Garden Layout

I have never truly gardened to sustain myself. I have never truly gardened at all, only made sad attempts. I have long held a belief that obesity would be a thing of the past if our society promoted calorie expenditure in order to consume. It doesn't so much matter how many calories are in the bread, but it does matter that I sit in a car, push a cart through a store and then drive it all home in one convenient motion and I can have as much bread as I want. I have made my own bread a few times, but it just one more thing that I would like to do more consistently.In keeping with this life philosophy my garden is going to be a necessity. I will expend hours of effort, energy, and love to grow food that will nourish my body and of course my soul. So this is a crude interpretation of what my garden is going to look like, or rather, how it will be laid out.

	Raised	Bed	Garden		Hanging Baskets
	Pumpkin	Pumpkin	Cucumber	Cucumber	Purple Tomato
	Peas	Pepper	Pepper	Pepper	Roma Tomato
	Peas	Onion	Radish	Radish	Marglobe Tomato
	Peas	Onion	Beets	Beets	Yellow Plum Tomato
Deck Along this Side	Peas	Onion	Turnips	Turnips	Strawberry Vine (topsy turvy)
	Beans	Beans	Carrots	Carrots	Trees
	Beans	Beans	Carrots	Carrots	Crab Apple
	Zucchini	Zucchini	Butternut Squash	Butternut Squash
RubberMaid	Containers
Italian Large Leaf Basil	Chives		Mesculan Mix	Mesculan Mix
Parsely	Sage		Arugula	Arugula
Bibb Lettuce	Bibb Lettuce		Spinach	Spinach
Swiss Chard	Swiss Chard		Mustard	Mustard

The garden is small, which is why Rubbermaid containers are needed to supplement the space. Ultimately 4ftx8ft can only grow so much. The principle of Square-foot gardening is that you don't walk on the soil. You have to be able to reach the garden around the perimeter (hence only 4ft wide). The light, airy soil grows vegetables much better than compacted soil. The other key principle is that the garden is divided in square foot segments. One type of plant will go into each square. If it is a large vegetable (like cucumber or green peppers) then only one plant will go into the section. If the vegetable is small then up to 16 (depending on space requirements) plants can go into each section.

The picture at the top is of a purple tomato plant that I am planning on growing in upside down containers.

Blessings to all.

Becky