Garden Grid

It is time to fire up my vegetable garden again!

Since I am in zone 6 my frost-free date isn't until early May, but the weather has been so mild I decided to risk starting early.

The first step, which wouldn't care if there was another frost was to till and prep the soil.

One concern I had was how to create a grid to lay over my garden in order to keep track of what was planted where. I wanted something durable that would be able to survive the weather and being watered. But I also wanted it to light-weight and semi-permanent so I could easily move it if I needed to.

I was considering a number of elaborate ideas, but knew I should frame it out first to make it easier to take measurements.

To that end, I untangled the acrylic yarn and wood skewers I used last year and put them to work again.

This set up came to a bad end last year. While attempting to weed-wack around my garden I hit one of the skewers, which broke the skewer and resulted in yarn getting tangled up IN and around the weed-wacker head.

Oops.

Luckily I was able to work the yarn out of the head and the machine is running normally again.

After getting my temporary guide grid in place I dragged hubby out to my garden to bounce ideas off of him.

His reactions included, "What is wrong with what you have already?" and "What are other people using?" Both were good points.

Now there shouldn't be another weed-wacker incident because I have the stone border in place now. An issue I had with the yarn last years was the first time it rained the yarn sagged and was no longer accurate. I suppose I could always tighten it up if it sags.

I did an internet search for "square foot garden grids" and in many of the forum posts I read people were saying they were using yarn or twine! I'm already using the method a lot of other people find effective.

That was a relief! I saved a lot of time and money. My current grid is essentially free because I used items I already have around the house. Time was saved because I don't have to worry about building anything.

With the grid situation resolved I was free to plant my cold weather veggies —spinach, radishes, beets, onion, and carrots.

I was also happy to see the strawberries and asparagus I planted last year seem to be coming back strong.