What is composting? Put simply it is decomposed organic material. This material can range from banana peels, food, manure, lawn clippings, and the like.

You can create your own compost mound or purchase kits that they sell at various hardware, home improvement, and garden stores.

Composting does take time to occur, so it’s recommended that you select a site that is not too close to your living environment, but not too far away from where you plan to use it. Anything organic can be placed into your compost pile. the result of the compost is a rich, healthy soil, that will will make anything growing in your garden look and grow stronger, faster, giving you great results.

If you decide to compost yourself, you’ll be happy to know that it is much better for the environment than those fertilizers you’ve been buying in stores. Composting is natural and you are simply replicating what happens in nature for your own advantage.

An updated book published by Mel Bartholomew in February 2006.

The practice combines concepts from other organic gardening methods, including a strong focus on compost, closely planted raised beds and biointensive attention to a small, clearly defined area. Proponents claim that the method is particularly well-suited for areas with poor soil, beginning gardeners or as adaptive recreation for those with disabilities.

The original square-foot-gardening method used an open-bottomed box to contain a finite amount of soil, which was divided with a grid into sections. To encourage variety of different crops over time, each square would be planted with a different kind of plant, the number of plants per square depending on an individual plant’s size.

A single tomato plant might take a full square, as might herbs such as oregano, basil or mint, while most strawberry plants could be planted four per square, with up to sixteen radishes per square. Tall or climbing plants such as maize or pole beans might be planted in a northern row (south in the southern hemisphere) so as not to shade other plants, and supported with lattice or netting.

The logic behind using smaller beds is that they are easily adapted, and the gardener can easily reach the entire area, without stepping on and compacting the soil. In the second edition, Bartholomew suggests using a “weed barrier” beneath the box, and filling it completely with “Mel’s mix,” a combination by volume of one third of decayed Sphagnum “peat moss”, one-third expanded vermiculite and one-third blended compost. For accessibility, raised boxes may have bottoms to sit like tables at a convenient height, with approximately 6″ (15cm) of manufactured soil per square foot.

Benefits:

• Much less work. Conventional gardening requires heavy tools to loosen the soil, whereas in this method, the soil is never compacted and it remains loose and loamy. Weeding takes only seconds to minutes, due to the light soil, raised beds, and easily accessed plants. Harvests per foot of garden are increased due to the rich soil mixture, well-spaced plants, and lack of weeds produced when following Mel Bartholomew’s method.
• Water Savings. The soil mixture that is advised has water-holding capacities, so that the garden needs water less frequently, and in much smaller quantities than when using other gardening methods. Water is also spared by hand-watering directly at the plant roots, so that there is very little waste and tender young plants and seedlings are preserved.
• Very little weeding. One benefit of this close planting is that the vegetables form a living mulch, and shade out many weed seeds before they have a chance to germinate.
• Pesticide / Herbicide Free. Natural insect repellent methods like companion planting (i.e. planting marigolds or other naturally pest-repelling plants) become very efficient in a close space and thus, pesticides are not necessary. The large variety of crops in a small space also prevents plant diseases from spreading easily.
• Accessibility. A plywood bottom can be attached to the bottom of a box, which can then be placed on a tabletop or raised platform for those who wish to garden without bending or squatting, or to make gardening easy for wheelchair, cane or walker users.

In this economy it is no doubt that everyone is looking for ways to save cash, and gardening is one of the easiest and most rewarding ways to make
your dollar go further.  Tomatoes, Potatoes, Cabbage, Corn, Lettuce, Green Beans, Squash, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Bell peppers and the list goes on
and on; limited only by ones imagination.

Did you know a lot of Plant shops and Gardening Centers are selling more seeds now than they have in the past few years combined.  Some stores
can’t even keep vegetable seeds in stock.  Seeds last for years so if you need to buy those extra few packages of strawberries or pinto’s then by all
means do so.

The price of produce rises and falls with the economic situation.  When gas rises the cost of produce rises, the cost of canned produce rises.  So it
is only smart that one plan to grow a garden and watch mother nature do it’s thing.  A pack of Silver queen Corn can grow in a couple of months
while feeding your family through the winter.  Savings for that alone could save one a hundred plus dollars.  Add the other vegetables one grows
during the growing seasons and you could save hundreds of dollars per year.

Yes gardening takes a little more work than driving to your local grocer, but the taste and cost savings will be well worth it.  If you have never
planted your own Garden, or have but just haven’t done so in the past few years with the economy the way it is now there is no better time to get
back into it and with the savings take that vacation or buy that new dress you have been wanting.

Who knew there would be so many rewards to Gardening, saving money and stress relieving!