square foot gardening

This is a typical square in my garden. I have nine this year, I'm making three more for next year. I'm basically using the square foot system. You can see the concrete blocks surrounding the 16 square foot garden space. The actually feet are marked with nylon string threaded through a wooden frame. The frame is sitting inside the concrete blocks. There is rebar at each corner of the block. To the left the rebar helps to hold up some electrical conduit, to which garden netting is attached. The rebar allows me to wrap the square with chicken wire and protect my plants from my chickens. Theoretically I can make a tent for the square and protect it against bad weather, but I haven't done that yet. All of my garden beds are either concrete or wooden squares. I really like having my garden organized into feet. It forces me to make better use of the small space. In our backyard it is very obvious what is garden and what is not so I do not have problems with anyone walking on the soil and compacting it. The soil is fabulous. I am very spoiled, we have a regional compost facility a few miles away. Every spring I go over and pick up a truck load of compost (for about $12 a load) and the soil you see is mainly compost from my friendly neighborhood composting facility.