Sq-ft Garden Grows...

The garden has really sprouted - we've had a lot of rains lately; our garden has been drinking it up!

Brocolli plant:

Brocolli plants:

Tomato plant - has one tomato already! Not sure if it will make it - looks like it has a spot on it - we'll watch it...

Tomato plants:

Lettuces - there are two different varieties in two squares - 4 plants per square:

Turnips - sown seeds - have to thin out:

Carrots in end squares - also sown from seeds - coming in much slower - will have to thin, too:

Fennel:

Cukes in 'bottom' 2 squares; mellon in 'top' two squares; the mellons have empty squares 'above' them - for spreading out; these would over-run into a neighboring square so the book said to allow two squares. I'm sure I'll have to coax them to grow in the right direction.

This is progress to-date. Weeding is really easy in this box.

Tina - your self-watering boxes sound interesting. Our cousin, Wanda, said she is using those this year. This space gets sun all day long - and the winds - so, I'll have to be mindful to water every day once our rains quit. Thanks for your comments! I'd like to see pics of your garden as you get it going. 8-)

Square Foot Gardening

David (white tee shirt) and his friend Jason are putting in a square foot garden for Jeane for Mother's Day. Here are her pics of the process with her commentary.

Jason did the tilling - he's used the machine before - it's quite a monster; speaking of monsters - we kept them in the house until we were done!

Jason did a good job!

Here they are shoring up the uneven ground to level the box.

Same here.

Shoveling the compost I made from behind the shed; already have a new batch "brewing" for next year - or some other need this summer...

They've added peat moss to the compost and are mixing it.

There's 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss & 1/3 vermicullite (that's the recipe from the sq-ft gardening guru.

Erecting the fencing to keep the monsters at bay!

Enter the monsters! (Tinker)

Main monster! (Scooter)

You should have seen Scooter trying to figure a way in! You could see his mind working - it was facinating... and frightening! ;-j

I think it turned out really well and the guys did a fantastic job!

I will finish up the box today by putting in the squares, stringing them along. I'll take pics of that, too. And then, of course, after I get all the veggies planted.

~*~

I kept myself busy last night with the garden. It's strung and ready to be played! ;-) Oh my poor ol' hands - I tell you, it was hard hefting the 3 40# bags of potting soil I added last night. It wasn't hard to carry the bags - just the lifting with my hands - once I got them in my arms, they were easy to carry. I then amended the dirt with some more peat moss and the vermicullite (the last two were light).

And...I wove the strings! 8-] Over-under, etc. Each direction (weft & warp?) is of one continuous string - only had to knot at the beginning and end that way for each. I did lenghwise first, then cross-wise.

Can't wait to plant. Good thing I didn't yesterday afterall b/c there was a light frost last night. I covered my veggies (sitting in front garden) with a sheet.

~*~

All of our plants are in their little squares...

Layout:

empty.....empty.....empty.....empty

fennel.....muskmellon.....empty for mellon.....empty

cucumber.....muskmellon.....spill-over.....empty

cucumber.....spaghetti squash.....spill-over.....empty

broccoli.....broccoli.....lettuces.....lettuces

broccoli.....broccoli.....green pepper.....gr pep

broccoli.....broccoli.....green pepper.....gr pep

broccoli.....better boy.....roma tomatoes .....cherry tom

The empties will be filled with carrots (across the top) and turnips in 4th row - seeds. It was really easy to plant. The bad thing is that the plants come in sets of 3 and 4 depending on the variety - that's how we ended up with odd numbers - I'll know to look for that and plan better next year. Also, we'll see what grows well and what doesn't to see what to plant next time, too.

It's supposed to t-storm today - so, now the plants are on their own to face the elements - of course, I'll watch the weather and cover them if it threatens to frost again. The ground wasn't very dewy this morning - that was good.

~*~

We had a light frost last night so I covered our garden....

Frost expected tonight again, so I'll have to do that again. I have metal skewers that worked perfectly to tent the sheet. 8-] The forecast says frost warning until 9am - but I can't keep them covered that long - but hopefully it will be ok - it's 35 degrees now - and, since they were covered, they should be "warm" enough. My neighbor didn't cover their garden - not sure what they have in there - and my neighbor across the street didn't cover her flowers in her wishing well.