No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth, and my square foot garden is not dead. But last week we were on vacation, so I’ve been busy getting ready, enjoying our family reunion, and recuperating! I was going to post before we went, but I decided not to let the whole world know we were away from home.
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:
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| 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. |  |
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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!
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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. |  |
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And this is my spinach harvest. This filled one gallon and one quart-sized bag. I’l post my spinach recipes too! |
Wow! You are an inspiration. I do have a question: we’ve noticed blackish spots on all of our basil plants and one of neighboring tomato plants. What is this and how can we treat it? Thanks!
I don’t remember what part of the country you’re in, but when we lived in Seattle we had a very hard time growing peppers. Turns out peppers need very warm soil to grow. Now we’re in zone 6 and the peppers are growing. That’s one good thing about 90F days.
It looks great! I like your tomato trellis set-up. I’m using cages this year (I stakes last year). Maybe I’ll copy you next year?
My garden is starting to come along. I’m in 3b in Canada and this is the first real week of summer weather, a little TOO warm for my liking actually. I can see a huge difference in my tomatoes and zucchini, which seem to be growing overnight as well as my potatoes.
Your garden looks great! I will have to try potatoes next year too. My peppers are definately not doing well either (I’m in Layton, UT). I keep hoping they will start doing better but they pretty much look just like they did when I planted them over a month ago. Maybe they need to be warmer.