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Itzl Alert Network: Tuesday, 8th of April, 2025: Square Foot Gardening [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-04-07

Here at the beginning, I will interrupt myself to tell you that a few hours ago, I went to the nearby seed and feed store, and bought me:

A bundle of onion sets for $4

A packet of beet seeds for $3

Then I worked truly very hard, on my knees, digging at the soil with my rake and with my bare hands.

I picked out so many oak leaves and bits of trash.

Then I sprinkled the beet seeds in a sloppy fashion and covered them with handfuls of loose soil.

Then I jammed the onion sets into the loose soil and pushed more soil at them.

I am worn out!

I had been planning on doing this after I bought my tomato plants.

But the weather was so nice and warm here in Wichita, Kansas, and I realized that I could do this part today and then plant the tomato plants later.

The little dog is named Itzl. As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at, to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off Daily Kos. If you're not here, or anywhere else on Daily Kos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care! IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news! This is our current schedule of regular IAN diary writers: Monday: Youffraita Tuesday: bigjacbigjacbigjac Wednesday: Pam from Calif Thursday: art ah zen Friday: FloridaSNMOM Saturday: FloridaSNDad Sunday: loggersbrat

Okay, I said I would do diaries based on my books.

The book that inspired this diary is:

All New Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew.

Call me lazy, but I did not read the whole book just now, cover to cover.

I skimmed over some of the first ten or twenty pages.

I feel confident in charging ahead and encouraging you to try this method, because many of you are already using this method, for your house plants and succulents.

That is why I posted at the top the plastic pots that DHM was using and posting pictures of at the SMGB.

The Square Foot Gardening method is essentially the same as growing house plants, but is done outdoors, and is used for edible plants.

I am not using pots, but I am treating this area against the back wall outside my apartment as a big pot.

My garden is about 3 feet by about 9 feet.

The lawn care workers had sprayed herbicide on a regular basis along that area near the wall before I moved in here in 2021.

They do that all over the apartment complex so that they are not forced to use a string trimmer to cut the grass and weeds that would grow against the wall.

So, when I started my garden, in the spring of 2023, I put that scrap lumber in place, and grabbed some oak leaves, enough to give me a few inches of oak leaf barrier between the poisoned soil and my potting mix.

Then I spent $160 on potting mix and composted chicken manure fertilizer, and that got me all ready to plant!

Here are three videos I recorded in the spring and summer of 2024:

Here is a video of my baby crib parts installed to contain my “wild children” type of tomato plants:

You can visualize this crib-enclosed 3 ft by 9 ft garden with the snow melted and beet seed sprinkled closer to the wall and the onion sets close to the wooden outer barrier.

The middle of the garden is for the tomatoes.

Okay, I am worn out, and I am using a standing computer workstation.

If you want a copy of the book, here you go:

www.walmart.com/…

All New Square Foot Gardening, 3rd Edition, Fully Updated: MORE Projects - NEW Solutions - GROW Vegetables Anywhere (New edition) (Paperback) Book Format: Paperback $18.66 Spiral-Bound, $24.99

The author himself is no longer with us:

en.wikipedia.org/…

Mel Bartholomew (December 14, 1931 – April 28, 2016) was an American gardener, engineer, inventor, businessman, television presenter, and writer. He is known for originating the method of square foot gardening.

I know that some of you have big outdoor gardens with big pots.

So, you can buy more big pots, and plant whatever you want to eat this year.

Hugs!

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