Square Foot Gardening-2nd class

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amended square of soilI will be having my second square foot gardening class on April 11th beginning promptly at 11:00 AM and ending at 1:00 PM. This class is conducted as a workshop. We will be doing all the basic things needed to have a successful SFG, along with the advanced techniques as well. Space is limited so if you’re interested in attending, please contact me by email at: jrt2020_2@msn.com. Price for the class is $25 per person.

In addition to the previous information, we will be spending time on how to protect your gardens in spring, summer and fall, vertical gardening, making great compost, and getting the most efficiency as possible out of your gardens. Please bring a pair of gloves.

At the time of this class you’ll see a square foot garden in full bloom. Normally at this time of year your friendly neighborhood gardeners are getting out their rototillers and working soil that is partly frozen and still wet. Come on out to see how easy it is to grow delicious, healthy food. The goal of attending this class is to leave not having to ask anybody else about how to do something in the SFG system because you’re now the newest expert in the neighborhood. There will be a small line of specialty lettuce seeds available for the summer months at $4 per pack. These varieties can’t be bought anywhere in the state of Utah and I promise you’ll be amazed at not only their taste, but also their appearance.

As the spring season comes roaring in, be sure to sign up for my free seasonal newsletter. I won’t over do it-you’ll only get 4 newsletters per year but I discuss many questions that people have and why we do things a certain way that might not make sense. For instance, look at the square in the picture of this post. Notice the deep, dark square of newly amended soil that’s ready to plant. Anything will grow in this mix. You’ll learn how easy it is to make it. After all, if you don’t get the soil right, nothing else really matters[ois skin=”1″]

Square foot gardening-1st class

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corn salad or mache in square foot gardeningAfter a hard December and early January, we’ve ended up with a pretty mild winter season. With daytime temperatures in the high 50’s and 60’s, it’s time to start getting your square foot gardens ready for spring. I’m betting we’ll still have some rougher weather in the weeks to come, but that’s okay because our limited sized gardens are easy to protect and cover.

Beginning at 11:00 AM on February 14th, I’ll be teaching the first SFG class of the season. You will learn all the basic along with why you won’t be needing to spend any more money on fancy pesticides and/or fertilizers. You don’t need them-unless you’re doing something incorrect. This class is 2 hours long and is structured as a workshop to allow participants hands-on experience. For the northern Utah gardeners looking to do a lot less work, no weeding, no thinning, and no all-at-once harvests, come on out and learn the easiest way to garden.

Being a workshop, please bring a pair of garden gloves-we’ll be outside working in the perfect soil to grow anything and learning about compost.

Instead of spending $50 on some roses, why not learn how to grow your own food all spring for half that amount? It would be a great Valentine’s Day gift[ois skin=”1″]

Square foot gardening in the winter

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january 31, 2015 winter gardenAlthough we’ve had a milder winter, we’ve still had a few significant snow storms this year. One delivered 8 inches of snow and then one a week later we got 4 or 5 additional inches. Today it’s forecast to be in the high 40’s to low 50’s.

I’ve kept a close eye on the evening temperatures with my high/low digital thermometer under the covers. I know there are expert farmers/gardeners who claim that for every layer of protection you move your garden a USDA zone and a half or 500 miles to the south . Since I’m in zone 6B, that would make my gardens the equivalent of zone 9 with my double coverage. That would put me on par with the thermal belt of California’s central valley. Click here to see what folks in zone 9 are growing at this time of the year. There is no way I can come close to what they’re doing. Not right now.

What I think is most important is the “Sunset Zone Considerations” list. As this article explains, the difference between USDA and Sunset zones are very important. While the USDA categorizes zones by the winter low temperatures, the Sunset zones take into consideration many other important factors. The influences listed-altitude, mountains, hills, wind,continental influence, ocean influence(vastly different from east coast), etc. can have a significant effect on winter gardens. If you’d like to grow something through the 6B winter and are of the thought that a simple double cover of plastic and floating row will take you to zone 9-give it a try! You’ll be sadly disappointed.

I did find, however, that my cold frame covered with a simple glass window did a much better job of keeping warm than my double covered square foot garden beds. The challenge with the cold frame is you’ve got to have many of them to take you through the winter. And you must remember to vent them if it’s sunny and gets past 45 degrees.

If you live in a climate where the winter temperature gets below 15 degrees or colder-the lower limit for quality winter salad crops-it becomes even more important to choose the proper things to grow. By minimizing the size of your garden as we do in the square foot gardening system, you can have a different garden by protecting it from the real destroyers of crops-wind and the continual freezing/thawing of crops. With the ability to do just that with your square foot garden, it then becomes a simple matter of crop selection.[ois skin=”1″]

Sprouting carrots

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minicor carrot sproutingI’ve got to get some carrots in the ground pretty soon or they won’t be ready when I need them. You can direct seed them in the soil right now and because of the cold weather some of them won’t come up. This seed pack is 5 years old. Maybe some of the seeds are no longer viable. The ones that aren’t certainly wouldn’t grow, but how do you know what seeds are good and which aren’t?

Sprouting is one of the easiest ways to figure that out. Just take your seeds and place them on a dampened paper towel. Lightly spray the seeds, close them up in a zip lock bag and place it in a room. Some will put them in the furnace room. I just put them in an upstairs bedroom. In the case of these carrots you can see they germinated in 4 days. However, one of them didn’t. Whichever seeds sprout are the ones that are good seeds. These then go into a growing medium where they will sit for the next 80-90 days. By that time they’ll be delicious mini-carrots that are full of flavor. If I had planted these directly it would have taken 3-4 weeks before they emerged in the garden soil.

I just cut off about 25 days by doing it this way. And I know what seeds are good to be transplanted to individual cells. And since I know I need about 100 carrots, I’ll sprout 115 on paper towels. This gives me some wiggle room. Then at a certain point they will go into the garden and take up a measly 4 squares. No wasting time, money, space, or seeds in the square foot gardening system. You only plant what you eat.

For the local folks, in a matter of a couple of weeks I’ll be posting dates for SFG classes. Some are free, some aren’t. The free classes cover the basics of the SFG system. The paid version($25 per person)teach not only the basics but also the advanced techniques of the system.[ois skin=”1″]

My season has begun

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sprouting chive and scallions seeds on January 3, 2015. Square foot gardening planning for the spring season has begun. I recently had a note from someone informing me this method simply doesn’t work as a way of sprouting seeds.  I’ve had nothing but success doing it this way for a decade.  What could be easier?  If you were to put these seeds in the ground right now who knows how many would come up?  Freezing temperatures, snow, wind, etc.  makes this difficult to pull off by planting outside if you live in a northern climate.

Seeds only need two things to germinate-warmth and moisture.  By putting only a small number of seeds on a paper towel, spraying them lightly with water, and then placing them in a closed ziplock bag, you’ve provided them with one of the essentials-moisture.  All you have left to provide is the warmth.  I just place this on top of a filing cabinet in one of the bedrooms and wait.  In a matter of a few days(depending on the crop)you’ll see them swell and then start to grow a small “tail.”  I’ve posted pictures of what this looks like previously.

Once that happens you now have to provide the last thing for them to start growing-light.  Use a pencil or tweezers to lift your seedlings off the paper towel and into growing cells.  I don’t handle them with my fingers because their too fragile.  Cover them with a fine layer of soil, drop the light source about an inch over the height of the plants and keep the soil moist.  Because there’s no top over the soil it can dry out quicker than you might expect.

The reason I prefer this method is twofold.  First, whatever sprouts will grow.  Planting seeds directly into outside soil at this time is risky.  This takes all the guesswork out of the equation.  The other reason is time.  Depending on what you’re planting outside it might take 3-4 weeks to germinate. With few exceptions, the items I grow germinate in a week or less.  It’s a great shortcut.

My focus now is past the four season garden.  Winter has been a lot of fun but it’s now time to plan my square foot garden.  I’ve got plenty of finished compost left over(and covered)from last year to start doing things outside.  And there are several crops that will germinate even during this part of the year.[ois skin=”1″]