Sunday, June 6, 2010

Harvest Time



It's been a while since my last post. And I'd like to tell you that it's because I've been so busy... but that would be a lie. While it seems that not much has been happening in my garden, the opposite is true. Some of the blooms throughtout the garden may have faded, but the vegetables have taken off! I don't think I ever told you about my spring square foot gardens did I? I thought it would be fun to draw a cute layout of the two gardens to show what was planted. Alas, if I made that my goal you would probably still be waiting for this post in 2011.



In lieu of a cool drawing, here's a list of what I planted:

Tomatoes (1 each) - Early Girl, Brandywine, Roma, Green Zebra, Yellow Pear, JD's Early Black
Okra (2) - Clemson Spineless
Squash (1) - Butterstick Hybrid
Pole Beans (8) - Kentucky Blue
Bush Beans (3 squares full) - Roma II
Cucumber (2) - Straight Eight
Pepper (1) - Sweet Banana
Swish Chard (3 squares) - Bright Lights
Strawberry (1) - planted last fall
Lemon Basil, Zinnias and Marigolds

I also have a couple of watermelon plants in the easement behind the house. They were gifted to me, but I didn't have room for them in the garden. One of the plants is getting quite large, but they're mostly forgotten since I can't see them.

This is my first full-on spring vegetable garden, and so far, the results have been mixed. I tried a little bit of everything this year and will have a better idea of what I want to do next year. For now, it's all about trial and error.
  • You can plant tomatoes in 6 inches of soil! But give them some room. I planted marigolds in between, but the marigolds are getting squeezed out.
  • Someone has consumed more of my swiss chard than I have; I've picked off the caterpillars when I see them, but I think someone else has been enjoying the harvest.
  • Plant more beans! I planted one square of bush beans 4-6 weeks before the other two. One square just isn't enough for a decent harvest.
  • One of the prairie lizards enjoys the shade provided by the tomatoes. However, he startles me every time! One of these days, I'm going to remember that he's there.



Any square foot vegetable gardeners out there with some tips for me?