The garden is about done for the year

Overall the garden was my best ever.  The square foot method worked quite well.  So did the SIPs (Sub Irrigated Planter)s.  I did learn some lessons though, that will make my garden better next year.  Some of those lessons follow:

1.  Next year I will plant some corn.

2.  Seedlings are way better than seeds, unless you can plant your seeds directly in the garden.  Even then, seedlings seemed to take hold and grow better for me.

3.  Tomatoes in planters are much more susceptible to blossom end rot than tomatoes in the square foot garden, even when the growing medium is the same.  That was my experience, anyway.  I had a grape tomato in a Grow Box and one in a raised bed.  Same variety.  The one in the Grow Box had real problems with BER, and the one in the raised bed had none.  Both produced a lot, but t he Grow Box tomato lost a lot of fruit.  Next year I will mix dolomite lime with the growing medium.

4.  Next year I plan to start my transition to a self-irrigating method of watering as much as I can.  Otherwise I have to get someone to water for me when I go out of town.

5.  Two tomatoes per grow box is almost too many.  They overgrew the staking system and got top heavy, and one of the Grow Boxes tipped over.

6.  I need to improve my staking system for my tomatoes, both in the raised beds and in the planters.  My tomatoes were spreading out all over the place.

7.  My carrots and onions did poorly.  They were a waste of time.

8.  Bugs took over as the summer progressed.  Next year I will treat my plants to keep them away.

9.  I have great herbs, and I seldom cook with them.

10.  Summer heat should be attenuated.  I didn't think it was hurting anything but some of my tomatoes got weird yellow blotches on them as they ripened.

11.  I need to allow more room for the tomatoes.

There are probably more lessons, but that's enough for now.  I got lots of veggies, gave a lot away and used a lot too.  I'm looking forward to next year.

Photo update

Time for a photo update!  The garden is doing well, in spite of the heat.  It's taking a lot of water though.

Global Buckets

Here's a pic of the global buckets.  They are called that because a couple of high school age boys came up with the idea to help third world countries grow more food in arid or poor soil areas.  They are pretty easy to make and seem to work.  I've only had my two for a week or so, so the jury is still out, but looks like they are working as advertised.

My Radishes were a disappointment

I got my radish seeds from Gurney's.  I picked an unusual variety instead of the normal round red ones. They sprouted up fine and grew like crazy, with the stems and leaves getting almost a foot high.  Problem was, every time I pulled one to check on the radish end, it was small and no more than a half inch in diameter.  Huge stalks and leaves, little bitty radishes.  I cleaned one off and tasted it, and it was hot and stringy, not tender at all.

After three tries, I decided to pull them all and toss them in the compost pile.  I replanted the squares with Leeks.  I did that today.  Hopefully I will like the leeks better.  I also got a pack of seeds for the traditional radishes, and planted them in and around some of my cabbage and pepper plants.  If they grow that will be a bonus, if not then I'm out less than two bucks for a pack of seeds.

This past week I also made a couple of SIPs (sub-irrigated planters) from 5 gallon plastic buckets.  You make them by using one as a water reservoir and the second one inserted into the first as the plant container.  There's quite a bit more to it than that, but I won't bore you with it here.  Look up Earth Buckets on line and you can learn all about it.

I'm tempted to try the rain gutter self-watering method, but it's getting late for planting new stuff.  I guess I will just continue with what I have and see how the garden does.

By the way, I am now harvesting kale, beet greens, and strawberries.  My herbs are also available, but I haven't used any just yet.  I also have lettuce, but I didn't plant much, and spinach.  My tomatoes are producing fruit too, as are my snap peas.  My garden is much more productive than it was last year.  The jury is still out on some of my carrots and onions.  They are growing but still young and weak, and the temperatures are getting hotter.

Nuff for now.

The garden is growing well

I've harvested spinach, kale, beet greens, and a few strawberries.  The tomatoes are starting to get some fruit on them.  Here's a photo of one of the Grow Boxes showing the progress of things.  The last post of the same box was on May 15.

The square raised beds are doing well too.

I'm kinda disappointed in my radishes.  they are the huge plants in the middle and right middle.  The tops are really big but if when I pull one the radish is really small.  I won't buy that variety again.

My Kale, Swiss Chard, and strawberries are thriving!

The box below has cabbage and broccoli, and a tomato.  Also some red onions.

This square has peas, dill, basil, red onions, and a pepper.

As you can see in the above picture, I used tomato cages for the peas to attach to.  Seems to work.

One more grow box pic, for comparison to the last blog.

That should be enough for today.  The plants are doing so well that I want more.  I hope I get a huge tomato crop this fall.  I'm starting to see fruit on some of the plants.  It looks like the peppers are starting to fruit too.  I am interested in seeing how they do, because the last few years my peppers have always stayed small and puny.  Maybe this new method will change that.  Bye, everybody!

May 15 Garden update

All planted but one square, and I'm deciding what to put in it.  I also have one small portable box that is empty.  Here's some pics of what I have so far, except for the planter I made that has my bush beans.  They haven't sprouted yet.  Also, I don't have a pic yet of the third grow box, because not much is showing in it yet either.  I will post pics of them when they are growing.

I'm pretty excited about getting some good fresh veggies this year.  Especially tomatoes.  I have 9 tomato plants of about 5 different varieties.  Yumm!

It got below freezing last night

It got down to 30 degrees.  I knew it was going to, so I covered my tomatoes.  I put small plastic trash cans and jugs over them and then covered them with blankets.  It seemed to work.  When I took the blankets and covers off they all seemed to be fine.  I have six tomato plants right now with plans for a couple more.

Hopefully that will be the last frost this spring.  Our normal safe day for no more frosts is May 10, which is only 8 days away.  Global Warming should at least give me a week, or what good is it?  All the worry about it ain't worth spit if you can't plant a week early.  I should have taken photos of my covering method.

We are leaving for Utah tomorrow and won't be back until next Wednesday.  I have asked Jennifer to keep my garden watered while we are gone.  I'd hate to have anything die out.  

3 more squares planted today

I planted three squares in box 2 with leaf lettuce today.  I had been growing lettuce from seed in a grow box, and it had sprouted and was growing, but it was all flopped around and stringy.  Erik told me that I needed go put it in the wind outside so it could strengthen, so I took the box outside yesterday.  I also have broccoli, cauliflower, peppers, and eggplant sprouting in the indoor box.

I took the box outside, and at the end of the day all the lettuce appears to have laid down and died.  I wonder what happened.  The peppers are ok, not sure yet about anything else.  Anyway, I took some new seed and planted lettuce directly into the garden, in three squares.  I figure when it sprouts it will already be outside so it will be ok.  Hope so anyway.

My grid layout

So far, only two of my four 4x4 raised beds has been filled.  There is something in all of them though, so progress is being made as the weather warms.  I'm taking a bit of a chance by planting tomatoes outside; the conventional wisdom is that it's safe after May 10, and it's still April.  I'm hoping, and if it's predicted to be freezing I will cover them with something to help them survive.

Hopefully I can attach the Xcel program that has the grids:

I had to take a photo of the computer screen to get the grids on the blog.  As you can probably see, Squares 1 and 3 are filled.  When I get them planted I add color to the boxes.  White means nothing planted yet, but  I've typed in what I plan to plant.

I'm learning a lot about cold weather plants, warm weather plants, and stuff like that.  I've also started to poke my nose into something called "edible landscaping."

"Nuff said."

Onions and radishes and carrots, oh my!

It was a nice afternoon, so after I got all the other stuff done that I had to do I went out and planted my onions, radishes, and carrots.  No photo because they were seeds and so all you see is dirt.  Photos when I have green things to photograph.

In a couple of weeks I can plant my tomatoes and corn and stuff.  Can't wait!

April Surprise!

If April showers bring May flowers, what does April Snow bring?  Below is a pic of what my garden looked like when I got up this morning to let Molly out to do her business.  There's seeds planted under that there snow!! 

It's supposed to keep snowing most of the day, but then clear up for a few days.  Maybe this is the last snow of the spring.  Hope so.

It's cold and rainy outside...

...and I planted two squares of beets anyway.  Maybe I will get out later and plant onions, radishes, and carrots.  My information says to plant about 3 weeks before the last spring frost, which is normally around the middle of May.  I planted them with an open square on each side for tomatoes.  I figure the tomatoes won't bother the beets, or the onions, radishes, or carrots for that matter.  The veggies that are planted one per square like tomatoes, beans, eggplant, I will space out and plant other crops in between.

It's early yet but I still have a lot of planting space left.  Can't wait to get stuff in the ground!

Congrats to Joe and Ashley on the birth of their new daughter!  I'm not sure what her name is yet, but I think it's Genevieve Ruby.  Not sure on the spelling either.  I am sure that she's a cutie though.

Today I planted my first Grow Box.  I planted Basil, Oregano, and Dill.  Might be a little early, but I wanted to get it done.  One thing I found out, Oregano seeds are really, really small.  If they don't sprout I will get seedlings and transplant them.  I don't really like growing from seed indoors and then transplanting either.  I think next year I will let someone else start the seeds.

Here's the planted grow box:

Gardening update

Today I planted two squares of spinach, nine seeds per square.  They should sprout in 8-10 days.  So far, I have strawberries, peas, and spinach planted.

I have started some seeds indoors, with more to come.  I have broccoli, cauliflower, leaf lettuce, eggplant, and sweet peppers planted in a starter container that is usually sitting on the dining room table near a window for sunlight.  Below is a not-very-good pic of my starter box.

Here are a couple of photos of my young strawberries.  They are the only green plants in the garden so far.  There are way more than are shown in the pics, though.  I counted 18 I think.  I can't plant much else until the danger of frost is over.  I saw on the weather channel that the temps are supposed to dip below freezing for a day or two around the middle of next week.  Grandma Haines, when she was alive, said that gardeners should wait until after May 10 before planting anything that wouldn't be able to stand a dip below freezing.  I don't know if they let her garden in the spirit world.  She always had the old fashioned row gardens, not the cool new square foot garden.

I will probably wait until after May 10 for most things, but some can handle a little cold.

Wow!  I gave up on blogging for quite a while!  I'm back now, mostly because I have begun a square foot garden this year and want to keep a log of how it goes.  I'm excited about having lots of veggies to eat.

For the past two years I have tried the straw bale gardening method.  Basically, that method involves placing straw bales on their sides and planting stuff in them.  It's pretty water intensive, but as the wet bales decompose from the inside the rotting bale is supposed to provide nutrients for the growing garden plants.  The first year it worked pretty well, and although I only had eight bales I got a lot of tomatoes.  The peppers didn't do well, but I have never had peppers do well.  I had a few green beans too.

Last year I had good plants but low yields.  Dunno for sure why.  Fewer bees to polinate?

Anyway, Cathy and I were in Salt Lake City earlier this year, and during our obligatory visit to Deseret Book I found a book on the New Square Foot Garden method by Mel Bartholemew.  I bought the book and became fascinated by his method.  As soon as it started to warm up I got busy and began building garden boxes.  I ended up with four, pictured below.

The only things planted so far are strawberries and garden peas.  It's a little early in the season to plant much else yet because it's probably going to freeze again.    I will update as I get things going.

I also recently found an item called the Grow Box.  I ordered my seeds from Gurneys and when the arrived the came with an ad for the box.  It looked really good too, so I bought three of them.  What's cool about the grow box is that it can be used anywhere, and contains its own water supply.  I am going to compare the square foot garden to the Grow Box garden and see how they do.  Below is a photo of a grow box ready for planting.

The square foot boxes are situated so that the irrigation for the lawn will also water the boxes.  The Grow Boxes have their own four-gallon water supply in the base.