My Square Foot Garden

My parents are coming to Madison tomorrow morning to help me build my very own square foot garden. A square foot garden is essentially a raised bed garden for fruits, vegetables, or flowers, in which seeds are plated in 1x1 square foot plots. Last week, my parents built two 4x8 gardens in their yard, and I remember growing up with similar gardens.

My parents recently became very interested in pursuing a plant-based diet after reading the book, the China Study, which examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, and osteoporosis. For the last several months, my parents have stuck to a mostly vegetarian diet, and just the other week, my dad went to the doctor and found that his cholesterol has dropped so low, he needs to get it up a little higher. I think this just goes to show that incorporating more plants and less meat in your diet can truly offer dramatic results.

I became fascinated with the concept of my own square foot garden after my parents showed me pictures of their new garden and all of the great herb and vegetables they had planted. Suddenly it dawned on me that I wanted my very own square foot garden and a true chance to put my green thumb to the test! Not to mention all of the amazing vegetables and herbs for summer salads and grilled veggies.

So we’ll see how it goes tomorrow. I’ve selected what I think is a good, sunny plot in our backyard, and my dad has helped me to put together the excel sheet above with my garden layout. Dad is heading out today to pick up the lumber and seeds/plants so we can get right to work after a morning stroll around the downtown farmer’s market. Should be a great weekend and summer project.

And I’m obviously so thankful to my mom and dad for helping me to make this possible. When I asked if they would help, I thought they would be like, ewww, we just planted two of those, and are not so interested in spending our Saturday digging in the mud. But they sounded truly excited to help, and my dad was so generous to offer to get the supplies ready today. That’s just so cool. And by the end of the day tomorrow, I'll have my very own square foot garden!