Busted!!

For the last 2 weeks, I have been puzzling over what appear to be footprints in my garden. Not anything I can identify, just a random indent in the soil. I noticed the first one in my carrots, where it appeared that something had stepped onto one of the very small, very delicate carrots. Just one indent, just one footprint. It couldn't be a rabbit. I thought perhaps a cat, just walking through, but why just a single footprint?

This morning, when the boys and I took our first stroll out to the garden, as I headed across the yard (imagine dramatic, suspenseful music here), I spied a deer (music swells), walking casually by the garden...just passing through. Hmmm, not a good sign. And when I got to the garden, this is what I found:


One of my eggplant seedlings, suddenly almost leafless!! It might be time to put a door on the fence that goes around the garden.

Hot, hot, hot!

This weekend was blistering hot!! Lots of storms during the week, some were pretty destructive, and then the 100° temperatures and Washington humidity hit. So what to do on a hot, hot day? Well, since there was one last box to plant, and a new pile of vermiculite, peat moss, and compost calling to me, the thing to do was mix some more Mel’s mix and plant the final box. So that’s what I did….and boy, was it hot!

This one has my eggplant seedlings, cilantro from the farmers market, and kale. In the other boxes, I was also able to plant some additional basil and cilantro seedlings which came in my CSA box. You can never have too much basil or cilantro!

Just 2 weeks ago, I planted the baby corn and beans. It’s amazing just how fast they sprouted, and now they are growing like crazy.

These little guys certainly will be “knee high by the fourth of July”, as the saying goes. Of course, that may be as big as they get! Right now, they seem to be about the same size as the beans.


And, finally a little harvest. Some radishes!! Look at these little beauties!!


My original plan for this blog was to also share the recipes that I use to prepare the harvest, and I did think about how I could prepare these little guys. I actually found a recipe for a radish sandwich. In the end, though, I decided to just wash them, sprinkle them with a little course salt, and eat them!

Happy Memorial Day

Memorial Day always seems to signal the start of the summer season. I’m not sure why that is…the schools kids are not done – their summer will not really start for several more weeks. It’s a big beach weekend, traditionally, as if now that Memorial Day is here, you can go to the beach. I actually think any day at the beach is a good day, regardless of the time of year or weather. But whatever the reason, it does now officially feel like summer!


So, how did I celebrate Memorial Day in the garden? I planted corn. Seemed like a summer time vegetable. In my purchase of seeds for this year, I did have one, crazy, spontaneous, frivolous purchase. I bought a collection pack of what were called baby vegetables (hmmm, aren’t all vegetables babies at one time?). In this was a pack of seeds called baby corn. According to the package, these seeds will produce 4” to 5” ears if left until maturity, but they can be picked early to get those little edible corn cobs you can find at salad bars and in Chinese food. So, while this will not take the place of all the wonderful sweet corn I get from the farm stands in the summer, it seemed like it could be kind of fun. I also planted beans in with the corn. And once those all begin to sprout, I will plant my butternut squash.


Yes, you guessed it. This box is patterned after a Three Sister’s Garden. Of course, my corn will not grow as tall as standard corn, but it will still benefit from the nutrients that the beans will put into the soil. And my beans are bush beans…because that is what I had purchased before I got this idea…so they really don’t need any tall stalks on which to grow. In fact, I am hoping that the beans and the corn don’t all end up being the same size! And the squash? Well, that is intended to keep down the weeds, but I suspect that there is so much corn and beans in that one box, I may have to rethink the squash. Where I was so disciplined in my other boxes, planting only what was recommended for a Square Foot Garden, this box is a tribute to that unorganized, disheveled part of my personality.


Most of the seeds I had planted earlier have started to sprout. We had quite a bit of rain earlier – it is now official – this was the 4th wettest May ever. But this weekend has been beautiful, warm and sunny. I think these are perfect growing conditions for the garden. I still have one box that is in need of Mel’s mix and some plantings, but I finally feel as though the basic garden is planted. Let the growing season begin!!

A Shopping Trip

Saturday was a beautiful, sunny day. It was such a nice day that an early morning trip to the farmers market turned into a trip to Home Depot, where we did not find any compost, followed by a trip to Southern States in Purcellville, where we found not only compost, but a tray of seedlings, and ended with a trip to the Kubota tractor store. The results of this excursion were basil, one jalapeno plant, 4 tomato plants, 6 mystery plants and the bug to buy a tractor.

Wait….mystery plants?? Well, they look like broccoli to me, but they were not marked. The sales clerk agreed with me that they looked like broccoli, although according to her, they could also be cauliflower. I like broccoli…I like cauliflower….and a little mystery in the garden could be fun. So I brought the plants home and planted them in the most recently prepared bed. What do you think they are?

A major step forward for me is the fact that there were only 4 tomato plants!! There is one Brandywine – my favorite – and one Mortgage Lifter. Also, one Roma tomato and one yellow tomato. And no cherry tomatoes at all!!!



Today was also moving day for the sage/mint monster. It was a pretty big job but the whole corner of the one box was dug up and moved to the box that is home for the thyme. Some of the mint went into the wheelbarrow to be dumped in the woods. It will undoubtedly grow there; earlier, when I was dumping some other weeds, I found a large patch of mint growing in the dark woods behind my house, where you wouldn't think a sun-loving plant could grow. I got this sudden mental image of, years from now, mint covering the entire 5 acres. Hmm, it will be mojito heaven!

Now, 3 of the square boxes and one rectangular box are prepped and planted. They will enjoy the rainy Sunday we are having today. The first to poke through is this radish...salad is on the way!

The old guy has been a constant gardening companion. Oh, and that tall grass in the background?? Yes, that is the front yard. That is what grass can look like when you hire someone to cut it - hense the trip to the tractor store. I think there is a Kubota B7610, with a 60-inch mower deck and a front end loader in my future!! Oh, the gardening possibilities that would open up!

A Late Start

I should be harvesting my spinach and lettuce and sugar snap peas now. There should be fresh radishes and beets from my own soil in my salad. I know this because when I go to the farmers market on Saturday mornings, those vegetables are waiting on the farmers tables for me. In the time that some grew the lettuces, and spinaches, and sugar snap peas I see, I managed to kill 2 trays of seedlings, and still nothing is growing in my garden. Sad…very, very sad. But not too late.

For Mother’s Day this year, during a weekend that I had to work, I got a very special gift. I got several hours of garden labor from my husband to get some of the beds ready for planting. We pulled up the weeds, moved all the dirt out of the smaller, square box into one of the larger, rectangular boxes, and filled the square box with Mel’s mix. Two boxes ready for planting!!

Then it started to rain!! And it rained and rained and rained. This is now the 5th rainiest May ever, and the first rainiest May in my lifetime. I had to wait for the rain to stop, but now, planted in at least one bed is lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, carrots, kale and swiss chard. And, in the larger bed, sugar snap peas. I even got some cilantro started indoors. Hopefully, it is not going to prove to be too late.

The neglect certainly hasn’t hurt the thyme, it is bigger than ever. I suspect soon it will take over the entire box. Too bad the other kind of time isn't this easy to come by!

And the mint and the sage battle on…I always wonder who is going to win.

And so, the garden is finally started. And during this very busy month, during the peak stress times, the old man - below - and I walk out to the garden daily and wait for it to begin!

Survivors

It looks like I have a few survivors after all.

Some of the lettuces didn’t quite make it, and all of the basil did not survive. It’s sad but not too terrible as there is still plenty of time for me to get in some additional lettuce plants and new basil. It is, after all, just April. But just look at this happy broccoli!! It’s amazing what bigger pots and a little feeding could do for the broccoli and cabbage seedlings. They are continuing to grow stronger and larger, as is a whole tray of parsley seedlings so I have begun to set them out each day for a few hours in the morning sun.

This weekend, I will plant more lettuce and basil. In fact, I may start most eveything else. I have started calling around to find a source for vermiculite – a necessary ingrediant in the Square Foot Garden model. Hmmm, this is not going to be quite as easy as I thought. I had no luck today finding a local source, although I did find a place where I can order it online. You just gotta love the Internet!!

In the meantime, spring has continued to awaken so many of my favorites….

The deer will be so happy to see the Hostas returning, bigger each year!

The Virginia Bluebells are just starting to flower.

My most favorite of all…my peonies….always glad to see them…

And finally, I just had to include this picture...

It is not the best picture, I didn’t have a tripod set up for the zoom, and I had to shoot through the glass – which of course, was dirty – but look closely. It seems that my squirrel buddy doesn’t understand that the large plastic top is a squirrel guard, not a shelter from the rain. Oh well….

Back Again

Well, this is how it happens! A flurry of activity, then something happens to distract me, and I fall behind. But the warm weather and the buds on the trees remind me that there is gardening to be done. Not to mention the tray of scraggly seedlings….

So, for this week, I will have some catch-up time. The tray of seedlings has gotten really scraggly. I’m not sure why, they are under a grow light so light should not have been a problem. They are in a seed tray that is designed to wick the moisture to them so watering should not have been a problem. I tried giving them a weak feeding…I don’t know, maybe it is overcrowding. The right thing to do is probably to throw them out and begin again. After all, I do have time. But for some reason, I just can’t do that. So they all get one more chance…in their own larger pots. Last chance, guys....don't blow it! Next stop is the trash!!

This weekend is Easter so there will be no time to continue outside work on the actual garden. There is always time, though, for a walk in the yard. This is my favorite time of the year. So many memories from previous years plantings poking their heads up for another season. My very first year in this house, I planted bleeding hearts. They have been moved all around the yard over the years, but they always come up, every year, no matter where I put them.

Another year, I planed Virginia Bluebells. They have never been moved, they just come back a little more each year.

I think we are past the cold winter months. More nice days will mean more opportunities to get this garden planted! And more returning friends....

Clean Up Begins

Saturday was a beautiful gardening day, full of birds and sunshine!







Ok, well not really, but it was in the mid 50’s and for a few hours, there was a bit of a break in the clouds that provided some sun. So all in all, it was as good a gardening day as I can expect here in Lucketts in February.

Does this look like a planting bed ready for the new season?? Perhaps not. Because this garden has always gotten away from me each year, my gardening season always has to begin with Clean Up. I know, that is supposed to be the last step of last years garden…putting the garden to bed. But, as you can see, it didn’t quite get done.

So, with my trusty helper, Saturday was the start of pulling, prepping and raking.

And the final result....

If you happened to be passing by Lucketts on Saturday, you probably would have wondered what that fresh, minty smell was. There was an overgrown mint plant, left over from last summer's Mojitos that just needed to go. The mint had managed to fill one of the boxes I will be converting to a SFG, even infiltrating my sage. It will be impossible to keep the mint from coming back without totally emptying the box so it looks like the sage will be finding a new home after all…maybe in a planter.

What to Plant...

What to plant….what to plant….





This is always a dilemma for me. In Mel’s book about Square Foot Gardening, he cautions against trying many new things all at once. He also advises against building a seed list by perusing the many seed catalogs with their beautiful photography and enticing descriptions. This is perhaps the hardest thing to avoid. For some reason, and maybe it’s the presence of those catalogs, January always finds me itching to start growing something (or everything)! But this year, there is a PLAN and I am determined to stick to the plan.

So, Mel suggests looking back at recent grocery lists. I realized we eat a fair amount of vegetables in this house. Lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, baby carrots (I know… not really babies, but just trimmed adult carrots), greens, and something called “assorted salad fixin’s”. Hmmm, I don’t remember ever seeing a seed packet for something called assorted salad fixin’s. But this is my winter shopping list. During the spring and summer, when fresh, local produce is readily available at my neighborhood farms stands and the CSA I belong to, there are many more veggies I eat. Eggplant, peppers, beets, beans, sugar snap peas, not to mention tomatoes of every size, shape and color. Okay, so this is not going to be the way to reduce my list.








What I finally decided to do was to draw my garden with the grids marked for each square foot. But not all 4 boxes of my garden…no, just ONE box. One box for spring. And I will plant the same selections in all 4 boxes, just a week apart. This will hopefully provide me with a more steady harvest. This also limits me to selecting no more than 16 spring crops. So, now I am down to less than 16 spring crops, less than 16 summer crops, and less than 16 fall crops. Already more manageable!

Then it was just time for a decision. After carrying my garden drawing, my possible seed list, an eraser that allowed me to keep moving things around in the garden and my seed catalogs on several business trips across country (planes are a good place to ponder various seed combinations), I had a final list. The order is in!!!

How Much Space and Thyme

In my current garden, I have 4 square boxes and 2 rectangular ones. The entire garden is enclosed by a chicken wire fence which, last year, did not keep anything out. I went out this weekend to measure the square boxes, hoping that they were at least the 48 inches needed to make them over into a square foot garden. They are! They are actually 53 inches.

While it may not be apparent in the picture, the inside corner of each of the boxes was cut at a slant so instead of having a full 64 squares available for planting, I will have 60. Maybe I will plant some pansies along the cut edge of those squares….pretty flowers and edible too!

So, 60 squares…..well, not quite. I also have some permanent residents out there.

A rather large thyme plant and a smaller sage plant have managed to survive and actually thrive. In spite of the disarray, in spite of the weeds that overtake everything, no matter how harsh the winter or how dry the summer, the thyme and the sage are always there. I won’t know for sure until I pull up all the weeds, but I think the sage will probably occupy one square in a box, and the thyme – probably 3. Okay, so 56 squares for new veggies! Back to the seed catalogues.

A New Cycle Begins

It’s January.

It must be January because my mailbox tells me so. All the many catalogs that had so recently filled it, enticing me with ‘the perfect Christmas gift’, are gone. In their place are the seed catalogs, and each year, those are so much more irresistible to me. Each year, I thumb through pages and pages of beautiful pictures of promise. Each year, I make a long, long list of what I would like to grow. Each year, I buy too many seeds and seedlings and start my little garden afresh. And each year, without fail, my little garden, planted with enough seeds for several acres, gets ahead of me and becomes a jungle. An unruly and totally unmanageable jungle. And so the cycle begins again…..


Well, maybe…..



This year, I am planning to try out the Square Foot Gardening method as described in Mel Bartholomew’s book by the same name. I heard about this book and this type of gardening while listening to the Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast. Okay, just because I can’t manage my own garden doesn’t mean I can’t live vicariously through other gardeners. I discovered that Mel has written a new book now, called All New Square Foot Gardening. In this version, he has updated some of his ideas from the first book, among them the idea of using raised beds. My garden is already a raised bed affair so it seemed a perfect fit. After reading the book, it all just seemed so….possible! Step by step instructions as to how to set it up….guidelines to keep me from planting too much….inspiring potential yields….tips to keep the gardening season running smoothly.



I think this just might work!

Welcome to my first year of Square Foot Gardening, and welcome to my blog.