Gardening Season is here!

I've planted lettuce, so all must be right with the world! On Sunday last week, when the Grand Rapids area hit close to 90 degrees, I got 8 square feet of lettuce planted in my square foot garden box.

Last week I gave a talk on how to garden with children who are blind or have low vision at the MAER (Michigan Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired) . Gardening with blind children is something I have been doing for seven years at Camp Tuhsmeheta, a camp for children who are blind or visually impaired near Greenville, MI.  This was before the big boom in interest in growing your own food.  The kids at camp have taught me a great deal about what works and what doesn't.

There are three simple tools that nearly anyone with a few square feet of land can use, and if you don't have any land, you can still use pots on your patio or balcony or even your window sill.  First, buy or borrow the book, Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, or look up information on the square foot gardening method online.  You build a box from regular lumber or the plastic stuff, put it on the ground in a place where it will get plenty of sun and it will be easy for you to water, and fill it with a light weight soil mix - don't use regular dirt from your yard.  The mix is 1 part vermiculite, available at garden centers or home centers as insulation material, 1 part peat moss, and 2 parts compost.  Mix it all on a big tarp and fill your box.  Then you need a grid - it's like a solid form of graph paper with 1'x1' square sections..  Take some small gauge wood, like 1"x1", and make graph paper using cotter pins to connect them at intersections.  This was they fold up and are easy to store for the winter.  Screw them down on top of your box filled with planting mix.

Next you need a template.  Take 1'x1' squares of cardboard or stiff plastic sheets and use a hole saw or just a utility knife to cut holes in a pattern in the square - 16 holes in 4 rows for onions and carrots and lettuce, or 4 holes for marigold plants or green beans, and 1 hole in the center for broccoli or cabbage plants. This allows a person who is blind to locate where the seeds or plants need to go.  Cover with enough soil according to the package of seed and water, and in a few weeks your child or adult friend who is blind or visually impaired will be able to feel little plant sprouts!