The All New Square Foot Gardening Guide

Mel Bartholmew has updated and revised his 25 year old gardening classic.
"All New Square Foot Gardening"

In my 20 years of gardening... and the last 5 years of doing extensive reasearh... this is the best method for gardening I've found. I'm confident in that recommendation. I see absolutely no reason to go back to traditional row gardening again.

the art department's "pond"

Aaron showed me the "environmental art installation" deep in the woods behind the honors house.

I still consider it a "pond", even if I have completed my requirements for a degree in Art.

I think its very cool, but I do see a few small issues-- not in aesthetics, but in the engineering.

Anyhow, to keep the pond from stagnating, a little aqua-culture wouldn't be a bad idea.

I'd hate to step on anyone's toes. But you know, a stagnant pond filled with rotting vegetation and mosquitoes isn't anyones idea of aesthetics.

A quick first step would be making a natural bio-filter. It sounds complicated, but its not. Having water trickle through a pile of pumice (volcanic rock/lava rock) works as an excellent biofiter. Its naturally very porous. The pond is fed by a drain pipe. We'd just have to place a pile of volcanic rock inside the bottom of the pipe. A cubic foot of volcanic rock would work, and its available at Lowes for $4.

Having plants and animals inside the pond will also keep it in a natural balance and prevent it from becoming a stagnant cesspool.

At first, I thought about goldfish. But my dad said native catfish would survive the winter better. Fortunately, there's a company in newtown, ohio:
http://www.jonesfish.com/content/estore.asp
that sells catfish for ponds and for farming. Plus catfish are bottom-feeders and will eat anything and are very self sufficient. Mosquito fish are also an option, and they sell them too.

The fish need oxygen, so a couple of plants will help too. I see that jone's fish sell plants, so they'll know what grows in ponds here.

I know Taro growns well .... I see it everywhere in Lousiana-- very prolific. However, i found that it's only tolerant to zone 8, so thats not an option...

killing with vinegar

Aaron and I sprayed down the garden yesterday. We used a homemade formula of about 4 oz of lemon juice from concentrate and 128 oz of distilled white vinegar. Each gallon of vinegar cost about $1.50 (Kroger brand) and 32 oz. lemon juice was about the same. A gallon of Round Up is about $12 at Lowes.

I went back up this afternoon to survey the results-- although some weeds seem unaffected, other had begun to turn brown and crispy. I'd say we acheived a 40-60% kill rate.

i think the next best time to go weed killing again would be in mid-november after first killing frost. or march.

We used about 2.5 gallons of vinegar.

also, we figure out the math from the other day was off by a factor of ten -- .6 fluid oz of vinegar per square foot, not 6 oz. ... so i'll update the old entry.