Square Foot Gardening and a Rain Barrel - A match made in heaven?
Written on 4 July 2007 by adminThis year we have decided to do things a bit differently.
We received the book “Square Foot Gardening” by Mel Bartholomew. The basis of SFG is as follows:
“Square Foot Gardening is a uniquely simplified method of gardening that produces 100% of the harvest in only 20% of the space — AND — without all the hard work and drudgery of single row gardening.”
NO WEEDING!
NO TILLING!
NO DIGGING!
NO PESTICIDES!
NO CHEMICALS!
At First we were a bit skeptical, if this method of gardening is so great then how come everybody isn’t doing it? We figured it was worth a shot.
I am not going to go into the detail of building the garden, this topic is much better explained by the author of the book itself on his website www.squarefootgardening.com
All I can say is WOW! Initially it took a bit of work to build the “containers” and mix the special soil (compost, peat moss and vermiculite) but after only about a month of growing we have monster plants that are twice the size of those that we have seen in the gardens around the neighborhood. Any yes no weeding or pesticides!
We firmly believe that we are holding another ace up our sleeves. We only use the water from our rain barrels to water the plants. It has been rather dry during the growing season this year. If we didn’t have our barrels we would have needed to use the hose quite a bit. We have managed to drain 3 barrels each week on the SFG alone.
The plants are loving the water and “fingers crossed” we should have a bumper crop of tomatoes, watermelons, peppers, carrot, radishes, onions and more very soon.
In the beginning
After planting
Now
Protected: Food grade barrels in Wake Forest NC - $25
Written on 28 June 2007 by adminNew Plastic Drums and Barrels - Minneapolis, Minnesota
Written on 28 June 2007 by adminConsolidated Container Company
We found this company online for those of you in MN. They seems to have a wide assortment of new and used barrels made of plastic and metal. If anyone tries to build a rain barrel using a metal barrel let us know, we would be curious to know the results. As always give them a call beforehand to make sure that they have what you are looking for.
http://www.containerexperts.com/plastic.cfm
Earthwork Recycling Inc, Spokane WA
Written on 25 June 2007 by adminA friend of our wrote us about Earthwork Recycling.
They offer wide range of plastic and metal food grade barrels in Spokane WA (Washington). Go for the screw lid style, we have found that these are the easiest to modify.
http://www.earthworksrecycling.com/prices/index.html#barrels
Make sure to call ahead as stock can vary from day to day.
1904 E Broadway, Spokane WA 99202 (509)534-1638
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Food grade barrels in Ottawa, ON
Written on 7 June 2007 by adminThis is where we get our barrels. It is a bit of work cleaning out the barrels and getting them home but it is worth the effort. This place has way more then just barrels. You can easy pass half a day just digging through the assorted junk and treasures scattered across the lot.
Cohen and Cohen Reuse Store
1963 Merivale Road
Nepean, Ont
K2G 1G1
55 Gallon (200L) food grade barrels that were used for storing pickles, olive etc. $15.00 each
These are the type of barrels that we use. Inexpensive, effective and promote reuse
