Tag Archives: square foot gardening

February 21, 2020 · 3:45 pm

A Spoiled Lady’s Garden

This is the veggie garden of an extremely happy, spoiled woman.

We live on top of a ridge line and had to have some soil trucked up here in order to have grass around the house. You cannot dig a hole anywhere without immediately hitting rock. We made 14 brick planters around the house in order to be able to plant flowers and bushes. Several years ago, I found the book Square Foot Gardening by Mel Batholomew.  We cleared a spot, used some lumber to make two rectangles on the ground which was covered by black weed resisting plastic and filled the plot with Mel’s Mix. (peat moss, vermiculite, and 3 kinds of compost). This got around the fact that we had no soil, but it was still hard on me because, other than being older than dirt, I don’t enjoy bending over double for long periods of time or getting up and down from the ground.

Then we read about RAISED BED square foot gardens.  My husband can figure out how to do most anything, so we decided we would build some for ourselves. We ended up welding 6 ‘table-like’ structures where the wooden boxes could ‘sit.’  The boxes are 4 feet square and 8 inches high with bottoms that have plastic on them. We included drain holes so that excess water can get out. We made it so they aren’t just ‘raised,’ they are my chest height so I can just walk up to a box and weed, plant, harvest, add more soil, whatever.

 

You can see the wire we strung to demarcate the ‘squares.’ I am spreading things WAY out this year because the plants seem to grow together too closely if I don’t.

We built an irrigation system that is on a timer so I don’t have to remember to water or get out there with a hose.

 

We put a fence around the garden to keep critters out, such as deer. I will add some glow in the dark tape around so that the deer don’t run into the fence. We also put chicken wire around the bottom for smaller critters.

 

I have a wonderful set-up on trying to grow veggies. I am truly spoiled. I hope I can keep the sweet plants alive during the nights where we get down to freezing!

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February 19, 2020 · 10:09 am

Wonderful Wednesday

sayingimages.com

My early spring garden seems to be doing well so far. I got out my trash can full of old sheets, plus clothespins, putting it under one of the tables, so I can cover the plants tonight. I’ll be doing that a lot until the threat of freezes is over. I will try to get onion sets when we do errands today. I would love to finish weeding the other boxes in the garden and get the onions in as soon as possible.

I’m trying to ignore the fact that – wherever I look – things are calling out to me to be SEEN and FIXED. I have made a priority list for the day. If THAT gets done, I’ll move on to the lesser list. (Who would have thought I would now have TWO lists….

The roast I cooked in the crock pot yesterday turned out really well. My husband asked if we could have the rest cut up with onions, mushrooms, and cream of chicken/mushroom soup tonight over rice (for him.) I’ll do that with cauli-rice for me. :0)

The sun is shining brightly today, so my spirits are lifted each time I look out the window.

Hopefully, I’ll be playing in the dirt this afternoon!

Have a wonderful Wednesday.

 

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February 18, 2020 · 9:37 am

Daffodils, Veggies and Fish – Oh, My!

Listal

Yesterday was a productive day for us.

Greenwood Collision called us in the morning, saying that the part we needed for the Vette had FINALLY arrived (it was ordered in November) – so we took both vehicles there to leave the Vette to be fixed (after my husband insisted we stop at the car wash to give it a bath before we left it with them.)

We then drove to Fort Smith to leave our tax stuff with our CPA, Mike Schluterman, at Lawrence, Schluterman & Schwartz LTD. They will call us when the returns are ready to sign and send. I LOVE it when we can dump the stuff on Mike and we can be sure all will be handled competently.

On the way back we stopped for groceries, gas, and a couple of other things. I fixed lunch when we got home. We got a text from our friends, saying they wouldn’t be able to bowl last night, so I decided that, since it was a GORGEOUS day, I wanted to go back to town and buy spinach and head lettuce plants.

I spent a happy couple of hours getting the weeds out and then planting the spinach and head lettuce. I spread things out more this time (though my hat stays off to Mel Bartholomew of Square Foot Gardening.  In MY garden, things tend to grow too closely together, cutting off oxygen and resulting in spoilage. So this year, I’m planting one plant in each square and will see what happens.  (I went out this morning to take pictures. When I was out walking Molly earlier, there was just a very quiet sprinkle from the sky. When I went out to take the pictures, it was a steady rain, so I was glad I took my umbrella.)

To the early spring garden, I will add sweet onion sets. Then I’ll watch those until it’s time to plant tomatoes and yellow squash, and whatever my husband would like me to try.

On the way back from taking pics of the garden, I got a couple of pictures of my daffodils, stubbornly blooming even though it will probably freeze twice this week. I can and will cover the plants in the garden, but I can’t cover the yard, so I hope they can ‘weather-the-weather.’

 

 

The last thing I did yesterday was clean the aquarium.  The fish seem happy and healthy, although they don’t say much.

Running the TWO filters has lengthened the amount of time before I need to change the water again. The new, stick-shaped aerator we’re using now makes ME happier, and the change to the glass beads instead of gravel is much nicer.

So there you have my yesterday. Today is an inside day. All will depend on when the rain stops, or if this is an all day thing.

I hope that YOU are staying warm and dry and happy.

 

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August 25, 2019 · 1:21 pm

Toward the End of Garden Harvests

I just came in from taking a quick look at the garden, and then to the other end of our house to the tomato planters. This is today’s harvest, but it’s obvious that the super-hot weather lately has brought a halt to most of the harvests now.

We have had a wonderful time this year. We had a LOT of lettuce, radishes, and tomatoes, and were able to share some of each of these with our friends. The zucchini made big plants, and we harvested several zucchini, but I’ll read about how we can do better on these next year. I also want to plant yellow crookneck squash next time.

The cantaloupe was fun, but all we have are either green or yellowish small ones, all hard as a rock with vines spreading everywhere. I have no clue if they’ll actually continue to grow and ripen or not. Another subject for a lot of reading.  The red onions are still looking good. As soon as the weather gets a bit cooler, I’ll start looking to see if any are ready to come out of the ground.

 

Beautiful World

Of course when I was the farthest away from the house, the rain started. I toweled off when I came in, but it’s a very good thing I’m not water-soluble. :0)

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August 7, 2019 · 10:06 am

“No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”

Gardeners Path

This quote by Clare Booth Luce is said fairly often around here.  So many things that should be good things seem to backfire or cause us harm.

The latest was yesterday when I was working in our square foot garden.

I’ve been feeling guilty because I haven’t been taking care of things out there as well as I would like to, so I made a special effort to put in some time, pruning dead leaves off our zucchini plants. I lifted one last plant up to get to some dead stuff and was suddenly covered with fire ants.

I rapidly brushed them off my arm, pulling off my weeding gloves and getting away from the source as quickly as possible, but ONE got me.

I rushed inside, took two Benedryl tablets, washed the bite and slathered Benedryl ointment on it. It still swelled up, but not as badly as I have in the past. I DO learn from mistakes….

Priority on today’s list is murdering fire ants. I don’t care if they perform some wonderful service to us. I want them gone. I will mix up some EIGHT spray and hose down the whole garden area, plus any ant hills I find, plus our tomato planters today.  The EIGHT is really good at killing bugs, but is safe to spray on veggies and other plants and won’t harm our pets. I can’t say enough about this product.

 

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August 2, 2019 · 3:04 pm

Garden Progress

I’ve been working on our garden, trying to get it cleaned up after I had to neglect it for about a week.  My husband came out there with me today – a rare and delightful thing – and we did a good amount to prune and clean up. I have another session to do out there, but it will wait.

 

There is always more to do in the garden, but we improved things a lot today.  I pulled up my radishes a couple of days ago, the last time I was out there. For some reason, they didn’t make successfully this time. I was disappointed, because I got spoiled with a really super crop with the last batch I planted in the spring, having enough to give to my friends and having lots for me to enjoy.  I’ll concentrate on trying not to be greedy. I’ll plant another group soon.

The zucchini plants are still looking healthy, although I’m having to read everything I can get my hands on to figure out what I’m doing.

We have lots of these small cantaloupes!  I didn’t know they start out green, but we made sure each one is now sitting in a plastic bowl to keep it out of the dirt, as I read they like. Fingers crossed that they actually grow into something delicious to eat!

 

Red onions.

Our weather has been really different this year. Our tomato plants are looking pretty sad right now. I have no clue whether we’ll get more or not. We’ve had such a good crop this year. I hope I can extend the season some.  I took bags of ripe tomatoes to our friends at Lunch Bunch this morning, and then another bag to our hairdresser on the way home. I love it when we can share the wealth!

Obvious Fun

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July 24, 2019 · 12:28 pm

Wednesday Tomato Harvest

Our ‘nook’ planter (the planter between the porch and the back of the house that we converted to a square foot planter) is providing us with a wealth of tomatoes now! My husband just asked me to cut a cold one up for him for a snack.

We have been extremely lucky this season, even though it has been a weird one weather-wise, and we feel truly wealthy in tomatoes. :0)

If you come by the house in the next few days , I’ll be happy to share them with you!

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July 22, 2019 · 10:16 am

Tomato Harvest July 22 – 2019

Today’s tomato harvest with more to come tomorrow!  We are truly rich in tomatoes this season. We’re enjoying them for lunch and dinner every day. From a really shaky start, when I thought that the long tomato planter’s plants would die when they suddenly turned yellow, and that all we would get was greenery from the plants in the nook planter, we’ve had a wonderful season.

 

This is what is in our fridge now. I will share these with friends this week. :0)

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July 16, 2019 · 11:46 am

SPOILED!

This is this morning’s harvest.

My husband and I are totally – delightedly –  SPOILED, having ripe tomatoes for lunch and dinner every day. I don’t know how long our luck will hold out, but we are grateful for every bite!

I haven’t been out to the garden yet – just to the tomato planters beside the house. I’m trying to figure out a ‘suit of armor’ – since hosing down with Deep Woods Off didn’t keep the fire ants from getting me two days ago.  They apparently LOVE the stuff, drinking it like a wonderful, rare wine before they bite/sting me. :0(  My arm is almost back to normal now. I can wear my watch loosely today. My arm is still pink and a bit swollen, but the welts are gone.

I would like to get the garden under control today. I know it needs weeding…

 

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July 9, 2019 · 10:16 am

Good News and Iffy News from the Garden

Good news and iffy news from the garden today.

GOOD NEWS – more ripe tomatoes and it looks like lots more to come.  The radishes and sweet red onions seem to be doing fine.

IFFY NEWS –  I have a lot of ‘greenery’ and blossoms from my zucchini and cantaloupe plants, but the actual veggies and fruits are looking wimpy.  In three days of my concentrating on other parts of the yard, the weeds are trying to take over. The heat index is 105 today, so I’ll have to wait until dusk to do anything out there. I’ll weed as much as I can and then put some extra fertilizer over things and see what, if anything, happens.

I absolutely LOVE trying to grow veggies and fruit. I have a wonderful set up, with chest-high wooden 4′ x 4′ planters filled with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, vermiculite, and several kinds of compost) and an irrigation system for consistent watering. I have unlimited hope and enthusiasm, but little expertise, though I’m reading and learning what I’m supposed to be doing on a regular basis. Thus far, the list of things NOT to do again is growing much faster than the successes, but my motivation is still strong.

Each lunch and each dinner features fresh, ripe tomatoes from our own garden. I ‘spiralized’ (made spaghetti-like stuff with the aid of my kitchen gadget) from one pregnant-looking zucchini from our own garden and my husband pronounced it ‘yummy.’  Next year I plan to grow yellow squash, too. We’re spiralizing that, too, and my husband is shocked that he enjoys both of these. He did say, though, that he’ll TRY some as a substitute for actual pasta, but doesn’t hold high hopes for the idea yet. I’m hoping I can convince him. :0)

 

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July 6, 2019 · 9:18 am

July 6th Harvest

 

After we got back from relocating the raccoon this morning, I went to check on the tomatoes and the garden. I harvested these from the larger planter – the plants I thought were going to croak earlier because the leaves were turning yellow and falling off. These plants still don’t look ‘healthy,’ but they are producing delicious tomatoes. The nook planter beside the house has only two plants in it and they are HUGE, green, and leafy. I’ve only gotten two ripe tomatoes so far. There are lots of green ones, though, and lots of blossoms. There might be a lesson here somewhere, if I can just figure out what it is. I would appreciate some opinions from people who know what they are doing in the garden.

In the larger square foot garden, I couldn’t do much because the irrigation system was going. I have large, leafy-looking zucchini plants now with large yellow flowers and a few actual zucchini!  I harvested one pregnant-looking one so far. I have several now that might get large enough to harvest.

I also have the cantaloupe plants whose arms are spilling out over everything with lots of blossoms. There is one small cantaloupe that I have supported by a plastic round thingie with legs and holes in it. I have no clue whether we’ll actually get anything worth eating, but it’s great fun to watch the progress. \

The onions are expanding, even though their tops were so damaged in several storms I elected to cut them off.

I need to do some weeding out there and then I’ll take pics to share.

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July 1, 2019 · 4:09 pm

Tomato Harvest July 1, 2019

I’m feeling spoiled and rich after going out to check on our tomato plants this afternoon.

We’re enjoying sharing one or two (depending on their size) for lunch and again for dinner each day. I already feel that our crop has been worth every penny we paid for plants, cages, food, bug spray, bone meal, etc.  How could one feel down when looking at such a beautiful sight!

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June 18, 2019 · 2:26 pm

Feast or Famine

All spring it has either been heavily raining or SUPER hot with strong sun. Nothing in-between. Today I was only out for about half an hour, and came in huffing and puffing, wiping my head and face, and wanting to glug water.

I found these yellow leaves on my tomato plants yesterday. My friend, Laufrain, and I looked up the problem last night. It suggested bone meal and fertilizer. I just added both of those to the planter and watered. Fingers crossed they like it. I have nice green tomatoes and am hoping for a good crop.

 

This is our other tomato planter. As you can see, the plants are good and healthy. I have no clue what’s going on with the longer planter.

 

This is my first trial at growing zucchini. I have several that SEEM to be doing well.

 

Sweet red onions.

 

Radishes I just started a few days ago.

 

And THIS  is the excitement for the day! It is a cantaloupe!  Ta DA!   If it doesn’t croak and continues to grow, I have a plastic bowl thingie with lots of holes for drainage and legs to keep the cantaloupe up off the ground. I’ve never grown one of these before. This was my husband’s choice of what to grow (other than head lettuce), so I’m really hoping we grow at least one and that it’s good.

On my way back in, I stopped to take a couple of pictures of the flowers on the deck. They make my heart soar every time I see them.

Now I’m very thankful that we have air-conditioning!

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June 11, 2019 · 10:50 am

The Tomatoes are Coming!

I’m hoping that we’ll have a good tomato crop this year. We have some good looking green tomatoes now. One of our very favorite things is sliced ripe tomatoes.

With all the rain we’ve had and then some pretty warm weather, the tomato plants in our nook planter really took off. I’ve given up trying to ‘control’ them. I’m just propping them up the best way I can and hoping for the best…

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June 6, 2019 · 3:31 pm

Eau de OFF!

Home Guides – SFGate

The rain finally stopped!  I’ve just spent an hour tying up tomato plants for better support and then weeding in our raised bed square foot garden. I used “Eau de OFF!” spraying myself heavily from stem to stern before heading outside. I forgot to wear my sweat band, but I’ll remember that for session 2 today.

I finished two more of the six wooden box planters in the garden. I still need to finish the onion box and then things will be pretty much under control again. I’m planning to take radish seed to get more started in several squares.

__________________

Finished session 2.  I’m still working on the onion box. I asked my good friend Reagan Opio from LinkedIn what I should do about the damaged onion tops. He said, “Leave the ones that are only bent. Cut off the ones that are broken.” So that’s what I’m working on now. As I type here, though, this old lady is huffing and puffing and guzzling ice water. So the rest will have to wait for session 3.

I wanted to share with you the progress on the zucchini! I’ve never grown it before, or seen it grow. The only thing I figured was that it was a vining type plant and would probably take up a lot of room.

The zucchini are almost like a ‘bouquet of bloom.’  There are actually FOUR zucchini growing on this plant.

More on another plant.

And two more here.

And three more here!

I’m about to head out to finish cleaning up the onion tops a bit, and then that’ll be it outside for the day.

I hope YOU are having a fine day, too!

 

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June 4, 2019 · 4:15 pm

Changes in the Garden – June 4 – 2019

With all the rain we’ve been having, the weeds have gone nuts in my garden. I just spent about an hour pulling out spent broccoli plants and weeding. I forgot to wear a sweat band AND forgot to spray myself for mosquitoes, so came in hot, tired, wiping my forehead while grabbing a cold bottle of water, and scratching bites…

If you’ll look carefully, in the center of the picture is a cute little zucchini! My first!  I’ll have to read up on what to do, but I’m excited. :0)

The main part of this photo is a celery plant, grown from a stalk I bought at the store. I’ll continue to try to grow some. I’m not sure when, but I’m supposed to bind the little stalks tightly together so they look more like what you buy in the store. More reading!

More zucchini vines and blossoms. They will soon take over the boxes.

Technically, it’s too warm for spinach, but I’m still hoping.

 

My husband wanted me to try cantaloupe. Since we both love it, I was happy to accommodate him…

 

This gives you a better idea of how LARGE these zucchini plants are!

I guess the hard rains we’ve had did a number on many of the green parts of my sweet red onions. I only weeded a small amount of the box these are planted in, but it looks like the actual onions are okay. I’ll work on it some more tomorrow.

I’ll also see if I can share pictures of our tomato plants tomorrow.

 

 

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May 17, 2019 · 5:00 pm

Harvest 5-17-2019

Last of the broccoli, though I left the roots just in case they do something more. I’m planning to make broccoli soup on Sunday when it’s raining. The last radish I’ve planted so far.

5 heads of lettuce. Not as large as the first ones – I think because our weather suddenly got warmer. I’ll take these, plus leaf lettuce, to friends next week.

Last of the leaf lettuce. Guess who is going to have a big ‘main meal’ salad tonight for dinner?  :0)

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May 11, 2019 · 11:34 am

It’s Still ‘Monsoon Season’ In Arkansas

The Guardian

Yesterday I went – armed with my umbrella – to see what is happening in my garden. We have really had an unusual spring here in Arkansas. Cooler than usual, and that is very welcome, but also MUCH more rain than usual.

Some of the trees in the driveway are hanging down toward each other with the weight of the water in their leaves, creating almost a canopy through which we drive. It’s no problem for us, but the UPS and FEDEX drivers may say a few ripe words as they make their way up and down again. I’ve also already told you about the amazing results in my garden. For the first time ever I’ve been able to share the veggie wealth with my friends. It’s a delightful thing and I hope to be able to continue.  I harvested the very first-ever heads of lettuce I’ve been able to grow, plus all the radishes I planted.

Today I wanted to show you what I found yesterday –

This is the celery end I planted a couple of days ago. It seems to be happy. :0)

This is zucchini squash. I planted several plants because I can process this for zucchini noodles, freeze it, or dehydrate it.

My ‘mystery weed’ turned out to indeed, be spinach!  Woo Hooooooo! I have several plants now. :0)

I’ve never had onion tops this tall. They are over my head!  I don’t know what this means in terms of the growth of the actual sweet red onions. Only time will tell.

One head lettuce plant. I’ll get leaf lettuce, too, when I harvest the head.

Another head lettuce plant.

More zucchini.  You can also see that the broccoli is going to blossom – signaling the end of it.

This is cantaloupe!  I have no clue what I’m doing, but the plant seems happy at the moment. I have some plastic ‘bowls’ with legs and lots of drain holes to put under any melon while they grow – assuming I get some. I’m like a kid at Christmas!

The tomato plants on the opposite side of our house are doing fine, too.

It’s raining all day today. The high will only be in the low 60’s. I’m hoping that we can go to the local stores in the coming week to see if there is more we want to try. Otherwise, once I eat my way through a lot of radishes, I’ll plant some more. They can be planted most any time of the year, so I’m hoping I can get at least one more good crop.

I’m planning to get out and weed this week , assuming the weather will cooperate. Looming on the horizon is my husband and I rebuilding our two brick planters which collapsed.

I hope you’re having a wonderful Saturday, too!

 

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May 4, 2019 · 5:35 pm

Day Three of Harvest

I tackled the last of our six 4’x4′ wooden raised boxes in our garden today. I got 4 heads of lettuce, leaf lettuce, and radishes. This finishes the harvest of the food that suddenly grew after all the rains we’ve had. I still have some heads of lettuce and other things in the garden. I’ll clean up the last box after the harvest.

I’m really new at this, not having a clue what I’m doing, but I have so much FUN trying to grow some of our food!  Today, after harvesting, washing, and bagging up the produce, I called several friends and asked them if they would like some of it. I had some extra one other year, but this is the first time I’ve had such good-looking produce, and the first time EVER for actual heads of lettuce! :0) I spent about an hour driving around and spreading the wealth!

This is the last of the radishes I planted. Radishes are wonderful because they produce quickly and can be grown directly from seed in the garden in any season except for the dead of winter.

 

I can’t believe how much leaf lettuce I got! Since I harvested the large heads, I also processed the leaves around the heads.

Usually our weather is too ‘something’ (too hot, too cold, too much water, too little water, too much sun, too little sun) for a nice crop. This year we lucked out and I couldn’t be more delighted.

I’ll try to get pics tomorrow after finishing the cleaning up. I’m hoping we’ll find other interesting things we can try to plant at the local stores tomorrow, too!

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April 22, 2019 · 1:21 pm

Today’s Planting

Michigan State University

We looked for spinach plants at four different places while we were out, ASKING at each place. The consensus seemed to be, “We have seed, but no plants this year.”  I have officially thrown in the towel on getting spinach plants, just hoping that the little sprouts in the middle of several squares in my garden are, indeed, sprouting spinach seeds.

We got zucchini and cantaloupe plants today and I’ll plant them in just a few minutes. I’m not sure how I’ll do this because both of these would rather be on the ground in a place where they can spread their runners wherever they want, but I’ll give it a try. If I’m successful at all, I’ll use my spiralizer gadget to make zucchini noodles for myself.

My husband looks appalled when I mention zucchini or yellow squash ‘noodles,’ cauli ‘rice’ or ‘mashed potatoes,’ or spaghetti squash ‘spaghetti,’ so I’ll make these for myself and make him regular pasta, potatoes, or rice rarely. He does love cantaloupe, though, so I’m especially hopeful I can get some of these to grow well. Fingers crossed.

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April 21, 2019 · 4:36 pm

Garden Progress 4-21-2019

I now have enough of OUR fresh grown broccoli to make some soup!

 

And this is the lettuce I harvested. I could have brought in lots more. We eat salad each night, but I’m not sure we can keep up with all we’re growing this time.

 

This photo shows many of our lettuce plants, plus you can see the onions in the rear of the picture.

 

This is the second row of planters. You can see the broccoli plants and some of the radish sprouts.

 

I planted several squares of radishes. I eat some raw every day at lunch, along with carrots, cherry tomatoes, and celery.

I have all appendages crossed that this is one of several sprouts of ‘something’ I HOPE is SPINACH!  Time will tell.

 

Close up of one of the lettuce plants. This is ONE plant taking up a whole square. It’s HUGE.

 

This isn’t a garden plant, but I’m so pleased with it this year. It’s a perennial ‘something, and it has had only weak blooms each spring until now. I just love it!

More work tomorrow, but it’s that time of year! :0)

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April 17, 2019 · 1:55 pm

At Least Partial ‘Outside Day’

Southland SOD Farms

We been outside a couple of times so far today, with more to come. We’re kind of under the gun today, since strong, possibly severe storms are forecast for late tonight and into tomorrow morning.

I showed my husband my cleaner-and-better-organized greenhouse, and he showed me his cleaner-and-better-organized shop, and we each oohed and ahhhed appropriately. :0)

We just came in from a first session on getting our irrigation system for the flowers going. We have a couple of blowouts we’ll need to fix before it’ll be working correctly, but we got a start on it today.  I have a timer on our outside faucet that goes to my veggie garden set up already.

As soon as I catch my breath, I’m going to go out and gather the first lettuce harvest of the spring! We’ll enjoy some of it for our dinner tonight.

I will also do at least one session of weed-whacking. I’ll probably need to do some every day until it looks like someone cares in our yard.

We’re still hoping to find a bricklayer who will rebuild our two collapsed planters in the front yard. Fingers crossed.

I’ll take pics of the harvest and post them later.

Have a great day!

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April 11, 2019 · 6:37 pm

Garden Progress-4-11-2019

Planet Natural

The past couple of days I’ve spent a lot of time outside.

 

The radishes are finally sprouting. I have several squares of them, in this and other planter boxes.

The broccoli seems to be doing well so far.

I’ll probably start harvesting (and EATING!) some lettuce leaves next week.

The sweet red onions are looking good.

No spinach sprouts yet, but I’m still hopeful…

Today I’m trying to get some flower planters ready to plant. It used to be that I was the one who loved the flowers, but now we both enjoy them.  We’re going to start with wave petunias, periwinkles, purslane, and impatiens. If we can get them planted, we’ll see if we need more.

My husband says that deep purple iris have become his favorite flower. They’re blooming in several places in the yard right now.

I really love this time of year!

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April 8, 2019 · 11:57 am

Square Foot Garden Progress April 8 – 2019

Inhabitat

 

Here you can see four of the six planting boxes we built. The wooden ‘boxes’ are supported on metal table-like structures that allow me to do most everything chest-height, without having to bend over or get down on my hands and knees. I really love it.

Other than the lettuce and red onions you can see here, I have broccoli plants, plus radish seeds and spinach seeds. (The spinach seeds in the greenhouse aren’t doing anything and I can’t get any spinach plants locally this year, so I just planted some seeds directly in the garden and will let you know if anything actually comes up.)

 

Here are the broccoli plants. I have things really spread out. He suggests one plant per square, but not next to each other, to discourage pest problems and disease.

I do follow his suggestions that you keep track of where you plant things each year, and the next year plant them in different squares, a crop rotation thing.

 

Here’s a close up of one of the broccoli plants. See the baby broccoli head?

 

Here’s a close up of the lettuce. This says, “Head Lettuce”, but I harvest leaves for salad as it grows and either produces a small head, or doesn’t. My love is the fresh lettuce leaves each night!

Although Mel suggests planting 4 lettuce plants in the same square, my results are better when I spread things out.

 

This is an 8-foot brick planter on the opposite side of the house from the garden. We converted it to a square foot planter, emptying out all the top soil and filling it with Mel’s Mix (mixture of peat moss, Vermiculite, and as many different types of compost as you can find.) I’m using barnyard, mushroom, and cotton burr, plus any compost I can make from our scraps.

 

This is a second brick planter that is about 4 feet wide that sits in a nook created by the back of our house and the screened back porch. The tomatoes are more protected here, and usually survive better than the ones that are more susceptible to the wind.

I read a good article on growing tomatoes lately. It suggests planting them deeper than I have been, and then pinching off some of the ‘arms’ that sprout, as well as pinching off top leaves to keep the plants more compact, rather than allowing them to grow as tall as they like. The article says this encourages more fruit rather than so much greenery. Since fresh sliced tomatoes is one of our very favorite things, I’m going to try this, hoping for a great harvest.

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March 30, 2019 · 12:25 pm

Thirsty Veggies are Satisfied for Now

The Living Farm

Can you see the teeny, tiny broccoli spear in the center?   Woo HOOO!

Head lettuce looking happy.

Sweet Red Onions

Due to my bad reaction to the 2nd dose of Shingles vaccine, I haven’t done anything this week in the garden. I’m still looking for spinach plants locally, plan to start spinach seeds (AGAIN) in case none show up, and plan to start several squares of radishes.

In another week or so, we’ll start tomato plants on the other side of the house!

 

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March 26, 2019 · 10:25 am

Square Foot Garden Progress – 3-26-2019

Gardening Lovers

I found some broccoli plants yesterday and got them into the square foot garden. (Still no spinach, but I’ll check with the co-op tomorrow.) Meanwhile, today I’m planning to start new spinach seeds (ever hopeful) in the greenhouse and plant some radishes in the garden.

Here are the current pictures of the raised bed garden –

 

Sweet Red Onions

Broccoli

More broccoli

Head Lettuce

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March 19, 2019 · 1:49 pm

Square Foot Garden Progress!

Messy Motherhood

I filled up all the rest of the wooden raised planters, and then my husband came out and helped me stretch wire across in two directions to designate the planting ‘squares.’

You have to look carefully to see the wire in the picture above.

 

We have two rows of three planters each. You can see the onion sets already planted in the far planter.

This photo shows the faucets to which the hoses are attached. When we start irrigation, we’ll attach the hoses that run from the garden all the way up past the shop and attach to the outdoor faucet. We’ll have a timer on that faucet so the garden will be watered each day for a specified amount of time.

The picture above shows my cement mixer. I measure out the ingredients for Mel’s Mix into the mixer, then mix for several minutes and dump it into a trash can propped under it. We have now put a tarp over the mixer and the motor so the sun and rain won’t cause damage to it.

These are my trash cans that hold the ingredients for Mel’s Mix: vermiculite, peat moss, mushroom compost, barnyard compost, and cotton burr compost.

Here you can see the garden as a whole, with the exception of the brick planters on the other side of the house where we grow tomatoes. You can see the garden is surrounded by fence, with a layer of chicken wire around the bottom to keep critters out. When I get things planted, I’ll string some surveyor’s tape around the garden to help the deer see it. To the right in this picture is our shop, and to the left is a shooting target we made, called, “Falling Plates” where we practice shooting pistols a couple of times a year. I can kill a plate quite well with a bit of practice. :0)

I’ll take pics again when I get some plants in.

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March 8, 2019 · 3:04 pm

Fun Outside

Since we’re supposed to have thunderstorms tomorrow, I got outside and tried to get some things accomplished before the rain comes.

Our onion sets are still doing well. I weeded another 4 foot x 4 foot planter in the garden today. I have two more to weed (we have SIX 4 foot x 4 foot planters that are chest high) and then I can start adding Mel’s Mix to top them off for planting when the weather calms down.

I spread fertilizer in the flower planters around the yard, hoping it will soak in with the rain tomorrow.

I told you that my seeds in the greenhouse failed to sprout, so I started over day before yesterday. I checked them for water today and hope I will be able to show you sprouts soon!

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March 6, 2019 · 4:03 pm

Greenhouse and Garden Update

Today is the first day it has been warm enough to check on my onion sets in our raised bed, square foot garden and the seeds I was trying to get started in the greenhouse.

The onion sets are looking fine, thank goodness. I had covered the 4 foot x 4 foot square with a king-sized sheet anchored with clothes pins, hoping for the best with the awful cold snap we had. Our lows were down to 16 degrees F. – and I was worried I would have to start over.

I watered the onion sets and then weeded another of the planters. I have six planters, three more to go before I can think about planting for the spring.

 

Things weren’t so great in the greenhouse. Nothing had sprouted, so I started over. I now have the flats planted again – one of spinach and two flats of lettuce, two different kinds. Since we have nice sunshine, I sprayed the seed starters with water and just left them without the tops on them, continuing my experimentation. The thermometer showed it was 70 degrees in there this afternoon, so all appendages are crossed that the new seeds will sprout soon.

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June 23, 2018 · 10:54 am

A Tale of Two Planters

We have two brick planters on the east side of the house we converted to square foot garden containers. One of them is 2 feet x 8 feet and the other is a square, 4 feet on a side, in the nook between the back of the house and our screened porch.

The plants in the nook look extremely healthy and have some nice-sized green tomatoes. The plants in the other planter aren’t happy. I’ve had a few ripened tomatoes – all with blossom end rot.

According to what I’m reading, this is caused by uneven watering, too much fertilizer, or a lack of calcium. We have an irrigation system, and everything seems to be thriving with the once a day watering they’re receiving, except for this planter, so I don’t think this is the reason. I fertilized with some tomato food when I first planted, but none since. I suspect a lack of calcium. I sprayed the plants with “Rot-Stop” a couple of days ago. I then worked some bone meal into the soil around each plant yesterday morning. I’m not sure if there is anything else I can do, so I’ll just watch and wait a bit to see if this helps.

One of our favorite things in all the world is fresh sliced tomatoes, so I’m hoping that we end up with a good crop!

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June 5, 2018 · 10:02 am

Ants – Ouch!

I worked with the bug crime artist yesterday to come up with this drawing of one of my assailants yesterday. I’m still swelled up in big, pink, itchy welts all over my forearms from trying to clean up our square foot garden yesterday. I’ve taken Benedryl and am slathered with anti-inch stuff that is supposed to be soothing.  The welts aren’t quite as puffy as they were yesterday, so I think I’m getting better.

I’ve never had this problem before. It’s one of the many reasons I love my raised bed (chest level) square foot gardening boxes. Today we’ll talk to the people in town at the co-op, seeing if we can find something that will ‘kill the ants without hurting the plants.’  (Hey! That could be a good slogan for the ant spray people! :0) )

I looked up ants to see what good they do for us – and mostly found stuff to kill them. Supposedly, though, they  “clean up dead bugs and organic waste in your landscape.” I’m not sure that this makes taking residence in my veggies acceptable. I have pulled out the plants (that’s why I got all these bites/stings),  but I’ll treat the Mel’s Mix in the boxes before I do much more out there.

Most home remedies I’ve tried are ineffective, but I really don’t want to cause harm to my plants (or us – eating the plants after washing carefully.)

If I find something that the experts at the co-op suggest, I’ll let you know.

UPDATE:  I found an insect killer that I can use in the garden – on the veggies and in the Mel’s Mix. It’s called Eight Insect Control by Bonide.  The expert at Farmer’s Co-Op said it kills everything he could think of (the bottle says it kills over 100 named insect pests) and can be used on vegetables, fruits, flowers, lawns, tree, etc. It keeps working for up to 4 weeks. HOORAY!  He said I could spray in the morning and eat the veggies in the evening – after washing them well, of course.

 

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