Category Archives: square foot gardening

Square foot garden-arugula

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I was never a fan of arugula. Too spicy, to peppery for my taste. What I learned was that if you harvest it when smaller, grow it in cooler weather, and experiment with different varieties, you’ll find it looses much of the spicy edge. This particular variety is Astro, and it is milder when grown this way.

 

This was direct seeded about 12 days ago on a very wintery day. As you would expect, this would come up faster on a slightly warmer day, but I like to see how far I can push the limits in our 4 season climate.

Winterized square foot gardens

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You cant tell what’s under there now but you’ll see it when winter gets here. I have 2 or 3 empty squares left to plant for the winter garden, which will be radishes and corn salad at this point. We’ve had 2 hard freezes, and that’s made the carrots very sugar-like. My brother was visiting from California-I gave him one to taste. His comment: “I don’t remember ever tasting a carrot like this.” Thats what the winter garden is all about. Starches turning to sugar in a protective manner, kind of like the plants antifreeze system.

 

There’s not really a lot of new things in this years winter garden. The one new item I’m really looking forward to harvesting is parsnips. That, along with turnips, will make an excellent soup. Snow coming this weekend!

Reds onions in the square foot garden

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Its been another really fun year. I’ve been able to begin growing and selling some of my crops to local restaurants who appreciate organic growing. It’s seasonal, which they know about in advance. This is a nice picture of 9 red onions. They’re very sweet and taste much better than anything you’ll find in the market. They are planted 9 to a square and I’ve got 3 full squares right now. Twenty seven fresh red onions to take me through the winter. Or, sell to a restaurant. 

 

My site will be undergoing some significant changes in the near future. I’m sure it will be much improved. The new items included will be videos, an easy to find class events calendar, available ebooks, and recipes. There will also be a place to enter your email address in order to receive season updates on square foot gardening,  or what I may be doing during any particular time of year. 

All ready for a small winter garden

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This is just one small area where I use a sunbox to grow winter salad greens. It’s less than 2 feet deep and just short of four feet wide. This uses very inexpensive wood(2X4’s laying around the house), and a window frame that cost me $5 at Restore for the top. I’ve got two different kinds of lettuces, arugula, and spinach. I’ll wait until it gets a little deeper into the fall season before adding another layer of wood. If I put it on now it casts too big of a shadow at the front edge of the box. Maybe in 3 weeks it’ll be a better time. I usually end up leaving a small opening in the box by simply moving the glass cover back about 2 inches. I don’t every really worry about closing it all winter unless we have single digit temperatures at night, which we have on occasion.

Tomatoes coming on like crazy

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I’ve got 8 foot walls of tomatoes! Took a little longer than usual but with the cooler weather they’re now producing heavily. A few more weeks to go and that will be it for the summer/fall season. Temperatures going to the high 40’s coming up. My standard cherry tomatoes have been so sweet, and I’ve also discovered two other great varieties. Unfortunately the label name has washed off so I’m not sure what they are. One of them was given to me by a friend so maybe I can track it down.