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.