Category Archives: Spring gardening

Spring season is here for some square foot gardeners

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spring square foot gardenSpring time is here if you’ve taken care of your (square foot) gardens during the fall and winter. If you’re able to cover your boxes with plastic, your soil will be ready for planting in a few days. There will be more winter weather to come, but if you’ve been able to minimize the size of your gardens as we teach in the SFG system, it becomes very easy to protect.

I’ve been asked to make some suggestion for a few of my favorite things to grow during spring. I grow many things but if I had to choose my all-time favorite item to grow during any season it would have to be lettuce. I’ve trialed many different varieties during the past 5-6 years and have discovered some wonderful cultivars. Here we go: EZ serve, Heatwave, Black Seeded Simpsom, 4 Seasons, Yugoslavian Red, Little Caesar, Forellenschluss, and my very favorite-Green Ice.

My recommendation for spinach is Space. It’s got a classic taste, performs well, and is resistant to mildew. Remember several years ago when there was no spinach to be found in the U.S. because of some kind of contamination issues? Grow your own and never have to worry about that again.

If you’ve only grown black beauty zucchini in the past a recommendation for a new squash would be Golden Egg. These tasty gems work great on the grill or for stuffing, and have a cartelized, nutty taste.

How about something new for cucumbers? Give Iznik some thought. This German variety is picked when its 4-5 inches long and grows on compact vines all summer long.

Here’s one last tip: if you order from Burpee, which is advertised on my blog, be sure to add the code “B1FA” in the promotional box when checking out. This will give you free shipping, but the offer ends on February 20th. This is a good way to keep your spending on seeds to a minimum[ois skin=”1″]

Gathering your things for a square foot garden

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wood for a square foot gardenI thought it might be a good idea to begin showing how to have a successful square foot garden. I’ll make it simple and quick. There isn’t a lot to do but there are some key things I’ll address over the course of the next few weeks.

The very first thing to do is to construct a raised bed. It’s very important to put together a box that can simply be placed on top of your existing soil. Use this time to gather leftover wood around your home. Maybe neighbors have wood laying around that they don’t need. Is there construction going on in your neighborhood? If you can rummage up free wood, get it.

Make sure your bed will be able to hold 6 inches of soil. If you have 2X6’s-thats perfect. If you have 2X4’s thats okay too. Just double up on them and use hinges to hold them together. Also make sure your beds aren’t any wider than 4 feet. They can be as long as you’d like, but no wider then 4 feet. They can be 1, 2, or 3 feet wide depending on your garden plans.

The last thing to do is to screw the wood together. Do not use nails-they aren’t as strong. These raised beds are going to last you a long time. Mine have been in for 16 years and have a long way to go. What about preserving your wood? That’s your call. I’ve got my own opinion about that but the good thing is that it doesn’t matter what I think. You get to do whatever you like.

My next post will be brief but important. I’ll address the critical nature of soil before discussing the perfect growing medium. After all, if you don’t get the soil right, nothing else will really matter. Start getting ready-Spring is coming.[ois skin=”1″]

Early square foot garden planting

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early spring planting of arugula and lettuceI know it’s probably way too early to start but I like to experiment on cheating the seasons. I’ve still got 2 layers of protection over my square foot garden main beds and feel pretty confident that I can get these two crops to germinate and grow.

I decided to give this an attempt because I looked at the weather report and saw low’s in the mid-20’s, highs in the upper-30’s to low-40’s and some sunshine. That should be good enough to start a few things. The real issue is bang-for-the buck.

This will successfully grow(hopefully)and be done in about 80 days. If I wait another 3 weeks and began planting lettuce then, it would be ready in 55-60 days. So, why start early? Because I’m bored. We hit the 10 hours of sunlight later this week which is another early sign that spring is close.

To learn more about the two crops planted click here and here. I love this variety of arugula. It’s milder than any I’ve had before, and it’e even more so when harvested in the baby stages.

By clicking on any of my Burpee links, you get free shipping for online orders of any size by entering “B1FA” into the promotion code box when checking out. Its a great time to start ordering your seeds[ois skin=”1″]

Planning your spring garden

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tatsoi in the square foot gardenIn about 2-3 weeks the winter solstice arrives-markign the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year .  Sunlight hours are at their lowest and for many of us-even colder temperatures lie ahead that will take us through to the end of February.

 

Seed catalogs should be showing up in mailboxes very soon.  Not only is it a great time to pick out some specially selected seeds for family or friends, it’s also a good time to plan your spring garden.  It might seem a little early, but if you’ve got structures in place to protect you garden you might be able to direct seed as soon as the second week of February.  This is the time when sunlight reaches the magic minimum of 10 hours.

 

If you would like to begin planning, do you know what to plant and when?  Which crops do best in early spring and which are more suited for warmer weather?  If you need suggestions on how to get started, why not rely on some of the experts?  There are some quality apps that cost a few bucks, but there’s plenty of free advice available from a variety of sources.  Click here for one I used many years ago.  This particular one works on your computer but you can get apps that work on your iPads or smart phones.  These allow you to put in the size of your gardening area and then to plan the crops.  They even send you reminders of what to plant and when to start them which can help you eliminate a lot of the guesswork.  I like this one even better.

 

Go ahead-break open those catalogs and start spending, and planning.  It will get here faster than you think.[ois skin=”1″]
 

 

 

More lettuce varieties for your square foot garden

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arctic king lettuceI’m always searching for lettuces that can make it through the winter and taste good. Because the leaves get a light frost, I don’t worry much about the taste-it’s always good this time of year.

I received an email today announcing that Cooks Garden will now be rolled in to the Burpee catalog after a couple of weeks. Burpee owns Cooks so it’s not that big of a deal. I just don’t know how they’ll separate the specialty seeds for kitchen cooks as they’ve always done. You might have to search both of them to find this particular lettuce. It’s called Arctic King. This is my second winter season growing it. The very cold night temperatures haven’t seemed to bother it a bit. There’s no leave damage and it’s gotten to about 75% of its normal size. Learn more about it here. Order some and give it a try. You won’t be disappointed. It’s too late to grow from seed this time of year, but this performed very well in the spring garden as well.[ois skin=”1″]