Square foot garden experiment and the teepee experiment

Finally I am trying square foot gardening in my garden.  It will be 4 feet by 10 feet and contain carrots, beets, onions, kale, collards, spinach, mustard and chard.  If all goes will it will give me greens and veggies for several months, hopefully well into winter.

The above image shows where the square foot garden is.  See the poles and cat litter bucket (my garden seat)?  That is where the north end of the square foot garden is located.  Today I planted 8 of the 40 squares.  Over the next week it will be finished, it looks like the weather isn't going to be cooperative for the next couple of days.  The two plants are my hoarhound and sage plants from last year.  We had such a mild winter this year that the sage plant never went dormant, it stayed green all winter.

The image below shows where the red potatoes have been placed.  I put them in a month ago.  They are hiding under that pile of old hay.  To the left and behind there is the place where the sweet potatoes are going in.  In front of the two green plants is where the strawberries will be.

Last but not least is the area where beans and peas will be.  I put up these bamboo tripods, or teepees, the other day to see how well they will stand, and to help mark the area so I would know where to put the square foot garden.  I needed to know how much area they will require.  I have never really lashed a teepee tripod before.  A little learning curve is all it took to get them ready.  I went to youtube and learned how :)  I'm using sisal twine for the lashings.  It was easy peasy.  All is good to go. 

Come on Summer!  Let's roll!

Spring 2012 Easter day April 8

So begins the new gardening year.  There isn't much to do yet but I have the rabbit fence up and planting plans on paper.  There will be new additions this year.  I will attempt  to grow everbearing strawberries and sweet potatoes, two things I have never grown.  This should be fun.

As you can see in the picture, I have the fence up and some bales of old hay to use as mulch.  I have begun to extend the garden towards the back (east) by a few more feet.  That new area is on the other side of the fence and will be growing tomatoes and butternut squash.

Inside the fence will be the usual beans, peas, red potatoes, some herbs...and some strawberries if I can get these to grow.  I am really looking forward to growing sweet potatoes.  I love them.  Last year I didn't have room for broccoli, carrots or greens, these are in the plans for this year, along with a short row of broccoli for fresh eating.  

For greens I will plant kale, collards, spinach, mustard, and chard.  They will go in a few plants at a time, every few weeks, so I will (hopefully) get a steady supply of some greens all summer and, weather permitting, into next winter.

The beans will be pole type, both green and yellow.  I really like the yellow ones and prefer the taste of them over the green ones but the green ones grow better and produce more in my experience.  

I will use last year's conduit for trellising this year but will buy some bamboo poles to make the rest of the trellises I will need,  There will be 9 or10 trellises, 3 for green/yellow beans, 1 for bantu beans, 1 or2 for italian peas, 1 for squash, 2 for tomaotes, 1 for sweet potatoes.  Using the bamboo poles I will make tripods @ 3 to a, row then span 2 poles across the top of the 3 tripods to support the growing veggies.  I think the bamboo will look much nicer than the metal conduit.  I have purchased 2500 feet of sisal twine to make the trellis netting for the veggies to climb.  More fun  hehehe :)

There are two other things I am planting this year.  This strange looking picture shows where they will be planted.  The picture shows the north end of the garden area where the hay bales are and the expanse of lawn between the garden and the street.  I have played with the picture a little to show where the garden will be expanded for next year, also to show where the red raspberry and blueberry plants will go.  At first I will plant just 5 raspberry plants and 3 blueberry plants.  The raspberries I have chosen are ever bearing so I can expand them next year by taking cuttings in the spring.  The blueberries are 3 different high bush varieties that will ripen over an extended period.