I told my sister in-law today that next year I want a whole 4×4 full of strawberries, and another full of tomatoes. Maybe at least half of one for beets. And the one I have now? Squash, peppers, and other climbers. It’s times like this I start wishing I lived in Florida or some other place I could garden year round. But this is where I live so guess I’ll make do…grrr. In any case, the sunflowers above are thriving. There are several smaller deep russet colored ones on the side of the house too that I’m rather fond of - they are extremely hard to get a great shot of since they are so much in shade but someday I’ll get one. It really is a miracle I have a garden this year at all considering moving and having a baby - I just can’t help wishing it was bigger! But it’s not bad.
This is a pretty funny picture of the Cherokee purple tomato - I swear there were more tomatoes on this poor plant - did my 2 year old get to them?? However this baby is thriving. I’ve been spraying blossom set spray every few days to get more going and it seems to be working at least a little bit. OK so I’m not sure if it’s really working or not but at least I feel I’m doing something to help my plants.
I learned that the plant food I used is better at the beginning of the growing season - it releases slowly since it is dry. I’m going to try some of the fish fertilizer you guys recommended as soon as I make it to the store… Today I spotted a praying mantis and a ladybug in my garden, hopefully chomping on any pesky bugs - great little garden helpers.
How did your garden start - big or small? What will you do differently or the same next year?
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
pg
Glad your going to try the fish emulsion, I’m sure it will work for you.
My garden started off as a 16ft x 16ft raised bed. I saw the error of my ways (imho) and changed it to 4 beds 8ft x 4ft which is a size that works fine for me.
Since then I’ve added two more 8ft x 4ft raised beds and will be adding another this fall. As long as all goes well I intend to add one bed per year until I reach a level where I think enough is enough!!
Thanks for the useful information
Thanks
Garden flags
I want an entire square box of strawberries too. I think i’ll plant the strawberries sooner next year.
I have three SFG boxes now, and I also get to use my parents backyard for my garden space. So I have two gardens in two houses, lol, and its all mine. I would love to grow more vegetable next year, more variety, better planning, more plants of each variety to get more crop.
Yeah, for strawberries, I fear I’d need a whole bed. I don’t have the room so I am not growing them. If you’ve got the room, do it! I also found that growing a little of this and a little of that isn’t nearly enough. I’d love to grow a whole bed of cauliflower and freeze it, same with beans and peas and broccoli. Oh, and a quarter acre of corn would be just right. All on my quarter acre lot with a 2,000 SF ranch home and a landscaped backyard for kids. Not going to happen.
As for living in Florida, I am not so sure. The extreme heat allowing you to only grow heat loving veggies, and even then tomatoes have trouble. Then there’s the bugs that I’ve never even fathomed. As much as I am getting tired of salads, I love that here in the PNW I can grow salad greens and cool weather crops year round.
Mick - 8×4 ft - that does sound like a good size, maybe will try that next year…
DP - I don’t think there is such a thing as too many strawberries, LOL
Sinfonian - maybe you are right about Florida - of course I also hate the cold dreary days with no sunshine here - but maybe for the gardening issue I’ll just get a greenhouse someday, who knows
Ah well, then if it’s weather related for you, then by all means, consider moving or snowbirding it. I was just thinking gardening. hehe
We are new to sfg. We live in the Southern Bahamas (can garden all year). We have a REAL problem with rootknot nematodes in the soil. We are planning out our SFG’s, and I just had a thought–will the nematodes migrate up into the Mel’s mix even if there is weedcloth or cardboard barier between the soil and the Mel’s mix? Does anyone have any experience or advice.
Reuben - ohhh am jealous of being able to garden all year. what are rootknot nematodes? haven’t had any experience with this.
Leave a Comment