Tag Archives: chard

How to have a really early square foot garden

4 Replies

Or any garden for that matter. This is how I do it. I use many different kinds of containers but this one had 4 blueberry muffins from a local store. Clean it out and then poke holes in the top (6) and bottom (4). I use a screwdriver that’s been heated over a flame on the stove and then push it through the plastic. Make it easy!

I then fill with moistened potting mix. This container isn’t very deep so it will be used for salad greens type of crops. No root crops in this shallow of a container. I then seed fairly heavily so that when they come up I can separate them into individual starts to put into squares.

If it freezes, so what? If it snows, it doesn’t matter? These seeds know when it’s time to grow. As we get into the warmer months of late winter, take a peek every once in a while to make sure it doesn’t dry out. If it looks dry, just run some water over it and then cover again. 

These containers will develop a fair amount of condensation in them. Thats what you want. You’ve got it vented which lets excessive heat escape but it also keeps your soil moist. 

I have chard, radicchio, tatsoi, and endive in this container. 

A quick start for spring gardens

Leave a reply

I don’t have a soil block so I put together a homemade version. And it works perfectly. In 17 days, or sooner, these will be ready to plant right into my sun box. After about 10 days they go right into the garden, where they will grow very quickly. What the difference between a sun box and a cold frame? A lot. I’ll be teaching a class on how to have the earliest spring garden possible in zone 6.

An early spring garden class coming up

Leave a reply

How early can you have a garden? Is it easy to do, and what if you don’t know anything about gardening? Those are all questions that will be answered in an upcoming class that I’ll be teaching in a couple of weeks. With a little work and planning you can have an early spring garden and be harvesting by the first of April-when everyone else is just beginning to think about roto-tilling. You’ll be learning about a few things which will be new that’ll help you on a very fun adventure. And, an incredible lesson on how delicious food can taste when harvested just 5 minutes earlier. You can read more about the class here.

Harvest basket from the square foot gardens

Leave a reply

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″]

Spring planting with vertical gardening in mind

Leave a reply

In years past I’ve planted my spring garden and put things wherever I wanted. When it became time to put in my summer vertical crops I often had to either wait for the existing squares to finish, which meant putting my tomatoes in a little late, or pull the plants which were in the square which hadn’t finished yet. For many years I’ve learned to put in the earliest crops where my vertical summer crops will grow.

What do you grow right now so your squares will be ready for summer vertical crops? All the cool weather crops: lettuce, spinach, chard, endive, kohlrabi, arugula, bok choi, mizuna, kale, even radicchio. etc. Radishes can go in later because they only take about 30 days. I know there will be 7 weeks until the summer crops go in, so this leaves me with time to grow all the things that love spring. Mel always taught to think one season ahead[ois skin=”1″]