Harvest basket from the square foot gardens

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Just a sampling of what my neighbor customers get every Saturday morning. Not much work really, just several washes of the greens and off they go. The one item that’s been very surprising is the small yellow squash in front. Angel hair spaghetti squash. This was my first year growing it, and it’s just delicious. You can read all about it here. Give it a go next year, you won’t be disappointed.

Chard, arugula, zucchini, basil, cherry tomatoes, golden egg squash, green onions, cucumber, kale, lettuce and carrots.[ois skin=”1″]

Like this – growing summer lettuces

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A nice square of lettuce growing-during a pretty warm June and summer so far. This is a nice blend made up of 5-6 kinds of lettuces. As most folks know, it’s tough to grow in the hotter months. The ebook I wrote covers the 5 things that I do to successfully have lettuce all summer. After all, what good does it do if there’s no lettuce when the cucumbers and tomatoes are coming up? It’s a lot more than just being economical-the taste of freshly harvested lettuce can’t be matched from anything you buy.

Though its still only halfway through summer, I like to plan the fall garden now. What to plant? When to plant it? Here’s one resource that’s pretty good. It should give you some ideas. While you’re at it, buy some of their seeds-they’ve got some great ones.[ois skin=”1″]

Spring salad mix

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Hopefully you’re beginning to harvest the work you did in springtime. Its salad galore! This is a combination of 8 different greens, one of which is something I’ve grown for the first time: endive. I always associated it with the frilly, sharp, bitter, and what I would describe as unattractive in salads. But then I learned about the different kinds.

This variety was not bitter at all. Chicory’s have been a bit of a challenge for me to grow for this reason. I think it has to do with the season you try to grow them in. My radicchio variety was very tasty in the spring, but got bitter when I grew it in summer. The ones I grew later in the year returned to less bitter.

Regardless, it’s very tasty in this mixed salad. Add some fresh fruit, cheese, homemade croutons, candied nuts(sorry!),avocado, and a great blush vinaigrette and you’ll have yourself a great tasting salad for the evening. Fast, great tasting, easy, cheap, and very nutritions[ois skin=”1″]

Two Star lettuce

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I like to call it All Star lettuce because that’s how it performs. It’s easy to grow and tastes great. I buy it here. Its easy to grow, sweet tasting, and I’ve never had any issues with pest.

In the square foot gardening system this is planted 4 per square. Since most lettuces will say “thin to 6 inches”, this is how you normally space this crop. However, I do grow a lettuce that says “thin to 12 inches!” It’s an amazing buttercrunch variety that I will write about as soon as it starts to get bigger so you can see for yourself.

Now is the perfect time to begin planting for the summer garden. Peppers, tomatoes, basil, carrots, etc. are all the things I’m planting now, along with a continual supply of lettuce. 

Lettuce is tricky to grow in the warm summer months. Unless you know a few tips, it’s going to be difficult to do. My newest ebook talks all about how to grow it through the heat of the summer. I’ve been doing it for almost 2 decades.[ois skin=”1″]

No thinning in the square foot gardens

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One of the many great spring crops to grow is arugula. Until recently, I’ve never been a fan. The reason? Too spicy!

I just happen to be out to dinner a couple of years ago at a nice restaurant. The salad was particularly delicious so I asked the server what the mixed greens were and where they got them. Turns out it was arugula. I was sure he must have been mistaken because there was no edge to it. Sure enough, thats what it was, mixed in with 2 or three other salad greens. I tracked down the farm where it came from(California) in an effort to find the variety. I was told they couldn’t tell me because of “proprietary reasons.” What? It took me a couple of weeks but I did find out the variety. In the meantime I learned a good lesson.

Arugula grown in warm weather and then harvested at something less than the baby leaf stage will always be more spicy. Grow it in cool weather and harvest it when young, and the taste is drastically different. This is how I’ve become an arugula fan.

Since arugula spacing says “thin to 4 inches” on the back of the packet, you would plant 9 of them in a square. By only adding one or two seeds per hole, you end up not hardly ever thinning. This is a picture of that: I might have to thin 1 plant. Look hard enough and you might see some claytonia that has overwintered and is trying to grow[ois skin=”1″]