As mentioned in my previous gardening post, I have to start seeds outside due to the presence of cats inside.  To achieve this goal, I ordered a mini greenhouse that seemed like it would work well enough for my little operation. 

The first mini greenhouse I ordered was the Misco GH31 Three Shelf Greenhouse and, well, it sucked.  The plastic struts were brittle and broke when the metal rods were inserted.  The top plastic struts were miscut so that the metal rods didn’t even fit.  I used quite a bit of duct tape to secure the metal to the plastic and figured it would be good enough to last until I found a better solution. 

The second greenhouse I ordered was the Esschert Design GT32 Hardwood Small Greenhouse.  With a hefty price tag and quality materials, I figured I’d be all set.  Sadly, when it arrived, the hinges were damaged beyond use, one of the wood frames had come apart, and the wood was gouged in a number of places.  Really neat design but super poorly manufactured.  (The shipping box didn’t show any damage, so it seems that the product was just very poorly assembled.)  This one got returned to Amazon with quite a bit of disappointment.  It had so much potential!

Today is the day.  The last day of the year.  The day to get my act together for Gardening 2012.  Since I already mapped out my garden, this mainly involved figuring out which plants to order from my chosen seed vendor and ordering my seed starting stuff. 

To rewind slightly, I’ve already planted 30 square feet of garlic.  Lance and I attempted to do this before Thanksgiving but I managed to forget how to walk down stairs thanks to our beautiful new wall and ended up in Urgent Care with a badly twisted ankle.  Art, Lance, and I all finally finished the planting of garlic on November 27th. 

Since I’m planning on doing Square Foot Gardening, I’m planning everything by the square foot.  I have 48 square feet to work with in my garden, 30 of which are taken up by garlic, and the remaining 18 will be taken up by various vegetables and herbs. 

My main trial with garden planning is the whole “need to start seeds inside” issue.  I have cats.  My cats like to eat plants, knock them off counters, etc.  I don’t have a place where I can set up a seed starting rig that would be safe from these kitties which limits my options significantly.  Hopefully House 2.0 will have some sort of garage.  Or spare room.  Or something. 

In the meantime, I needed to explore other options and, after research and talking with my awesome local farmers, I opted to try a mini outdoor greenhouse.  I might try it out inside first, but it will probably end up on the patio in the backyard.  I’m going to start seeds in peat pellets placed in old egg cartons and then transplant them when they’re ready.  Hopefully this will work out well! 

I also went ahead and ordered all of my seeds and transplants for the garden.  It’s quite the list.  I’ll include the number of square feet I’m planning for and any other notes below. 

I have wanted to start gardening for quite some time.  I’ll bounce the idea around in my head but I’ve never actually taken the plunge to just do it and get started.  I experimented with growing my own herbs in pots, which was enjoyable, but I’ve really wanted to grow garlic and tomatoes and other delicious goodies to supplement what I can get at the farmers market. 

Needless to say, I’ve had quite a lot of time to research and figure out which methods I believe will suit me best.  Then, a friend of mine linked to an awesome looking composter and that was the thing that finally pushed me over the precipice.  I couldn’t justify getting an awesome composter if I didn’t garden, you see! 

This week, during one of the many rain storms, I dragooned Art into going to Lowes with me to pick up some wood, screws, brackets, and weed paper.  Aside from getting drenched, this was a fairly easy process.  Actually, the entire construction was fairly easy and took us less than an hour total. 



We started by spreading out three 16-foot lengths of 4-foot weed paper.  This will go under the raised bed to keep weeds from invading my veggies.  The two long sides of the bed are made from 2x12s that are 12 feet long. 



We screwed each corned together with three 3-inch screws and then secured them even more with two L brackets held in by 1 1/4-inch screws. 



Working together, we made short work of all four corners. 



Although we did get eaten by bugs. 



The final bed is 4-foot by 12-foot.  We’re going to mulch around it at some point and then fill it with soil enriched with our own compost.  I was worried it would be too small when I was planning it, but now that we’ve built the thing it seems HUGE. 

My first planting project will be to plant garlic in the fall and we’ll see where it goes from there!