Friday, June 24, 2011

Square Foot Gardening

Peas, Cauliflower, Kale, Lettuce, and Tomato
Gardening the Square Foot Way










Lettuce hiding among the cauliflower



This is my fourth year using the square foot gardening method.  It really is much easier than traditional gardening.  I am amazed at the amount you can grow in such a small area.  I have 4 beds like this one.  Each growing something different.


Garlic with a few weeds. 

When you use the mixture recommended you have very little weeding to do.  I generally pick a few small weeds out of the beds every few days. I would recommend the square foot gardening method to anyone wanting to garden without all of the work.
Peas ready to pick       

Volunteer Heirloom Tomato Plant Growing among the strawberries    



Volunteer onion growing among the strawberries
More Volunteer Heirloom Tomatoes

Broccoli

Cabbage, Broccoli, Onions, and Cucumbers
This is the only red cabbage.  It was miss packaged.














I love adding mint to iced tea.  The mint bed was planted 4 years ago.  The first year I grew a variety of lettuce plants and spinach along with the mint.  Little did I know the mint would eventually take the area over.  This bed has become the mint patch.  It continues to come back each year and thrive with very little care
Mint

Strawberry Bed
 Notice the compost pile to the left in the background.  I threw some pumpkin seeds into the pile to see if they would grow. I was out of space and had read they will grow about anywhere.  I noticed yesterday I have three plants growing.  That was after my husband decided he was going to mix the pile up and spread it out.  I think I will put a few more in there to see how well they do.

Strawberries ready to be picked


I have been getting a small handful of strawberries each day. I think I need another bed of strawberries.  These plants were planted 3 and 4 years ago and continue to spread every year.  They eventually took over the bed.  The only thing growing with them are the volunteer plants.

Green Beans
 This was a cheaper version for a raised bed.  I found it on clearance for $10 which was much less expensive than the price of lumber to build another bed.  It's harder to use the square foot method so I chose to designate the entire bed to one crop.

Kale  
I love looking out my window to see everything so GREEN!  Reminds me of Kermit the Frog, from the Muppets.

3 comments:

  1. Wow! Your garden looks terrific! Can't believe how much you're growing in a little space. I planted cauliflower and broccoli for the first time this year, and they haven't started forming heads yet. Is that normal? I'm still trying to figure out how to grow a 3-season garden.

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  2. Thanks girls!
    @Teresa,
    I planted the broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower in April from plants. The cabbage is almost ready, and the other two are pretty much done. I learned broccoli is tricky. If it gets too hot it will not do well. I plan to start more from seed and try again towards fall. I am going to try and attempt to extend the growing season with a cold frame I have.

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