Breaking some rules

If Mel broke the rules with his square-foot gardening technique, then I can surely break his right? Well, we will see what happens but:

- I planted 2 broccoli plants in one square (they recommend 1/square foot)
- I planted a few spinach plants in the leftover space from my vine plants--my spinach is doing so good--I only have 4 plants and I've already gotten a few salads out of it!
- I'm planting more spinach next to my current spinach because I'm really into spinach right now


(my 2 squished together brocs on the far left front corner)

On a totally different subject, one of the benefits of square-foot-gardens is natural pest control. Each year you should plant your seeds in different places than you did the previous year. It makes it harder for plant-specific pests to find the plant they like to eat. Last year my broccoli was totally covered in aphids. The one broccoli floret it sprouted stayed put until it finally rotted away in March because who wants to harvest a aphid-covered broccoli floret? So I switched plots for my broc this year and they are doing marvelously. no aphids. I did find one caterpillar on it today (I took care of him!) but that's it.



Currently, my worst enemy is the chipmunk! They love my soil as much as I do. How to I keep them from digging in my garden short of building a gigantic chipmunk-proof fence around my garden??? (they even get into my little chicken-wire cage)

Also, I hate bugs. I'm totally creeped out by them. And bees/wasp/things that sound like bees or wasps make me spaz out and run around the yard in zigzags while shrieking. Any ideas about how to get over this? My friends and neighbors and children think I'm nuts.

My dahlias are huge! I sure hope they are, in fact, dahlias or I will be a little embarrassed!

Remember my Garden?

I'm very pleased with it's progress this year. I added some fertilizer to it to help out my compost a little more. I also broke down and bought tomato transplants since the ones I started from seed that were doing awesome, died when we had a couple cold nights. :(

These picture are a week or so old so things are even bigger now.

My dahlias: I should have 6 plants but I accidentally picked one when it was a baby because I thought it was a weed. oops! Now I don't weed that area...


From left to right, top to bottom:
1. Tomatoes 2. cucumbers 3. watermelon 4. peas (only 1 of the 6 sprouted--gotta plant some more) 5. broccoli 6. beans 7. lettuce (only 4 of the 9 sprouted--gotta plant some more) 8. future plot of more green beans)


Herbs--chives, cilantro, basil


P.S. I love my homemade soil. it is the best.

Gardening is hard!

I've been having a hard time getting my garden to actually progress enough to "bear fruit." The seeds sprout just fine but then my plants just go kind of latent. Some of my plants have turned yellow. My father-in-law tried to troubleshoot via the internet and figured out some possible reasons:

- too much water
- not enough water
- too much sun
- not enough sun
- not enough nutrients

Hahaha, glad we cleared that up!

I think it has to do with the nutrients though because I didn't use a mixed compost in my soil like Mel highly recommends. Why? Because I was being cheap. The compost that I have been trying to make myself is not decomposing the way I imagine it should and so I decided to buy my own instead. but I didn't want to spend too much because I thought my compost would eventually be usable this season (yeah, it's still pretty nasty. I'll save that for another post!). So i bought a composted manure at a whopping buck per bag--I only needed 2 bags. I though, hey, animals probably have lots of nutrients, this will be perfect. The garden master at the farmer's market seemed to think otherwise. Fortunately I already have some fertilizer on hand so that is the next step.

Anyway, here is evidence of my failure with my snap peas that started out with so much potential!! Here is one teeny pea that I shared with Noah. the only pea of my entire crop. It sure was yummy. wish I had a whole crop full!


Here is evidence of more of a success. my beans have been doing way better than everything else (besides the peppers and basil). Now I need to plant beans in the other failed crop squares so that I can enjoy some homegrown vegetables this summer.

Why a square foot garden....

Here are some reasons why I decided to make a square foot garden (as opposed to other gardens)

1. I am a renter and I don't feel comfortable digging up our landlord's yard

2. I have no desire to till the earth--Mel tells you how to make the perfect soil-free soil

3. Mel (SFG genius) has a very compelling and convincing book

4. Minimal weeding--maybe like 30 seconds worth every other day or when I feel like it

5. I can extend the seasons, my garden is technically movable and I can easily cover it with one tarp if necessary

6. I like the idea of compact gardening

7. Will provide exactly the amount of harvest I need for my small family

8. I can take it with me when I move provided we have room in our moving truck

9. I can easily keep intruders out of my garden because it is small and it was easy to make a small cage for

10. I can easily change crops in and out of each square foot whenever I feel like it. I could grow up to 3 different crops in each square foot during the whole growing season (meaning I could grow a spring crop and then when that's done, put a summer crop in, and then put in a fall crop)

Mel probably has way better and more convincing reasons that have to do with gardening and biology and such. check out his website or check out his book at the library!


Here are a couple pictures.



My green beans are doing really well. Wish I could say the same for my peas. (I will be planting 3 more in this box--I planted each row 2 weeks apart to stagger the harvest.



My neighbor gave me this big pot so I'm going to try to get some peppers out of it.