Square Foot Gardening!

Vanilla marigolds, so pretty. Marigolds do good in Vegas hot weather, and they repel bad bugs from tomatoe plants.
Thyme, chives, and basil, with a tube to get the water straight to the roots since pots dry up very fast.
My tribute to Grandma Hazel. In her backyard, just outside the back door, she had a round pit full of mint, and it smelled so good. Mint is like a weed, and needs to be contained.
Alyssum, another family tribute. Growing up in Burbank, my front yard had these little white flowers all through the grass. It was wonderful to lay down and pick flowers under the apricot trees. Alyssum does great in Vegas, and will grow through the winter.
Our yard:)
Zucchini and Rosemary. I've learned recently that you need bees to pollinate the squash, so it will grow fruit, or you can hand pollinate it. I've never wanted bees before in my life till now.
The crowded box: chives, 'Sweet Cherry 100' tomato plants, peppers, parley, and marigolds. These tomatos are going to get really tall, like 5 feet. I hope they last in the heat. This box will have shadecloth soon.
Strawberries, alyssum, marigolds, and onions. I figured the onions have to work; they're underground where its cooler! Pine needles for mulch, keep that soil cool and moist.

Well, I've always wanted to try Mel Batholomew's square foot gardening. It looks so easy and so rewarding, but I don't have a yard. I thought I would wait until we move to Utah to try it out, but then we decided to stay here for school. I said to Shaun "Let's do it here!" and we worked hard on his two days off last week. Poor guy, no rest on his days off. We loaded up the kids, went to Lowes, picked up some lumbar, baseboards, nails, screws, and a power drill. (awesome investment!) Shaun did the heavy loading while I pushed the double stroller around, trying to get Kevin to take his nap in the carseat. We went to Star Nursery and found the soil stuff, grabbed some plants and headed home.
We built three 2x2 foot boxes, with boards 12 inches high and 2 inch thick. Lowes does not cut your lumber for you, (lame!) so we bought a hack saw, thinking that would do the trick. Shaun tried to saw the wood, and it was incredibly hard. My darling friend Kerri had a table saw at her home, and I sent Shaun over with the wood.
As we worked on the boxes, almost everything went wrong. I felt bad that it wasn't going easier, since Shaun was doing all the work for me. I said, "This never happens on the Home and Garden shows." He said "Its ok, we're learning how to make the next boxes better." I love my husband. He liked this project, the "tool time" spirit was coming out in him.
We put Ethan to bed, went back outside to keep working, home teachers came by and said "You're really serious about gardening" which made me smile. By 9pm, the boxes were done with the "Mel's Mix" and some plants. We then went to bad and passed out from exhaustion:)
There are three vital soil ingredients for SFG: compost, peat moss, and vermiculite. Compost is for nutrients, and the other two are for retaining water in the soil, a must for Vegas weather. I was contemplating going cheap and getting Perlite instead of Vermiculite, since Vermiculite is twenty bucks a bag. I wanted to have success and finally grow plants in 110 degree weather, so I spent the money and put my faith in this stuff. It feels like quick sand! After mixing it all together, I knew that I had wasted my money for years on Miracle Grow potting soil. I really think this soil mix is going to be the answer. We'll see when August, the hottest month, comes.
Ok, so here is what we learned:

• We didn't need 2 inch thick boards! It was so hard to drill the screws through all that wood! Just get 1/2 or 1 inch width, it will be much easier. The next box will be about 8 inches high, although at least one 12 inch box would be helpful to grow carrots and potatoes that need the extra space.
  
• We found the wood screws to be really bendy, but that could have been to the 2 inch thick boards. Shaun went back to Lowes and got heavy duty screws, and they went in great.
  
• Find someone with a power saw. Power tools are great! Lowes only cuts baseboards for you.
• Splurge and get the "Mel's Mix"
• Remember to bring a tape measure with you to the store.
  
• It was worth it to get a power drill.
• Put drainage holes in the baseboards.
• Call stores ahead of time to find Vermiculite. (Star Nursery has it here, for locals)
• (Locals) Star Nursery is so much cheaper than Plant World!!! 68 cents for Marigolds, and more! There's one on Ann and Simmons.
• You can read gardening stuff all you want, but it helps to talk to locals who have success in gardening. I talked to a lady who moved here from Utah, and had success with peppers and cherry tomatoes. She said in Utah, you can spit on the ground and it would grow something. If only that happened here, but Vegas has a much longer growing season, yes!
  

I hope all this info helps you. (Lana, you could so do this! You have a backyard and the gorgeous Utah weather!) We're planning on building a 2 feet by 8 feet long box for the fall season, 8 inches high. (and 1/2 inch thick!) It will be fun to start the madness all over again. I love gardening, just still learning how to do it through insane heat. Its hard, but not impossible. Mulch and shade cloth!

Here's the SFG website:
http://www.squarefootgardening.com/