Saturday, May 28, 2011

Squarefoot Garden

I've spent a good amount of time getting my garden up and going this year.  I didn't grow a garden last summer because we were so busy planning our wedding, and the year before that we did a little in the ground patch that didn't fare so well due to poor soil conditions and lack of attention on my part.  Our soil is pretty much clay with lots of rocks and tons of weeds, so I felt like I was fighting a losing battle from the start.  This year I'm doing what is called Squarefoot Gardening, which produces more food from a smaller area.  We have built raised beds and filled them with what is known as "Mel's Mix," made of 1/3 peat moss, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 compost (blend of 5 types of compost to get plenty of nutrients in there).  


So far, this is what the garden looks like... 

In the back left, my tomatoes are reaching for the trellis, and two squares of cukes next to them are getting their first real leaves on them. Next row, my potatoes need topped up with more soil, and the carrots are looking good! In the front two rows, eggplants and red and green bell peppers are looking good. My yellow bush beans....not so much. Only had about 50% germinate, but I stuck a few more seeds in the missing spots this morning.



Back left, Kentucky Wonder pole beans are coming along nicely and will be guided to the trellis soon. Yellow squash (Burpee golden zucchini) is doing well, although I'm getting conflicting information as to weather this is a vining variety or not. The zucchini I am learning will not vine, so I will either move that one to another small box and let it do it's thing, or try to stake it as I've seen some youtube videos demonstrate. In front of the beans there are 3 jalepenos hiding, one got nibbled by rabbits, so hopefully he'll make a recovery. On the far right behind the onions are mustard greens which are just sprouting. I have no idea if it's too late for them but we will see! Far left front two squares are broccoli. There used to be four plants, but rabbits got to those too, so now I'm down to two. We'll see how they do. I also have a mini bell pepper, red and yellow onions, spinach that got pelted by rain the past few days (we'll see if it survives, I have faith!) and radishes that are about ready for harvest.




My sugar snaps are climbing nicely, hopefully I'll see some blossoms soon! I took this photo Tuesday and they are already almost a foot taller! Next to them my brussel sprouts are getting gigantic, I had no idea they'd get to large! I am staking them up so hopefully they won't take over too much. Question At least the lettuce (which needs thinning) in front of the bs will have some shade as the weather gets warmer. In front of the peas, our pumpkin is just sprouting. We'll let him spill out of the bed and crawl all over the lawn (hubby isn't crazy about that idea haha). Sunflowers and empty boxes to the left of the bs waiting to be planted (if there is any room as the bs fill in!).



Sorry for the rotten through-the-window-didn't-even-take-out-the-screen photo, we'll just call this one a teaser! Wink Just wanted to show I built two smaller 2x4 table tops for some more vining crops and herbs. We are putting up a fence in a few weeks and I'm not sure how I'll want my garden layed out next year so rather than kill the grass under some beds that might be moved next season, we did tabletops so the only grass killed is under the legs. Anyhow, I have seeds in for cantaloupe and watermelon in one and acorn and butternut squash in the other. They'll both have trellises soon to climb up. In front of those crops I put in some chives, shallots, and a few types of bush beans.  I'm thinking about painting all my boxes white so they look clean and  uniform.  The wood we used is a little rough looking, but it was cheap and serves it's purpose.




My blueberries are coming along very nicely. I dressed the tops of the pots with some peat moss and added a little more soil sulfer and the leaves are nice and green now and berries are getting plump. I have four pots, all different varieties that mature at different times. They all have nice clusters except for one which is just flowering now. I can't wait for them to turn blue, how long does that take? This is the only picture I got before it started to rain and I ran for cover.





And finally, I can't help but include a picture of my youngest assistant Smile


1 comment: