Peas
I planted 2 squares of snow peas and 2 squares of sugar snap peas. Just like last year, I had a HUGE harvest and loved every minute of it! The peas grew well until mid-July, when the super hot temperatures hit. In all, I probably harvested 2 gallon bags full of peas. It’s hard to say, because we seemed to eat half of them straight out of the garden. I had enough to snack on, cook with, dip in ranch, and bring to a neighborhood party. The only thing I didn’t do was take a picture of them!

This gave me plenty of broccoli for curry, stir fry, dipping in ranch, etc. I’m definitely going to plant this as part of my fall garden.

I probably harvested at least twice this much, but in June. I need cilantro in August, when I’m making salsa! Perhaps I should try growing some in the shady part of my yard in a small container. I have left the plants to go to seed so I get coriander, and to see if it will grow during the fall and early spring.

This is just a sampling of my parsley–I probably could be harvesting 4-6 times this much. Note for next year: ONE PLANT IS ENOUGH!

Either way, I have been harvesting peppers way sooner than I expected. Check out all these anaheims (had zero success with these last year)! I will definitely grow these again–they were Mountain Valley Seeds (a local company) Anaheim Chili.

I have TONS of japalenos as well. These have been prolific, but the peppers are very small. The package says they will grow to 3″, but mine are more like 2″. Again, it was Mountain Valley Seeds, Jalapeno. I will try another brand next year.

My bell peppers seem way behind the others. I have harvested the ones pictured, plus about 3-4 others we already ate (sorry!). I planted Burpee Kaleidoscope Mix, which seemed fun at the time, but the peppers are all quite small. Next year I will look for something that grows large bell peppers, so I have the quantity of peppers needed for salsa!

And of course, I have NO IDEA what they are. I planted the whole package and threw it away. I do suspect it was a hybrid. I know I spent $1.50 to $2.00 on a seed packet and planted ALL of them in 2 squares, which usually only happens when I buy more expensive hybrid varieties. I hope I can figure out what they are, because I really want to plant them again. Next year, I will just do 2 squares of these. That is PLENTY of cucumbers for our family.

I’ve decided that, though I like the idea of making pickles, it’s just not worth it. Pickling cucumbers have to be harvested at just the right time and size (which eludes me), otherwise they grow big and fat and ugly. They aren’t great to eat. I will not grow this variety again.

My garden is growing! The day before we left I was able to put up my tomato trellises. Of course, I went to take pictures and my battery was dead. So here they are, one week later:

You can’t see it very well in this photo, but some of the tomato plants are already taller than the firs tlayer of netting. I was hoping to “upgrade” from PVC to aluminum, but time and money didn’t allow. There’s always next year! Along the left-hand side is parsley, cabbage, and broccoli. They are getting really big, but so far not competing with the tomatoes. The tomatoes are Better Boy and Early Girl, both indeterminate.

This is my garlic and determinate tomatoes. There are 3 Roma, a Celebrity and a Champion. Also, I have a vertical trellis along the left for my Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, which are indeterminate.

Here are my sad looking pepper plants. I pulled out one dead one and another infected one this morning. They are just not thriving. We’ve had a cool June with a lot of rain, so perhaps they are waiting for the heat. Any pepper experts who have advice–please comment!

Last year my tomatoes had disease, but I still got about 20 pounds out of them. This year my tomatoes are absolutely flourishing! There is supposed to be a row of beans between the cukes on the left and the potatoes. They aren’t doing so well–a little crowded by the potatoes and totally chomped on by roly-poly bugs.

I’m tempted to do a whole box of potatoes next year, since they practically take up the whole box anyway!

My peas, onions, carrots, and spinach have been FANTASTIC this year. I think the cool temperatures have helped. I poke around the onions, and they are starting to bulb and get bigger. The peas have been producing a TON, but we eat most of those fresh off the vines. They’ve grown so tall they are above the trellis now.

The two blank spots were spinach. I had a nice harvest the week before we left (made a spinach salad), and then we were gone for a week. When I came home they were all flowering and going to seed, so I pulled them up and harvested every last leaf. This is the best success I’ve had with carrots as well. They seem to love the shade provided by the onions.

Here are the peas I harvested as soon as we got home. I’ll post a yummy recipe later this week.

And this is my spinach harvest. This filled one gallon and one quart-sized bag. I’l post my spinach recipes too!

As the weather warms, they wanted to offer their readers information about gardening, so below you can watch their webisode featuring me!

The truth is I never look so clean and fresh when I garden, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to appear in my work clothes and bandanna. Maybe next time!

My garden is growing–despite the crazy weather throughout the month of April. This is the same garden bed that was covered in nine inches of snow just three weeks ago!

On top are peas. Several are about 2″ tall. When I saw that some of the seeds didn’t germinate, I replanted those spots.

Next is my row of carrots. You can’t see it in this picture, but they have JUST started coming up. Bottom left is onions, and bottom right is spinach.

I’ve always struggled with root and bulb veggies (onions, garlic, carrots, beets), so I’m hoping this proves to be a good omen for this year’s crops!

Finally, here we have broccoli (top 4 plants), cabbage (next 2) and parsley (bottom 2 plants). These were transplanted during week -3, and this photo was taken one week later (week -2).

In case you’re wondering what this is a picture of, I’ll tell you. It’s my garden wtih 9″ of snow on it. Yes, April 16 and 9″ of snow. For reference, here is what this very same square foot garden bed looked like just a few days ago:

Fortunately, Monday was a beautiful day and I was able to get out and get it done!

Here are the onion sets I planted. I put 9 in each square foot, and I still had a ton on little onions left. I think I’ll give them to a friend!

For some reason I get scatterbrained when I plant, so I set these all out, then pushed each one into the soil, smoothed it out and watered well.

I also planted spinach. In his book, Mel recommends planting 9 per square, but the package suggested spacing them 1″ apart. I poked all my holes first, then planted two seeds in each hole.

Last but not least, I set up my trellis and irrigation. Last year I had the trellis against the fence, but that makes it difficult to train the plants up the trellis and to harvest. So this year I turned them the other way.

Several weeks ago I started my broccoli, cabbage, parsley, and dill. I found some great Jiffy pots (size 3), and filled them with potting soil. I planted the seeds, watered well, and placed them in a tupperware container, with the lid on. The space I had available is in my basement, but it’s cold down there. So I left this lamp on to keep the temperature warm enough. It worked like a charm!

Once the seeds germinated, I took off the lid and placed them under the shop lights, which is on a timer. The Jiffy pots made it easy to see when they needed water.

Here is how it looks today. I took them outside while I worked in my garden so they can start hardening off. By the way, the bendy straw is what I used to label each plant.

Typically, I wear a bandana to keep my hair back (hence my icon girl), but today was really sunny and a bit cold. So I swapped my normal head-wear for this ski cap. I didn’t purposely mix a purple shirt, grey pants with an orange stripe, and green gloves–that kind of fashion is just a gift!

Another ugly part of gardening–compost. Today I went to Wal-Mart to buy some for my gardens. I bought 9 bags of steer manure compost, and 3 bags of chicken manure compost. It cost about $20. I don’t think I’ll need to spend any more (cheers are heard in the background).

I tilled the beds with my pitchfork, revealing a HUGE colony of earthworms. I can’t explain it, since the entire strip of ground under my gardens is covered in weed mat. But earthworms I have–my son was in heaven playing with “wormie,” who is apparently his new best friend.

Tomorrow I will plant my peas. I can’t wait! Happy gardening!

Sample Square Foot Gardening Plans

• Creating a Square Foot Gardening Plan
• My 2008 Garden Plan
• My 2009 Garden Plan
• My 2010 Garden Plan
• Sandra’s 2010 Garden Plan
• Emilee’s 2010 Garden Plan

Here it is–my 2009 SFG garden plan (click on the picture to see a bigger version). I have 5 garden beds altogether–four that are 4×4, and one that is 4×8. One of the things I am doing this year is to plant all my spring veggies on the West fence. That way it will receive morning sun, sun all day, but be sheltered from the hot afternoon sun. This is not a big deal in April, or even May, but by June it is HOT and some of my veggies weren’t mature yet by that time last year.

I’ve also listed more than one veggie in some squares. This is for a second planting–once my peas are done and I pull them out, I’ll replant with lettuce and bush beans. My tomatoes will eventually take up all the space in my large garden, but not before I have a chance to harvest my spring veggies.

I have a few pots that I’m growing my squash and melons in. I will trellis them along the fence.

Note: I color coded the weeks (I’m nuts about color-coding) but this has NOTHING to do with the colors as listed on the site. I just do it so I can easily see what to plant when.