On May 26, 2010, I assembled the lathe strips. The book says that you can’t call it a square foot garden unless you have physically divided it into square foot sections. I measured and drilled three holes one foot apart through each of the lathe strips. I made the holes just large enough for a cotter pin to push through. I assembled the strips with the cotter pins, using needle nose pliers to bend the cotter pins. (In the future, I might use washers to keep the heads of the cotter pins from eventually pulling through the wood.)

I set out all the plants that we had bought at Lowe’s and the garden center. My wife drew a plan of the two garden squares and wrote down what was planted in each.





The green bell peppers were blooming and already had some tiny peppers. The Beefsteak tomato plants were blooming also. Either on this day or the next I planted some Fordhook lima beans. I like them, so I planted four squares.