My Square Foot Garden :c)

It's official, I have planted my first garden! This is something I have been wanting to do for a couple years now (I remember thinking about it when I was pregnant last time, but decided that I wouldn't want to be weeding a garden with a big belly, this time I figured I'll be outside with Isaiah anyways, why not have a garden!). Through pintrest I found a link to the book, The Square Foot Garden. It had actual directions for me to follow, which I like to start (even if I'm not good at following them all- as you'll see below..). It also seemed small and manageable for my first time. So over a couple weekends, I constructed the box, filled, and planted my first garden. 

Here she is :c)

 My supplies for the box-

My helper-

 It was all hands on deck to build the square foot box

 The quality of work with this guy on the job was outstanding!

Then I shooed everyone away and really got to finish the box and decide where to place it. I had planed on having it further from the house, but my yard slopes and it fit perfectly here!

After building it, I screwed 3 screws on each side to tie twine around. Mel, the author,  recommends something more permanent, but I though this could get me by for the first year.

 Next I dug up the grass, the least fun part (and the part that always made me nervous to start a garden.. I felt like it was destroying my lawn or making it a permanent garden spot!)

 Then I put my barrier in. I think it only recommends laying on the bottom, but I felt better going up the side (hopefully it doesn't leave room for moisture to sit on my untreated wood)

I recruited hubby again, and we filled the box with Mel's mix, 1/3 Vermiculate, 1/3 Peat Moss, and 1/3 Compost. We used a tarp to mix small batches, then dumped in. I then created my grid with the twin.

We've had these wire stands on the side of the house left over from the previous owners and have never used them, I though they fit perfectly into my garden, esp. for the price of free!

 Next came the actual gardening part.. planting! I tried to wait until after all the freeze (what a crazy April it's been!), but there's still talk of cold weather next week. I might have to replant my seeds anyway, because I just couldn't get myself to plant the seeds 1/4 of in inch deep (I felt like that was just tossing them on top!), but I think I went too deep on them all...

 I used rocks to label, although now some of the sharpie has washed off.. see why it took me so long to start this? I have a slow learning curve..

 If any on the plants needed to germinate inside first, I just bought a plant. For all that could start outside, I did seeds.

And that's my garden! This 4x4 box has 16 square foot spaces to plant in. I am attempting: pole beans, 2 kinds of tomatoes, spinach, lettuce, kale, red peppers, jalapenos, green onions, cilantro (I hope to have everything to make homemade salsa!), and I still have 2 open squares. I also planted 3 strawberry plants in my front planter, and yesterday I found the start of 1 strawberry, so exciting! Like I said, this is my first experience to garden, and I usually have a bit of a learning curve, but once I get it then I'm good. So hopefully we'll have some produce this year, and experience for the future!