GCA Ball

We attended the 2nd annual GCA Ball on Saturday night.  It was a masquerade theme.  The finger foods were yummy and there were several UGA college students who played the music, performed, danced with students, and taught some dance moves.  It was a really fun evening even though the weather was horrible (pouring down rain in buckets) and Mike and I don't know how to dance.  We tried but it was pretty sad.  Of course, we know how to "slow dance" and we attempted the Macarana!  I think we might need to take a few dance lessons before we try it again!

Square Foot Garden, The Seeds

So, we have the box, dirt, and grid to block out each square foot in the box.  Next, we plant the seeds.  We decided to plant veggies in the first box.  I planted radishes, two different kinds of lettuce, and beans.  According to the distance of how far apart you are to plant the seeds, determines how many plants will be in each square foot.  So, the lettuce will have 4 plants in each square foot, the radishes will have 16 plants in each square foot, and the beans will have 9 plants in each square foot.  The radishes popped up pretty quickly and the lettuce soon followed.  I have yet to see a bean but they take longer to germinate.  I also planted two different tomato plants in pots; one cherry tomatoes, and one a slicing tomato.  I planted cilantro and basil in smaller pots.  The basil has popped up but the cilantro will take awhile as I spilled the dirt and had to replant the seeds.  I will probably move these to a square box when they get bigger and I have another one made.

Square Foot Garden, The Dirt

Horse manure at the farm

dug up horse manure

5 different composts

Peat Moss, Vermiculite

Mixing the dirt

Okay, so yesterday I posted how we built our little 2 x 2 ft box to house my square foot garden.  Today I want to tell you about the dirt in my square foot garden.  Mr. Bartholomew came up with a special concoction that he fondly likes to call, "Mel's Mix".  Well since Mel sells his mix only to Utah residence, we have to make our own.  This consists of 1/3 Peat Moss, 1/3 Vermiculite, and 1/3 compost.  The compost is made up of 5 different kinds of compost.  Finding 5 different kinds of compost is no easy trick, but I managed to do it.  I used:  mushroom compost, horse manure, hen manure, cow manure, and worm castings.  The horse manure was free from a farm down the road.  I purchased the hen, cow, and mushroom compost from Lowe's and the worm castings from a wholesale landscape supplier.  The Peat Moss and Vermiculite I bought from a farm/feed store.  After you gather all your supplies, you have to mix all the compost together in equal parts.  We made a small box to use as a scooper and we used 5 scoops of each compost and mixed them together.  Then we took 5 scoops each of the compost, peat moss, and vermiculite and mixed them together.  Then we filled the box.  Whew!  That was a lot of work just for dirt. I am expecting great things from this garden!

Square Foot Garden, The Box

Last year I bought a book by Mel Bartholomew entitled, "All New Square Foot Gardening".  While I didn't know where I would be living at the time, I decided when we finally moved and had a house I would try to do it.  So, that is what we have been up to for the last two weeks.  You need a square foot box to put the garden in.  You can make it any size; the ideal size is a 4 x 4 but since I decided to put it on my deck and start out small, I had Mike build me a 2 x 2 box.  We took down the pillars from the front porch as they weren't supporting the roof and I was going to take them to the dump, but my wonderful husband came up with the idea of building the boxes from the pillars.  Yeah!  Free wood!  It doesn't get better then that!

Pillars

Ripping up the pillars

Cutting the 2 x 2 size

Attaching the pieces together

Yeah, the 2 x 2 sides are done!

Cutting the plywood base 

Attaching the base 

Finished box with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage

Stay tuned for part 2 of the Square Foot Garden, the dirt.

Mr. Andrews

Yesterday, a friend and coworker passed away.  He was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of last year, and cancer took over his earthly body.  He is now home with the Lord.  Mr. Andrews was a band director for the school my children went to and where Mike and I worked.  He loved the students he taught and mentored many of them.  Josh had a great friendship with him.  He was a kind, quiet, gentle man who also enjoyed farming.  However, I will always remember Darryl for being there for my kids when I couldn't be.  Mike and I went to the beach for a trip and Darryl kindly watched the kids for us.  Josh had not been driving very long and was in a car accident that very time we were gone.  Emily was hurt and needed stitches.  The whole experience while very difficult was touched by the Lord in many ways.  Emily was a wonderful testimony in the hospital to all the drs. and nurses who helped her.  While she did need stitches, it could have been so much worse as the cut glass missed her eye by just a fraction of an inch.  Darryl was there to help Josh who was naturally very upset about the whole ordeal.  As Mike and I frantically drove home from the beach praying, Darryl was there to watch over my kids.  I will never forget not only his willingness to take care of my kids, but his being there for me for two of the most precious people in my life when I couldn't be.  The wonderful thing is, there are many stories of what a blessing Mr. Andrews was to many, many people.  My heart hurts to know that he has gone so quickly and seemed to have so many wonderful years ahead of him, but I am not God and I know God has a perfect plan for us and this was part of his plan for Darryl.  He is rejoicing today!  Praise God for the hope we have in Jesus Christ.