Asparagus and SFG

Today Marie brought over asparagus from her garden. Woot woot! First asparagus bunch of the season! I'm so excited. We are having them with dinner.

In other news, Mom has become obsessed with Square Foot Gardening. Well, maybe not obsessed, but she has convinced Dad it is the way to go. Mother doesn't remember how she heard about Square Foot Gardening. I tried to ask her when she knew that the SFG method was the right method for her, but she had no idea. She obviously needed some help, so she went to the Atascadero Library and ordered All New Square Foot Gardening, Grow More in Less Space! by Mel Bartholomew from the Blanchard Community Library in Santa Paula, California.

I don't even really know where Santa Paula is located.

While we were waiting for the book to arrive, Mother was saying how she wants everyone to have a certain amount of square feet to grow whatever they want. I knew my parents would grow the fruits and vegetables. So I decided on flowers and peanuts. Hopefully I have chosen flowers that will work well in vases. You know, flowers with long stems, none of this Impatients or Petunia business.

Also, I decided it was time to grow some peanuts. It turns out you just need a few raw peanuts, and you are good to go. Apparently, you plant them now, and then harvest them in the fall. I can't hardly wait. I had found directions for the SFG method, but Mom informed me that she didn't want my peanuts mingling with everything else, so they have been cast out of the raised beds and into a wine barrel!

I hope my peanuts don't taste like wine.

I picked up my seeds at the store yesterday after work and was planning on planting them today. At breakfast Mom and I were reading out loud interesting bits from the SFG book. I was doing some dishes when she suddenly reads a passage to me:

Looking through a seed catalog is not the best way to decide what to grow. They make it all look so good and sound so exciting that you can easily get carried away. I recommend you review your shopping list from last week and last month. That eliminates the "Oh, I'd like to grow that!" or "Wouldn't it be fun to grow peanuts?"

Mother nearly passed out laughing.

Just so you know, I planted my peanuts this morning.


Mel Bartholomew did not start as a gardener. He started as a civil engineer and as an efficiency expert. He's all about efficiency. He tosses out the old way of doing things, and comes up with better ways. I like him, I'm excited for our garden this year. While he was promoting this idea, a main point was to help children understand how to garden, and to encourage parents to garden with their children, bringing them closer together and to improve the family's diet.

The last two paragraphs of his book state:

Well, here I am, on my soapbox trying to solve worldwide problems when you just want to learn how to have a better garden in your yard. But what this book is all about it how SFG can reach and help so many more people.

That's the significant and imperative message I want to bring to the world. Will you help me? You can--by encouraging others to have an SFG. Get involved in your community or stretch your involvement to the entire world. Anyone, anywhere in the world can now have a small square meter garden right at their back door. The nutritional value of the children's diet will improve dramatically and step-by-step, as they expand their garden, that family will be closer to self-sufficiency and independence from government and private aid programs. You know the saying, "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." The world hunger problem can never be solved until we help people help themselves, step-by-step, square-by-square. Then, maybe the saying will be, "Show a family how to Square Meter Garden, and they will feed themselves forever."

I don't mean to become obsessed with SFG, but I think it is an interesting idea. I can't wait to report on our experiences. I'll report on my peanut crop too, even though Mel is a hater.