March 15, 2011. When I look at this picture, I realize how overgrown my backyard was at the beginning of this adventure.

Again, the original plan was to put decorative caps on the tops of the concrete blocks, and a brick patio type floor in the middle . . .
In the foreground - Cherry tomatoes, strawberries.

I bought two books for guidance this year: Mel Bartholomew's Square Foot Gardening and Sally Cunningham's Great Garden Companions. You can't really see it, but there are light blue marks on the blocks measuring off one foot intervals.

Shown in this picture are the little baby cucumber plants to the right of the pipe; a tall, healthy bell pepper plant in the background and a tomato plant called "Mr. Stripey" in the foreground. In the end there would be five tomato plants interspersed with the cucumbers.

Here are the baby corn plants, some onions, a petunia; in the corner there is another cucumber. In his book, Mel Bartholomew tells us about friends who had planted tomatoes, "The owners reflected on how much they expected to put up in the form of sauce, soup, juice, whole and quartered tomatoes. But by August, they couldn't even get into their plot, much less try to tie up their plants . . ."

It seemed like Mel was talking to me; my gardens had overgrown in the past. I vowed that it would not happen this time. I would follow his direction to prevent it.

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