I have never really liked all the work that goes into gardening. I want it to be fun… not work! I have friends who spend their evenings and weekends “working” in the garden. I like to go to the lake on the weekends, but I wanted to introduce our ten-year-old daughter to gardening. The answer? She and I started a Square Foot Garden.
The concept was started in the 1980’s by a fella named Mel Bartholomew. He even wrote a book about it and you can check out his website by going to the “Cool Links” section of this blog and clicking on “Square Foot Gardening.” This technique does not follow the “hard work” style of traditional row gardening. Instead of spending countless back breaking hours trying to turn your soil into a decent growing medium, and then fighting the weeds that invade it if you do, you simply build a six-inch high 4’x4’ box and “make your own great weed free soil! How cool is that?
It took me about an hour to build the box (because I added a bottom to it and I built one for my mother as well) and to mix the soil. My daughter had it planted in no time at all. I just gave her some simple instructions and she did the rest. It’s about introducing my daughter to gardening and spending time together. It’s NOT rocket science so let your kid have fun. DO NOT get out of tape measure and drive your kid nuts making sure everything is perfect. Have fun… I guarantee stuffs going to come up!
Here’s my daughter working in our new garden…
We had so much fun that I’m going to build a couple more boxes this weekend. We’ve got a craving for strawberries and it has to be satisfied!
Like I said earlier… I also built a Square Foot Garden for my mother who is retired and, quite frankly, doesn’t have the energy to prepare and maintain a traditional garden. The Square Foot Garden is perfect for her. It gives her a nice little hobby and… a salad!
I’ll keep you posted as the season progresses! Have fun and happy gardening!
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