Raised Bed in Square Foot Method on Harvest Day

Today is the day that I almost dread, except that seeing a true harvest from my own Square Foot Garden is so wonderful. So, why do I dread it? Because they are predicting the first Freezing Rain of the Season. It’s time to pull in what we can and then tend to what we hope will continue on through the cold. On the cart, you will see a good share of the remains of the Raised Bed, Square Foot Method for this year. Though there will be more to come, this is an effort to begin to put the garden to bed for this season.

This year’s garden was truly an experiment. I wanted to see how many different things I could grow in two 8′ x 4′ beds, growing enough to feed two adults with some left over to share of each item we chose. We have certainly pulled in earlier harvests than this, but this is the largest harvest at one time for this season. On the cart you will find the following:

• Asian Greens
• Tomatilloes
• Sushi Lettuce
• Tomatoes (Red and Green)
• Thai Basil
• Sweet Basil
• French Tarragon
• Carrots
• Red Onions
• White Onions
• Walla Walla Onions
• Green Onions
• Leeks
• Broccoli
• Potatoes
• Green Peppers
• Greek Peppers
• Mint
• Beets
• Curly Parsley
• Italian Parsley
• Utah Celery
• Oregano
• Beets
• Red Cabbage
• Okra

There is still plenty left in the frames. We spent 45 minutes cleaning out the beds and putting up a bit of plastic over one of the beds to see if we can get just a little bit more.

Here you can still see the following:

• Brussels Sprouts
• Italian Parsley
• Okra
• Peppers
• Broccoli
• Cabbages
• Artichoke Plants (though the Artichoke themselves are long gone.)
• Marigolds
• Carrots
• Asparagus
• Tomatoes
• Chives
• And few herb plants (which you cannot see due to the height of the Cabbage family plants)

We left the posts up with the net at the tomato area and placed plastic sheets over the top allowing the posts to show through the plastic. We have allowed for airflow and we will make sure sufficient air is getting through. Our attempt is only to help shield it from the freezing rain for another couple of weeks to see what more we may yield from this harvest time.

This shows the top. We just wrapped the sheeting around, leaving a bit of airflow space.

We also removed Artichoke, Radishes, Beets, Carrots, Broccoli, Lettuces, Peas, Chives, Caraway, Rosemary, and Thyme earlier in the season.

Not bad for two little 8′ x 4′ beds!

Early Summer and The First Harvest Is On!

It’s early in the Summer and the first harvest is on! There was some concern on my part that the Strawberry bed was just too over-planted. This is the 3rd year of my 5’x5′ Strawberry bed filled with Fort Laramie Everbearing Strawberry plants. I originally planted this bed 4 to a square foot knowing that as the plants shoot out new offspring like mad (and they have) that I would have to thin out the bed. Well, I haven’t thinned out the bed and I am already harvesting hugs amounts of beautiful, sweet strawberries! Here is the haul from last night alone.  The flavor puts store-bought strawberries to shame!

Fort Laramie Everbearing Strawberries

Flowering Green Onions and Leeks

Square Foot Garden Beds

Growing onions in the Square Foot Garden

The Leeks and Green Onions are going great guns as well. Gardening guides suggest that you pinch off the buds as they form so that the energy goes to the bulb rather than to the flower. As you can see, many of mine bolted and flowered and are as much as 20″ tall. They are still usable, specifically terrific for soups and for using as Green Onions even though they have bolted. Also, the flowering tops have seeds that work for sprouting and the flowers (themselves) can be pulled apart and the little spike-shaped soft petals make wonderful additions to homemade salad dressings or sprinkled on top of greens. One of my favorite things about green onions and leeks is that you don’t have to pull them at all. You can snip them off leaving about 1″ of the bulb at the bottom in the garden and they will grow back all season. I have some going on 3 years now, they just keep coming back. I have some Red Onions, White Onions, and Walla Walla coming that have not bolted. These would have different results if they bolt so I am tending them a bit closer…after all, it’s the root I am after with these, not just the greens. (By the way, you can use the greens on these, too!)

Lettuce From Square Foot Garden Bed

Leaf Lettuce from Square Foot Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love growing squares of leaf lettuce. I buy several varieties of Organic Mixed Greens and I am always excited to see what appears. This year is no exception. Leaf lettuce can also be cut off about an inch from the soil and will grow back quickly.

My peas are growing up the netting very well. I have done nothing to aid them at all. There are no ties holding them on, they are doing it all themselves! I love it!

Growing Peas vertically on netting in the square foot garden.

Let the Easy Square Foot Gardening Begin!

Square Foot Garden strawberries

You know that moment when the first Strawberry of the season ripens and the entire family fights over it because even if you only get a tiny piece, it’s better than any flavor at the grocery store? Yep, that moment has happened in this yard already this year. Yes! It’s a new season and things are beginning to blossom! Actually, more than blossom. My onions are going crazy, my radishes are beginning to purge themselves from the earth, the peas are taking off like mad and the lettuce is enormous. The best part is that we spent 15 minutes preparing the beds this year and added literally nothing in the way of amendments. I was told that Spinach and Bee Balm make great companions right in the Strawberry bed. I am trying Bee Balm this year but I have not had any luck prior getting Spinach to come up at all there. I don’t know why that is. Any ideas? Anybody? I seem to be able to get Spinach to do just fine in it’s own squares.

Growing onions in the Square Foot Garden

My green onions/leeks/scallions are beginning to flower and open so many of them will be cut off today and used. I don’t actually remove my scallions and green onions from the bed, I just cut them off about an inch or so from the ground and they typically grow back faster than I need them! I love not having to replant. Some of these are easily 18″ tall and they are sweet and wonderful. My peas are growing on a trellis

Peas growing on a badminton net trellis.

that we made from an old badminton net. We strung it between two 6 foot, $1.00 plastic posts that we found at our local Home Depot. As the season goes along and more weight gets put on the net, we simply twist the posts to take up the slack. Our peas are grown in the same squares as our tomatoes. By the time the tomatoes are big enough to produce, the peas are gone and in the meantime the peas are adding nitrogen to the soil that the tomatoes desperately crave. We have also stuck Basil between the tomato plants and everybody seems to be happy! Yum, Caprese salad while sitting in the garden…bring your own Balsamic Vinegar and fresh Mozzarella Cheese, of course.

Lettuce in the Square Foot Garden

This sneaky head of lettuce appeared from last years crop. I just let it go when I recognized it and in 3 weeks time I had this gorgeous plant. I will be having such a fresh salad today. I can hardly wait. I wondered if it would taste bitter as it came back from last year so I tasted a large leaf and it is sweet and wonderful. I love all of the different varieties of lettuce that are available to gardening these days. I always plant lots of leaf lettuce varieties as they can be cut off an inch from the ground and they will come back sweet in no time at all, too.

Beautiful Radishes in the Square Foot Garden

Radishes, no garden should be without them. They are very fast growing, they are a nice tang to any salad or salad dressing. They have their own flavor. The sprouts are delicious, the greens are delicious, and they help to repel certain non-beneficial insects (like the cabbage moth for instance). I typically leave a couple in the ground all season, letting them go to seed and get as big as they want just for the benefits in the garden. The pond is up and going. It is very small but we have done square foot planting of regular plants around the edges and, again, 15 minutes of weeding and it was ready for whatever was new. This has been such a welcome addition to the yard. The sound of the water draws me every morning do sit with my cup of coffee and just enjoy my yard. This has truly been a dramatic difference for me with Square Foot Gardening. I now spend most of my time enjoying my yard instead of just working in it.

Small pond in the yard with Square Foot Gardening techniques on the perimeter.

The New Gardening Season Is Upon Us!

I’m just about out of my mind. Yesterday the new Organic seeds arrived in the mail, it was too chilly outside but the sky was blue and the excitement of beginning gardening was overwhelming. Today it is snowing. Sigh.

It’s not too early to begin planning, however. I find that each new season brings me to redesigning garden beds and deciding what new thing I want where. Because I am a firm believer in companion planting this can take a bit of well-worth-it-in-the-long-run planning. It’s a great way to spend a few hours on a day that is just not fit to be outside.

Last week I did venture through the crunching snow to one of my raised beds and I pulled snow off of the top of a few cabbages that had been left in the ground in the fall. I was able to cut one off at the ground and it was still sweet and wonderful. Pretty good considering I did not cover the top of my garden at all.

The End of Another Utah Growing Season

What a fun year this was. New gardens, new things we had never grown before in a Square Foot Garden (like Asparagus and Corn), and the news that is just as happy for me is that cleaning out the garden at the end of the year was just as enjoyable and easy as it was putting it all in. Less than two hours and we were complete with 6 beds!

We left carrots, onions, and cabbages as we know they will be fine into the snow-filled months typically ahead. We added extra garden space, built a greenhouse from a kit, built tables for the greenhouse, and are already excited about planning for spring.

We have begun experimenting with this same Square Foot Gardening procedure for flowers and succulents and are having great results. We have brought this same soil into the home and potted our indoor plants with it and the plants have never looked so healthy.

I am both amazed and experiencing a great amount of gratitude for this method of gardening. It is beneficial in that it is Organic and maintained with no pesticides, it is responsible in that the amount of water that is used to provide these beautiful crops is managed well due to the creation of a truly healthy soil for the crops to grow in, and the food coming from these gardens have some of the best flavors I have ever tasted.

Kohlrabi in the Square Foot Garden

This picture of Kohlrabi is from Elise at http://www.simplyrecipes.com/kohlrabi/. I absolutely encourage people to check out this link as they are doing a beautiful job.

Kohlrabi is definitely an oddity. It looks strange, it has a unique flavor, and there are times when that is exactly what I want…something unique that tastes different from my last 35 meals!

They can be eaten raw by just slicing them into salads, or cooked like you would Broccoli. They taste a little like Broccoli stems with a bit of bite to them (like a radish).

So, add your compost to your square which will hold 4 Kohlrabi. You can plant in the same square with Squash because the Kohlrabi will be gone before the Squash starts to get big. Keep the Kohlrabi moist and pick them when they are 3″ across. They are good companions with Onions, Beets, Cucumbers, and Mustards but they dislike Strawberries, Tomatoes, and Pole Beans.

To harvest, cut off the bulb at the base of the plant. Discard the leaves, cube or slice the bulb and boil it for a few minutes until tender.

Herbs and the Square Foot Garden

Just like herbs add variety, health, and spice to our culinary experiences, they are also helpful in aiding other plants in our gardens.

With Square Foot Gardening and Herbs, I find (on a personal note) that 1-2 plants of any specific herb is enough for my culinary needs. That being said, tucking herbs into the Square Foot Garden becomes part of the fun in that each plant is unique to the Square Foot Garden, each supplies a different look for the Square Foot Garden, and each can do so much good to outlying crops within the Square Foot Garden.

This is a brief over-view. The links below will be addressing specifics about certain herbs and how to use them.

Basil–Repels flies and mosquitoes (and is good near a pond for that reason). It is good for tomatoes and asparagus and comes in many, many varieties which each carries it’s own unique flavor and appeal.  Sweet Basil, for instance, is used in vinegars, soups, stew, salad, cottage cheese, eggs, tomato dishes, with chopped meats and vegetables.

Bay Leaves–Put them in stored grains (like wheat or rye) and they will eliminate weevils.

Bee Balm–A gorgeous, unique looking plant with cascading flowers that often produce new stems and flowers from within the center of other flowers. Excellent for tomato pollination.

Chives–Great with carrots. They improve both the growth and the flavor.

Caraway is beautifully grown with peas.

Coriander–Repels aphids and is immune to them itself. Coriander attracts bees when in blossom.

Mint–A good companion to tomatoes and cabbage. Repels Cabbage Worms, Aphids, and Ants. Dried Mint Leaves repel mice!

Oregano–Repels the Cabbage Butterfly.

Dill—Good with Cabbages, does well if sowed where early Beets have been harvested. Good with Lettuce, Onions, Cucumbers, Asparagus. Beans help the growth of Dill. Dill is not a good companion for Carrots. Dill is from the same family as Carrots and should not be planted near them as they can cross-pollinate giving odd results.

Parsley–Good with Carrots and can be planted in the same square. Adds vigor to Tomatoes and Asparagus.

Sage–Good for all Cabbage family, Carrots, and Rosemary.  DO NOT plant Sage with Cucumbers!

Salsify–Grows well with Mustards and Watermelon.

Summer Savory–Grows well with Beans and Onions improving their flavor and health.

Thyme–Deters Cabbage Butterfly. Thyme attracts many beneficial insects for pollination.

Garlic in the Square Foot Garden

You can plant Garlic in the Spring and harvest it in the Fall but the best crops are those which are planted in the fall, overwinter, and are harvested in the spring!

Elephant Garlic is a fabulous variety and should be planted mid-August so there’s time for the roots to form before cold weather sets in. Don’t plant Garlic where Onions were last year.

Garlic is not only delicious but it destroys mosquitoes, aphids, and onion flies. It is not picky about where it is planted but wants to be in full sun.

Start with adding your Compost…as always! Plant large Garlic Cloves about 2″ deep. Water heavily and add mulch. Give a very heavy watering about every 3 weeks with fish emulsion (yep, pond water works here). If you are going to harvest in late September then stop regular watering and feeding in late July or August to give bulbs a chance to size up. Those that are overwintered will have buds forming on the top in the Spring. Snip them off so that energy will go to the bulbs rather than to those buds.

Garlic is not good companions with Peas or Beans.

Garlic is good companions with all fruit trees, Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Potatoes, Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kale, and Kohlrabi.

Cucumbers in the Square Foot Garden

Cucumbers work very well in the square foot garden and can be grown vertically! I have found that training the vines to go up leaves a lot of available space in the garden. Other benefits include that the fruit is easier to see and makes picking the Cucumbers very easy as you are not sprawling around on the ground in search of them. There is also less spoilage to things that happen when your fruit and veggies are suspended with air circulating rather than laying on the ground.

Cucumbers repel ants which makes them great companions with Corn. Corn, in return, protects cucumbers against the virus that causes wilt so they are mutually beneficial for one-another. Cucumbers are also suited well to be planted next to carrots, beans, peas, radishes, and sunflowers. Radishes repel predators of cucumbers. Plant 2-3 Radish seeds next to your cucumber plants and don’t pull them. Let them grow and even go to seed. Cucumbers dislike aromatic herbs.

Start seeds indoors about 4 weeks before transplanting. Cucumbers are a warm crop and will struggle or not make it if transplanted before steady temperatures of 60 degrees are maintained.

Flowers typically begin appearing within 10 days of the first true leaves. The first blossoms are always male and the females will begin to appear about a week later. Water well once a week.

Is it worth growing Corn in the Square Foot Garden?

To me it is! I was reading about growing Corn and it stated to grow one stalk in the center of each square leaving 12″ to the next stalk. I considered this differently because if you move to the extreme inside edge of each square, there is 12″ between. (okay, 11″ +) Knowing corn grows straight up, it seemed to me that if my soil was right, I could plant more than one per square and increase my crop. I planted 2 to a square, kitty corner in the squares, and the squares on the end of the box got 3! In the diagram below you can see the stalks represented by circles and the arrows represent 12″ of space between stalks. This method allows for 3 stalks in the end squares of each row.

I was told that Corn did not transplant well and I should use direct seeding but it was later in the season and so I tried to work with transplants anyway and had terrific results.

Knowing Corn is a heavy feeder, we went fishing and after cleaning the fish put the remains in the bottom of the squares (side-dressing) our young stalks of corn. They seemed to love it.

Corn is a warm-season crop. Plant corn after the soil temperature is at least 60 degrees.

Corn is good companions with peas and pole beans because they create nitrogen in the soil that the corn then uses up. Melons, squash, and cucumbers like the shade that corn stalks create. You can also plant Broccoli, Cauliflower, Kohlrabi, and Cabbage between the Corn in the center of your square. When the corn ripens and the stalks are pulled, they will already be in their own square in the sunshine! Marigolds repel beetles and are beneficial to aiding the growth of corn.

Tomatoes are NOT COMPATIBLE with Corn. They have the same enemies in common! Tomato Horn Worm and Corn Worms are identical! If they are planted together and one crop gets affected, it will get the other crop too! Keep them apart from one another.

One more quick thought about Corn. Seldom have I seen Corn growing without earwigs inside and out. After consulting our local agricultural department I was reassured that this is actually a good thing. Earwigs are carnivores and will not eat your crops. The Earwigs are feeding on less beneficial insects and actually helping the crops.