Well, perhaps not always. But if that engineer happens to be my husband, then that's what you get. Before Greg and I take all of the credit for this masterpiece, I must direct you to Mel Bartholomew's books on square foot gardening. Mel is a civil engineer who developed this efficient method of gardening in grids rather than rows. You are supposedly able to grow lots of food while conserving space, water, and labor. We'll have to see how things turn out, but so far it sure looks pretty.
The basic idea is that you build 4-foot by 4-foot raised beds (we have 6 of them) and then divide each bed into 16 square feet. Then you plant an appropriate number of plants in each square foot, depending on the spacing needs of each plant. In this photo you can see some broccoli with one plant in each square, some green beans with 4 plants in each square, and some carrots with 16 plants in each square.
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We've harvested some spinach and radishes so far. The rest of our plants seem to be making progress as well. I'll let you know how it goes!
I'm no engineer, I just play one at Goodrich! ;) I am enjoying the heck out of this garden - let's hope it keeps looking so nice through the summer!
ReplyDeleteI am totally stealing this idea next year.
ReplyDeleteI love how organized the garden is! How awesome that you've already had produce from it and I look forward to seeing how the project goes this summer!
ReplyDeletethat's what my garden looked like last year! I used the same system, and it worked really well.
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