Episode Two in The Garden Takes Shape took place Saturday evening. I was busy in an air conditioned office during the afternoon shift, entering data from canvassing volunteers. It was unseasonably warm in Wisconsin with a recall race heating up, so I waited until I could work in the shade. Clever, eh? Worked in the election reference right away. If you’re alert, you’ll notice a few more references cleverly hidden in the context of the post.

Performance art or garden sculpture?

This corner , mainly inhabited by “walking” green onions, needed work. It offered cages to be removed & grass roots to pull, and you know the strength of grass-roots organizing. I took care of the space around the onions, and I was ready. Well, almost ready.

I use a variation on Square Foot Gardening. I plan my space, block off the squares, and then figure out how many plants or seeds can fit in the space according to the number of squares in the grid.

What grid, you ask? I’ll show you.

This grid.

My grids are not faithful to the trademarked Square Foot Gardening technique. My grid is fairly accurate (I measure), but it’s not permanent. It’s made of masking tape. By the time I’m done planting and I no longer need the guidelines, it’ll be stuck to my shoes or tangled in the topsoil. That’s all fine with me, since it’s biodegradable.

Saturday night, while the guys in the family shopped for groceries, I dug into the soil and placed my pepper plants in their places. Squared, cubed, or otherwise multiplied, these little seedlings have the power to produce the ingredients for many jars of salsa next August.