Special Edition: The Power of Raised Bed Square Foot Gardening

 OK, it's story time. I went to a workshop last year where an 80+ year-old 4th generation farmer advised me to plant my Fall garlic (in Southeastern Ohio) on October the 5th from now on. When I asked him why that particular date was important, he looked a bit puzzled. "Why? Well, that's when we ALWAYS planted it."

So I took his advice last Fall and harvested today. All of this garlic came out of one 4' x 4' raised bed. 56 bulbs of garlic, some nearly as big as a tennis ball, out of 16 square feet of garden space!

With raised beds and Square Foot Gardening, you do not need a lot of space to grow a lot of produce! As another experiment this year, I have 7 different varieties of peppers (1 plant each) growing in a round kids' plastic wading pool, and so far they're doing great!