square foot garden

Jeremy's sister Miranda told us about square foot gardening last summer, so we're giving it a whirl this year. I read Mel Bartholomew's book, and his ideas about a more compact garden to produce more produce seemed the perfect fit for our small backyard! We've been working on it for about a month in bits and pieces, and finally attached our nylon trellis material for our vertical plants (tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, etc.) this week. Here's the journey:

taking out the sod

building the boxes

placing the boxes, mixing the soil and building the vertical supports

planting

hanging the nylon trellis material (just in time for the peas)

watering

and more watering

So far, so good....that is, except the marigolds! Aren't marigolds supposed to be practically fool-proof? Why is it that in my garden they are either dead or seriously struggling, and they've been in the ground less than one month??? I always plant them to help keep the bugs out, but I can never seem to keep them alive!?