I've been feeling bummed out over the last week since it appears that my latest idea to thwart the gophers wasn't going to work out. The main problem is we didn't mix our heavy clay soil in with the compost that we shoveled into the pallet bed. As a result, the compost is light and airy, but unfortunately, seemingly water-resistant.

I've been gardening successfully for twenty years, so part of me thinks I should know better. I'll know better next time. I briefly explored raised bed gardening, but apparently this method doesn't work so well in hot climates. The bed is typically warmer, and the hot water means you're using a lot more water.

You can see the pallet bed in the background of my guard kitty photo on this post.

I selected two pallets which had wide spaces between the boards. I lined the bottom of the pallets with 1/4-inch mesh hardware cloth, then brought poultry netting up the sides. Then we filled the pallets with compost which consisted of hay, dirt and goat berries. It is a lovely compost, but I didn't realize it was going to be so resistant to holding water.

Mr. A has been working from home this week, on a rotating table he's building for a client. This worked out great for me, as the dripline system wasn't working the way it's supposed to – due to the compost not absorbing water. Mr. A kept the new bed watered by hand all week long.

This morning as I was watering, I sat down near the garden, just staring at the soil. After a few minutes, I started noticing that I have baby plants here and there! Tiny little things. I don't recognize them, they are different than the weed cotyledons in the first bed.

This gives me hope!

I've always loved gardening. I remember when I was ten years old, digging up a little plot and planting seeds. I remember a lady that lived down the canal from us, she had a beautiful garden and she always grew tons of Sweet Peas, to this day these are my favorite flower. The scent is intoxicating, if you grow the right variety. I buy Old Spice from Pinetree Seeds.

The only problem is I never paid much attention to what I was planting during which season, until the year I finally got serious about gardening. I was in my late twenties and I'd planted spinach in April. The seeds germinated, but soon it was so hot that all my plants died. I loved the idea of gardening so much, but it seemed I was doomed to have a black thumb. We visited the library weekly, so I checked out some books. I found this one that changed my black thumb green: The Backyard Vegetable Factory: Super Yields from Small Spaces by Duane Newcomb.

The book is now out of print, but you can still buy used copies. I learned a lot in this book: when to plant, companion planting, how to enhance your soil, and lots of other important things.

Here's a couple of Mr. Newcomb's books, apparently he wrote several books along the lines of square foot gardening.

Mel Bartholomew seems to be the new square foot gardening guru.

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