I'm going to actually follow the rules for Square Foot Gardening this year. I've read Mel's book many times and have loosely sorta kinda followed it's principals. I will measure & mark my raised beds and then plant accordingly (carrots are 16 per square, broccoli and cauliflower are 1 each per square, etc.) But I didn't want to actually do the measuring myself. No real reason, I just didn't wanna.
The most peaceful hour of spring break last week was when I gave the boys hammers, finish nails, and a tape measure to go mark the vegetable beds in 12" increments. Some of the beds just got a Sharpie hash mark every 12 inches, others got nails. The beds with nails are for the kids-they'll use twine to mark out the little squares and then they will plant. The really seemed to like doing this. Oh-and Bryce *did* use a real hammer, he's just using his toy hammer in the photo.
None of the boys required any supervision. I gave them a lesson on how to do what I wanted (ahem, very Montessori of me!), and then let them loose. They helped Bryce with reading the tape measure accurately, but he was able to hammer by himself. It's times like this that I'm happy to have a fleet of boys at my disposal!!
Can't wait to see how your garden grows. Isn't it exciting to have the boys involved in this? My son always loved gardening with me. Now, he's container gardening on his apartment terrace at college.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ann. I hope this rubs off on them like it did for your son! =)
DeleteSquare foot gardening is a great idea, but getting your boys to do it for a quiet afternoon... that's priceless!
ReplyDeleteGreat to have such wonderful helpers!
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