Lawns Look Much Better as Gardens


A few of the squash plants. Lookin' good

When we first moved to Tennessee in March one of our top priorities was to get a little garden going. The quickest and easiest way at that time was to set up a few square-foot garden plots around the house. We didn't have any clue where to start with a "real" garden of the scale that we ultimately envisioned. Thus, our six square-foot gardens plots worked out well and produced a significant amount of our veggies and herbs for the past 4-5 months. Sweetbreads and her Mom did a great job companion planting and getting it all up and running.

However, I was itching to tear up the lawn and plant a bigger garden. One with rows and that was capable of providing all of our vegetable needs for an extended period of time. It will take a few years to reach that goal, but I think we made a good start.

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Prepping Our Square Foot Garden Site

This past weekend we took our first steps toward getting the garden ready. The first goal was to designate a location and determine which style of gardening we would opt for (we chose Square Foot gardening for the first attempt). This afternoon I posted a bit about the preparation process on my weekly update at Farm Dreams (see the excerpt below and continue reading at the FD site).

Before and After Patio/Garden Area

This weekend we got busy laying out the garden for the two of us. We are planting ~50% more than we think we will need so that one of two things happens. Either 1.) We get too much for us, and our neighbors, friends and animals get the extras, or 2.) We still don't get enough and we sadly head back to the grocery store for food like we're doing now.

What's our plan for the garden? For our first attempt at gardening we're planning a series of square foot gardens that surround a patio that we unearthed over the weekend. When we first moved to the farm there was a big area covered in gravel with a small fire pit in the middle (see photo above). Mounds of sod encroached from the yard on the periphery. We never really paid attention to that area, to be honest. It was outside of the fenced patio and kind of in no man's land. I just figured we'd dig out the gravel one day when we had some time and grass would grow back. Eventually it would just look like the rest of the yard.  But last week Sweetbreads started digging up the gravel and low and behold there's a big concrete pad underneath. 

Continue Reading at Farm Dreams