Category Archives: square foot gardening

Prepping your garden for winter

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Best time to clean up your gardens and to set yourself up for success next spring. This simple method has served me well for decades. 

The first thing I do is remove a few inches of soil in the bed. I then take a pitch fork and loosen the entire box. I always noticed the increase in soil volume when you fluff things up. No matter how good you care for your garden, you always end up compacting your soil to a certain degree. I then layer a healthy amount of leaves and then cover with the soil that was previously taken out. I level the bed and call it good until early spring. 

I will mulch with a heavy layer of leaves around the roots of Brussel sprout plants-which will start to regrow in the last week of January. Surprisingly, they make it right through winter without any protection. I will have delicious Brussel sprouts by mid-spring. It’s really good timing because our summers a too hot for too long for them to be grown successfully. Right now they are hibernating between now and the end of January. 

I also mulch on top of the other root crops. For potatoes, I don’t leave them in the ground for too much longer because they’ll end up getting soggy. Or, some of the soil critters may get them. They’ve been in the ground since early spring and that’s a long time. Garlic, carrots, parsnips, and onions are all topped with mulch. I leave the arugula alone because I come out and harvest that throughout the winter. Arugula, harvested as a baby leaf and grown in cold weather, is a a total different eating experience. Gone is that spicy edge. You still taste it in your salad, but it’s much different. 

All my herbs are grown in grow bags. I cut them all back and then top each with a layer of mulch. By spring, you can see green starting to appear at the base of each plant. I don’t even bother to cover the grow bags. I leave them out in the elements. I do leave a grow bag each of thyme, oregano, and rosemary alone. These will be protected, outside, under floating row cover and plastic. That way I have a supply of what we need throughout the winter. 

For a section of my garden where I have 75 carrots (in 3 square feet) in the ground for winter, I will put bags of leaves (turned upside down so water doesn’t get in from the top of the bag) right over the carrots. This way I have a place to store some bags of extra leaves and protect my carrots at the same time. The fun part is I can go out to the garden at any time in the winter, pull back the bag of leaves, and pull out carrots. The ground doesn’t freeze under the bags. You will never have better tasting carrots. 

My gardens are now set for winter. I have plenty of finished compost that’s stored until ready to use in spring. When it’s time to begin planting, I won’t find any leaves. They’ve been completely broken down and have significantly added to the tilth of the soil. 

I do have a 4X16′ square foot garden bed that’s used for my winter garden. This is our refrigerator that holds food until needed. That’s a post for another time. 

Prepping and planning for winter garden

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First week of September marks the time when I begin transitioning summer to fall and winter gardening. To make room I’ll need to pull up a few things like beans, kale, and maybe even a tomato plant or two, which really hurts!

I counted 16 different crops that I grow for winter. All do well in our freezing, snowy winters. As long you know how to put up a simple structure for protection and match the crop to the season anybody can enjoy the winter bounty. And, it’s so fun to do. The taste? It can only be described as awesome. Freezing temps turn starches to sugar so your carrots are delicious. The same for spinach and baby lettuces. Arugula is less spicy.

I’ve also mass planted several grow bags with lettuce varieties that will begin to be harvested in 40-45 days and will last until about the end of November, though I will have them under cover when the temperatures get to cold. I continue to discover great varieties that can’t be bought anywhere in the stores that have great taste. When those are done the salad greens planted today and through mid-October will all be ready. Those crops will last our family until about mid-March.

On October 25 I will sown a cold frame with lettuces. Lots of lettuces. That will be ready by the time all winter greens have been harvested-third of 4th week of March. That’s my rotation anyway.  

My small SFG-CSA

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I’ve had so much fun this spring and summer growing the tastiest things ever. And getting ready  to have a great fall and winter garden. I’m able to grow enough in my 184 square feet of garden space to provide 3 local restaurants with things and 4 families. I can never compete with the food vendors to provide all their restaurant needs. Each week they get a small quantities of just picked cherry tomatoes, one wants English cucumbers, they all get different herbs, one gets kale, and two of them get microgreens. They buy because of the superior taste and the chefs know it. Spring time is very different. But, just picked fresh will beat any vendor item. It’s not farm to table for them-it’s garden to table. 

Yesterday my families got what you see in the picture. Enough lettuce for 5-6 side salads, 4 slicing tomatoes, an acorn squash, an English cucumber, and a sprig of basil. Next week they will get the same but with the addition of a small quantity of red pontiac potatoes. 

Is it just me or is inflation at the top of most people’s worry? Why not have a garden, learn how to do it in the most efficient way possible and save money. Lots of money. And have a better eating experience. The English cucumbers are absolutely out of this world. Our two year old granddaughter had never tasted cucumbers. I had about half of it sliced into pieces with ranch dressing next to it. She tasted it and all we heard for the next 15 minutes was “more.” 🙂 The only reason she stopped was because she was all full! 

 

Hot summers and growing lettuce in your SFG.

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Growing lettuce in the hot parts of the country can be a challenge. There are some like me who want that delicious, freshly harvested lettuce when the cucumbers and cherry tomatoes start  to arrive. 

We’ve had a really hot summer. A solid week of 100 plus temperatures, and maybe 2 weeks of 95-100 degree days. More of them are coming too. You can grow continue to grow lettuce if you know a few tricks. First and foremost is the soil. There is no soil as great as what we have in the SFG method. I’ve got an ebook that discusses the points needed to successfully grow lettuce right through the heat of summer. 

This is a summercrisp called Mottistone. I bought it from Johnnys years ago and now I see it’s no longer available on their site. I don’t know why this happens? You find a great variety of something only to return at a later date to discover it’s no longer there. This is a great tasting summer lettuce. Some will think the speckles are disease issues but that’s not the case. You can still find Mottistone seed. I found it on Amazon, which I personally wouldn’t do. Too many complaints from people thinking they bought a variety of something only to learn that it wasn’t at all what they were expecting. But you can find it here: https://viridishortus.co.uk/Lettuce-Mottistone-TZ-0281-615-05g. 

As summer is beginning to leave us, it’s probably a little late for summercrisps. Order for next year. Keep your seeds in the refrigerator and give it a try next summer. 

Delicious food out of the square foot garden

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If you’ve never had the experience of growing and eating your own food, you’re missing out. The taste is better. The quality is better. It’s healthier. In the SFG the soil reigns supreme, which greatly affects the taste of the food. And it’s also more economical. Growing your own food is like printing your own money.

This past week I harvested some leeks and turnips. The recipe I was making-a leek/turnip soup, called for more turnips than I had, so I made up the difference with a few radishes. I’ve not grown this radish variety before but it was outstanding. It’s Red Head from Territorial. And the soup-it was outrageously delicious. 

One of these days I’m going to have a SFG class at my home and combine it with a lunch, where others can taste what things are like coming out of the garden. All I have to do is serve a salad and you’ll be hooked. Fresh off the vine cherry tomatoes, a few slices of a European cucumber, candied nuts, a thin slice of red onion, and some homemade croutons to go along with one of the 28 different varieties of lettuce that I grow. It doesn’t get any better than this. Coming soon. 

This past week I upped an order from Johnnys which include 3 different types of salanova lettuce. It holds up very well in our hot summers once you know the 5 tricks to have lettuce available during July and August. And, now is the time to think about summer lettuces. Give salanova a try.