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.
