Monthly Tips from:
Square Foot Gardening

Presented By”
Patti Moreno: The Garden Girl and Square Foot Gardening Inventor: Mel Bartholomew

Patti Moreno: Hi, I am Patti Moreno the Garden Girl.

Mel Bartholomew: And I am Mel Bartholomew from Square Foot Gardening Inventor.

Patti Moreno: We are here to give you monthly tips on what you should be doing in your garden and it is January. It is the New Year.

Mel Bartholomew: Right.

Patti Moreno: A lot of us make New Year’s resolutions and I thought that on the top of a lot of people’s list is starting a vegetable garden as here.

Mel Bartholomew: I hope so. When they get their seed catalogues, everyone every year says, “Henry, we want to have a garden this year as a vegetable garden.” Well, of course then they have to plan the whole thing.

Patti Moreno: One of the principles in permaculture is to bring your garden close to you, close to your living environment, close to your house and with square foot gardening, we have reduced the size of our garden so it is a lot easier to maintain.

Mel Bartholomew: Absolutely! And when it is close to your house, you are going to pass it more often. I like to tell people to have it right outside your kitchen window, okay. So while you are doing the dishes, you look right out there and there is your garden. Now, there is a couple of reason for that. One is the pleasure obviously of seeing your garden and watching it grow. The other is in case there some problems out there.

Patti Moreno: So Mel, sunlight is also a concentration?

Mel Bartholomew: Yes, absolutely and for most of vegetables, you need 68 hours of sunlight. Now, in the wintertime, it is a little different sunlight than obviously in the spring and summer. So, you want to kind of remember that the sun is low in the sky now, it may throw more shadows. But think about summer time where the most sun is. And, we want to get that garden as close to the house as possible still with 68 hours of sunlight. You can even have it in a patio or right outside the backdoor. That is the most important thing. Actually in conclusion, the main thing that we have really talked about is get your garden started close to the house. You will take better care of it, you will enjoy it more and it will grow better, much better.

Patti Moreno: I am Patti Moreno the Garden Girl with Mel Bartholomew giving you tips every single month on what you should be doing in your garden.

Mel Bartholomew: And tune in next month because we are going to take you right through the whole garden season.

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