Square Foot Gardening - Box Building

I am bound and determined to make a garden work this year.  I have only had one other garden and it did great... until I forgot to water it and everything died.  (really it was that I planted to late and everything died from the heat) So, with that being said, I have been studying and learning as much as I can so that I will not repeat the past. I've also decided that since my husband has only a small amount in faith in my ability to make plants grow, I will spend as little as possible. 

I decided that square foot gardening would be the best route for me.  I'm 30 weeks pregnant and I think bending over and weeding would not work for me.  I bought Mel Bartholomew's book All New Square Foot Gardening at Dollar General for a fraction of what it is on Amazon,  I read several blogs which can be found on my Pinterest Gardening Board, and I did my own local research by talking to the local farm supply store.  I think I'm blue in the face from all the facts so it was time for me to take action.

The boys ran across scrap wood in our 2nd barn and I took a trip out there to find out if any of it would be useful.  Thankfully, I was able to salvage enough to make 4 boxes of varying sizes.  (We won't talk about the fact that I got our Econo Van stuck in the mud while trying to move this wood.)

I tried following directions from the different sites, but I found that a cheap drill and cheap screws just cause for lost time. I will eventually invest in a drill that works!  After a little elbow grease from my husband (removing all the stripped screws), we were finally able to get the boxes completed. I was able to use screws with a started whole and then we finished it with nails. Next time, I will use wood glue to help. I placed them in the spot and lined the bottom with layers of cardboard I'd been saving from our move.  Cardboard will kill the grass and eventually break down to help with the compost. A win win! 

So here are the results! I'm pretty proud, since my husband only helped in the removing of the screws. I did the sawing and everything else.

Welcome Y'all!  My family and I moved out here in August of 2012.  It has been an adventure to say the least. We're pretty much city slickers learning how to live and work with the land. It's a dream come true for us and we're loving it.  I'll break it down to you: We're a family of 7 (almost 8) living in a 1580 sqft home out in the country in Texas on 16 acres.  We had 2 ducks but thanks to our new pet alligator those have vanished so we are left with 1 alligator and 1 rabbit. We also homeschool our children so that's another adventure in and of itself. We knew NOTHING of country living out here until now and boy have we learned a lot!

We had major plans to fix up the land and the buildings, buy and raise animals, and basically learn how to be somewhat of a homestead.....but I found out I was pregnant the second week we moved in.  It was quite a shocker, but we feel truly blessed.  Needless to say, our plans had to be put on hold for 3 months while I endured the oh so fun morning, day and night sickness.  I am now in my third trimester and have been quite panicky on accomplishing things before the baby comes, Because of this extra energy,  I've actually accomplished quite a bit.  I plan on sharing these projects and the lessons I've learned from a "city slicker" point of view.