Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Guest Blogger: My Square Foot Garden

WINNER: Cindy

I am so excited to share with you our Guest Blogger for today!  Emily from My Square Foot Garden is here to share her expertise!  Check it out... you might even find a suprise in there!  Here she is:

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5 WAYS TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY IN YOUR GARDEN!

1. Start small and keep it simple


If you’ve never had a garden before, don’t go crazy. In the spring it’s so fun and exciting to buy seeds, plants, and get things growing in the garden. But this is a marathon, not a sprint! Your garden needs regular care—you need to water it, watch for disease and pests, and keep the weeds out. As the plants mature you need to harvest, cook, and can (or give away).

So start small. One question I’m often asked by new gardeners is “How much XXX should I plant?” My answer is always, “Start with one. See how much food you get, then adjust next year.” Let me add that since I use the square foot method, I mean one square. So that would be: one tomato plant, one pepper plant, 16 carrots, 9 onions, 9 beets, 8 peas, 9 beans, one parsley, one basil, 9 spinach, etc.
One zucchini is ALWAYS enough, usually it produces enough for you and two neighbors!

2. Consider growing a Square Foot Garden



The major benefits for busy moms:
Less labor—Square foot gardening means no tilling, hoeing, and virtually no weeding.

Less waste—this method saves space and seeds. Instead of planting a whole packet of seeds and then thinning them, you use between 3 and 25 seeds per square.
More fun—experience the joy of growing and eating your own food. Home-grown always tastes better, and it’s a priceless reward to feed your family healthy and nutritious foods that you grew from start to finish.


I have created a Gardening for Beginners e-book that is a step-by-step guide for designing, building, creating, and planting a garden. It includes a list of recommended vegetables for beginners, a companion planting guide, and delicious recipes to use at harvest time.
3. Co-op with gardening friends



Unless you have a huge garden, it’s likely that you won’t need a full packet of seeds, onion sets, or 6-pack of plants. Find 2 or 3 friends who garden, and split your cache of seeds and plants. This is particularly helpful when you want to grow several varieties (onions, tomatoes, peppers). Each of you can purchase one variety, and then divide them up.
4. Know when to plant



Some vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and peas, grow best when it’s cool. Others like tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers cannot tolerate cold temperatures, but they thrive in the heat. I found that knowing when to plant vegetables in my garden was one of the most confusing aspects of gardening.



So, I created my Planting By Color system. You simply look up your frost date and determine which of my six color groups you belong to. I have created a week-by-week schedule that tells you exactly when to plant each vegetable.

You can purchase this in an e-book so you have the entire schedule in front of you, all at once. You can also sign up for weekly email reminders.


Win a FREE e-book bundle! 15% off for everyone!



One winner will get BOTH my e-books (Gardening for Beginners and Planting by Color)  for FREE by posting a comment below that includes this:

1. What was the most helpful thing you found on my website? www.mysquarefootgarden.net

2. Why do you want to win the gardening e-books?

3. Your email address

The next best thing to free is a discount, and EVERYONE that reads Savvy Moms Save can get 15% off the gardening bundle by entering the code SMS15 at checkout. (If the winner has already purchased my gardening bundle I will issue a refund.) This code expires on May 4th at Midnight.
Happy Gardening!

 
 
 
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How about that!?  Just leave ONE comment below and make sure to include all three items and you could win a GREAT tool to help you in your garden this summer (and for years to come...).  The giveaway ends May 7th at midnight.  Good Luck!

6 comments:

The Blaisdell Family

I really liked the info about building vs buying. My husband and I are always going back and forth on the pros and cons of these two aspects. Thanks for breaking it all down into prices we can look at!!!

Why do I want to win?? Who doesn't need SOME help gardening, right? I love to learn new things about gardening. The more the better!!!

theblaisdells[at]hotmail[dot]com

ericksonzone

What a great giveaway!

I really liked reading about having a plan and planting by color. We had a garden last year, but we didn't really have a good plan as to what we would actually use and there was a lot of waste.

As to winning, I love the idea of planting more in a smaller area so there isn't as much weeding and more conservation on the water.

jcinthezone(at)gmail(dot)com

Kerrie

1. What was the most helpful thing you found on my website? www.mysquarefootgarden.net
-- I found the veggie info tab to be very helpful!

2. Why do you want to win the gardening e-books?
-- This is my first year to have a garden and I have a ton of questions

3. Your email address
kerriekg@yahoo.com

The Blaisdell Family

Maybe I missed it, but I never saw a post for the winner of this giveaway that ended on May 7th. Did anyone win this yet??

The Blaisdell Family

How come nobody has responded about this yet?

Savvy Moms Save

The winner is posted at the beginning of this post. Thanks!

Swagbucks: The best!