There's been some progress on our garden boxes! Earlier in the week, we mulched between the garden boxes with a truckload of mulch. Then, this morning, we mixed up some more of our special soil mix: peat moss, rice hulls, and compost and got the boxes all filled. Then, it was time to lay the grid. The grid is what gives "square foot gardening" its name. It breaks the box down into squares and gets you to thinking in terms of boxes rather than rows. Of course, there's a whole book on this subject, so I'll spare you all the theory behind the grid. If you're interested, check out our link to the Square Foot Gardening book and other similar titles on our Homesteading Resources tab.

I priced wood lattice pieces at good 'ole Home Depot but decided that it would be cheaper to go another route. We waited until JCPenney put their 2" faux wood blinds on 50% off, then ordered 2 sets of 52"x64" white blinds. This gave us all the slats we needed to make grids for 5 4'x8' boxes (with 3 slats leftover).

First, we disassembled the wood blinds. Then, laid them out and used tack nails to hold them in place.

For the long pieces, we joined two pieces together using zip-ties and the holes that were already in the blind slats.

Here's a completed box.

And, the garden boxes all complete. Now, we can go plant our spinach!