Monthly Archives: July 2012

Zucchini in 1 square foot

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There’s always lots of discussion about zucchini being able to be grown in the square foot garden-most notably in only 1 square foot. I’ve grown it this way for years because I didn’t like the way zucchini(and other squash)can take over so much of the garden. I’ve changed my methods though and for the most part it looks like it might work. I used to use a jump-rope to tie the zucchini stem up to the t-post. But this year I’ve used Velcro-which as you can see, appears to be holding things up and together pretty well. This was about 2 weeks ago so the plant is bigger now, and I’m getting at least one zucchini every other day. In about another week, I think I will be getting one per day. I like to pick them when they taste the best-about 8 inches. The other day we had a kind neighbor deliver us a zucchini that was about 2 1/2 feet long. They simply don’t taste as good as the smaller ones. As you Velcro up your zucchini, do it at intervals that keep the stem vertical without any drooping. This will reward you with a zucchini plant that is neat, tidy, and only takes up 1 square foot of space. Your zucchini will be growing vertically as you can see in the picture. It’s always fun to watch people as they see zucchini being grown this way. Then we go to another spot in the garden where the real big squash-banana-is starting to grow. It’s about 6 feet in the air right now and it will be a while before all of those are ready. Right now they’re just back there gaining weight! It’s been a great summer for our square foot gardens. In another few days I will be posting about something that you’ll need to start thinking about if you want a fall garden.[ois skin=”below post”]z

The corn is starting to produce in the square foot gardens

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That’s our great daughter who went out to find some corn in the garden.  Things are growing well back there-including the spring treat corn.  I planted 4 seeds per square and we’ve been able to harvest about 12 ears of corn over the course of a few days.  This works out perfectly because I planted a row of 4 squares about every 5th day so we get things that come in smaller, shorter waves.  The corn is good, but I think I’ll go for the sweeter variety next year that produces a bigger ear of corn.  These ears are only 7-81/2 long.  They taste very good, but we just want bigger.  I’ve had no problems in my corn with bugs or anything else.  There’s tons of bees back there doing their thing, along with their presence on squash plants, sunflowers, and bachelor buttons.  I forgot that bachelor buttons were pollinators so that worked out pretty well.  Tonight we grabbed some ears of corn along with a zucchini(grown in 1 square foot)and 2 carrots.  We steamed the corn and sauteed the carrots and zucchini and was it ever good.  This is summertime-my most favorite time for eating.  All fresh and all just harvested within just a few minutes, and boy can you ever tell.  There have been no pole beans yet but those should be coming up very shortly.  This square foot garden stuff-it’s just the best.[ois skin=”below post”]

How to make money with your square foot gardens

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I don’t know about you, but I think it’s fun finding ways to make money with your hobbies.  It’s already something you love to do, so why not get paid for it if you can?  This past week I took an ad out in the local classifieds.  The title was simply “Organic Produce for Sale.”  I mentioned the fact that it’s too late to join a CSA-for the most part that is.  I had so many calls that I simply couldn’t handle them all! There are many people that will gladly pay 25-$30 a week for fresh organic produce and vegetables.  You can even pay that much(or more)at some of the “organic” grocery stores that are very popular these days. If you look at a place that sells great stuff, like Whole Foods, you will notice that many of the items they sell may not even be locally grown.  Their from New Mexico, Texas, California, etc.  And that is OK but you know what that means-its been on a truck for at least 2 days, probably more.  Some of it even comes from Mexico-and you never know about the water supply down there being used to irrigate.  So, I think I’m giving a pretty good deal.  If you’re interested in seeing the ad for ideas, click here.  For $125 I’ve already landed my first customer with more calling.  I only have about 150 square feet back there in my gardens, and I’m still working on feeding our own family through the rest of this gardening season.  So I just have to plan things out.  Since I’m growing the things that I normally would grow anyway, I probably wont need to order any new seeds.  With the things that are already growing in our garden I figured that I only need 22 squares to provide 6 weeks of fresh, organic, and delicious tasting things for one person.  I’ve put together my planting schedule leaving a couple extra squares left over to adjust for mistakes or flops.  I’ve figured out my quantities and the dates I will be delivering to their homes.  I’m out and about during the day anyway so it’s no problem for me to harvest, give a quick rinse, and then a final rinse before I deliver to a location.  Granted, you wouldn’t want to do this with for a lot of people because it would eat up your profits and time-unless you wanted to include that in your price.  Everything will be wrapped in paper towels with the exception of the beans and sugar snaps-they will be in zip lock bags.  My costs will be kept to a bare minimum.  All I need to buy is paper towels and zip-lock bags.  That’s it.  Let’s say I only find one customer(which I have).  I don’t think I will spend $20 in zip-lock bags/paper towels/other things but let’s say I do.  I just made $100 doing what I love to do, and doing what I do in my garden anyway.  Let’s say I get customer number two.  Now I’ve made $200 with virtually no extra effort.  With customer number one, I just paid for all my supplies for next year-and then some.  Pretty easy.  What do you think?[ois skin=”below post”]

Mid July activities in the square foot garden

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If you’re anything like me your probably spending just a little less time in your garden at this time of the year because of the heat. This is a good time to plan what you want in your garden as those tomatoes start to produce and ripen. If you can shade your garden at this time of year, you’ll be able to still grown lettuce and radishes. I was surprised that I was able to still grow radishes in temperatures in the high to upper 90’s. Just make sure you water and shade them more and you should be able to successfully grow them. And when those tomatoes come pouring on in a matter of a couple of weeks, will you have any lettuce ready to harvest? Sure you can just purchase store bought lettuce, but you can still grow your own. And it’s better than anything you can buy at the store. When the weather gets this hot, germinating lettuce seeds is the biggest challenge. Once again, shade and extra water will get you what you’re after. Once the lettuce seeds germinate and break the soil, a lot of your hard work is done. It will grow quickly in this kind of weather but you should still keep the sun off it if you can. At least the hot afternoon sun. You’ll keep your lettuce from tasting bitter and will reap the rewards of great home tasting lettuce. The other fun thing that might be showing now in your gardens are flowers. I don’t grow many, but most of the ones I do all have a specific function. Nasturtiums-edible, nicotiana-fragrance, daisy, bachelor buttons, and sunflower seeds-attracts bees(pollinators), and finally celosia. The reason I like celosia is it’s brilliant red color later in the fall. I’m partial to reds and whites, so I place white alyssum at the base of my celosia. They’re all easy to grow and will reward you with great color as we get into the fall season. Come to think of it, we’re not that far off from that. Keep those compost units working so that you’ll be ready to harvest and amend squares as you pull from your garden. And the timing is such that if you’ve worked your compost correctly, you’ll be just in time to prepare for your fall gardens with finished composted material.[ois skin=”below post”]

Now that you harvested a lot of squares, what’s next?

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No doubt you’ve already had a pretty good harvest from the spring season.  And right now you’re probably emptying out squares from that harvest.  All those early spring squares will now be empty and ready to be re-planted.  But just think, a lot of the nutrients that were in the soil to begin with during the spring season have been depleted a bit.  Now it’s time to replant that square with something entirely different.  If you end up putting the same kind of item in that square, it may work.  But chances are also good that it may not work because all those critters that loved what was in that particular square will now be very happy with you.  By planting the same thing you’ve made it easy for them to find their food.  Make them work for it.  Plant something different in those squares.  Before you do, you’ll need to amend your soil with some new fertilizer.  I’m speaking about compost that you’ve been making over the last several weeks.  All you need to do is add enough trowels(1 of the 3 tools you’ll ever need in a square foot garden) full of compost until you’ve replenished the overall volume-to the very top of the square.  Then just mix it all in and you’re ready to replant.  By doing this in the spring, summer, and later in the fall, you’ll be able to amend your growing soil perfectly throughout the course of the year.  That’s how simple it is.  I’ve got some newly uploaded pictures of a compost operation that I’ve been doing this year.  I’ve tried to show-in pictures-how simple it is to make your own compost.  You’ll find them in the photo gallery on the main page.  I hope it helps those who are wanting to make their own compost but feel a little intimidated by the thought of it.[ois skin=”below post”]