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We’re finally back with the next video in our gardening saga! In the first video, we bought a bunch of supplies, learned more about the Square Foot Gardening Method, built a raised bed, and made our special Mel’s Mix blend. If you haven’t checked it out, be sure to watch it here before you move on to part two! You can also check out the corresponding blog post here to learn more.
Once again – please keep in mind that you are seeing our very first attempt at building a garden (back in July 2021), and we didn’t really know what we were doing most of the time! We learned a LOT along the way, and we will be sharing that in future videos.
That being said, I did want to provide a list of everything we used in the videos, in case there is something you want to try out in your own gardening efforts. We don’t necessarily recommend that you buy or use all of these products to build your garden, but I included a list at the bottom of this post, as well as some links throughout. You can check out the full list here!
PLEASE NOTE: If you choose to purchase any products through our Amazon links, we receive a small commission from each sale at NO extra cost to you. All proceeds go back into making more content.
Adding A Grid To Our Raised Bed
In the last video, we left off with a newly built garden full of freshly made Mel’s Mix – but it wouldn’t be a square foot garden without a grid! We spent a LOT of time trying to figure out what to use as our grid, but ultimately we decided on twine.
The official Square Foot Gardening resources recommend you use something that is more permanent, like cedar lattice slats or even PVC tubing, but since this was our first try and we had already invested so much into supplies for our garden, we decided to go with something a bit more temporary.
After carefully measuring, we used our handy new staple gun to attach the twine to the cedar. The key was stretching it a bit so we ended up with a nice “taut” grid and not a sad, saggy one.
Oh, also – try not to tangle up your twine too much (oops!).
After we stapled it in, we used a rubber mallet to ensure the staples held the twine down nice and tight.
I think the twine might need to be replaced every year or so, but it actually ended up looking really nice and worked out just fine for us. If you’re stressed out like we were and just need a quick, easy solution for a grid, we totally recommend this!
Planning Our Garden
Up next, it was time to do some more planning! We bought most of our plants without really thinking about how they would go in the garden, but luckily we had our Square Foot Gardening book to consult for tips on how to make the garden a success.
It turns out, you really need to put some thought into how you’ll arrange the plants within your squares. This is especially true for vine plants like tomatoes, squash, etc., so you can avoid blocking the sun for the rest of the garden. We also found out that some plants may even end up taking up more than one square in your garden. Did you know that some squash plants are vines, while others are bushes and need more space? We did not. 😅
We had a nice worksheet that I printed out from our Square Foot Gardening course, so after I took inventory of all the plants we bought, I was able to use that to plan what we would put in each square. We set aside the row on the north side of the garden for our tallest plants.
Time To Plant!
After all of the planning and building, it was finally TIME TO PLANT STUFF! Again, since we were so late in the season (July in St. Louis), we bought potted plants to transfer to our garden instead of growing from seeds. We would have definitely preferred to grow from seeds and plan to do so next time.
Some of the plants were not in the best shape, but we had high hopes that they would flourish in our garden! We did our best to carefully break up the roots a bit when necessary as we planted.
We planted several types of peppers, squash and tomatoes.
Of course, Brian also had to include a nice selection of herbs like rosemary, parsley, basil and thyme.
We added a beautiful Marigold plant as well to help with pest control. Apparently they attract good bugs that prey on harmful ones. Plus, they add a nice pop of color!
We also needed a trellis for the tomato and squash plants to grow on. We found these 4-Panel Tomato Towers at Lowe’s and they did just the trick!
We unfolded and connected them together to form one straight trellis along the north side of the garden.
For an extra fancy touch, I bought some cute garden markers from Etsy, but the wear and tear on them throughout the season was kinda rough. I think I’ll look for metal or something a bit sturdier if I add these again, but boy did they look super pretty starting out!
And just like that, we had a beautiful garden!
Keeping The Critters Out!
We were really worried about all of the little critters that live in the area getting into our garden, so we built a 4-foot fence around the garden using hardware cloth and U-Post fence posts.
We have mixed feelings on the fence. The hardware cloth was really hard to manipulate and it made it annoying and difficult to get into our garden later on, but it definitely seemed to keep the critters out. We are going back to the drawing board this season to figure out if there’s a better solution.
Next Time On Krocks In The Garden…
Be sure to watch the video here! We will back back soon with an update on how the gardening season went and what we were able to harvest from the garden. We are also working on a “tip” video to share some of the things we learned that will hopefully help you prepare for the spring gardening season ahead.
Products & Resources
PLEASE NOTE: If you choose to purchase any products through our Amazon links, we receive a small commission from each sale at NO extra cost to you. All proceeds go back into making more content.
OFFICIAL SQUARE FOOT GARDENING RESOURCES:
Square Foot Gardening Book, 3rd Edition
Square Foot Gardening Online Course
OTHER PRODUCTS FEATURED IN OUR GARDENING VIDEOS:
Twine/Sisal Rope (1/4 inch – we bought 100 ft worth)
4-Panel Tomato Towers
Oldcastle Planter Wall Blocks
2 in. x 6 in. x 8 ft. Premium S4S Cedar Lumber
ARROW 508 Genuine T50 1/2-Inch Staples
ARROW PowerShot 5700 Forward Action Staple Gun
Hardware Cloth 1/2 inch 19 Gauge Square (4 ft. tall)
Vigoro 3 ft. x 24 ft. 100% Natural Burlap Landscape Fabric
U-Post 5-Foot Fence Posts
Rubber Mallet w/ Wooden Handle
Nature’s Care Really Good Compost
ULINE Vermiculite (Grade 4)
Miracle-Gro Sphagnum Peat Moss, 8 qt.
Lambert Sphagnum Peat Moss, 3.8 cubic ft.
DIGZ High Performance Women’s Gardening Work Gloves
5 Gallon Bucket (3-Pack)
All Purpose Poly Tarp, 12 x 14-Foot, Blue
Check out our Amazon Page to see more of our favorite products!