not much else. But if you want to do a "kitchen experiment", and see what you can grow from the seeds of your produce, it was fun! At the same time, don't expect much from veggies!

Thanks for joining me!