Not as big as it first appears!!!!
I turned one of our garden beds into a square foot gardening grid for my summer planting. It was a great way to space out the bed and made planting somewhat easier.
HOWEVER, I think I overestimated how much space some of my plants were going to need when fully grown.
A square foot looks so big when you plant just a single seed or a tiny little seedling into it. Not so big when the plants are fully grown!!!!
My vegie patch has been affectionately nicknamed "the jungle". You could just about award a bravery award for anyone venturing in there to pick produce.
This photo doesn't show it all that well but the zucchini plants are at the back and would just about take over the whole plot if I didn't keep breaking off leaves. I can't complain too much though as they have produced some wonderful zucchini for us.
I planted the pumpkins to one side of this patch knowing they would need more room than just a square foot and figured they could make use of the space between my 2 garden plots. They've now taken over the kids bike riding path and are venturing forth onto the lawn. One thing I didn't consider was that it's almost impossible to get between the 2 garden plots without breaking parts of the pumpkin plant. Next time I need to plant the pumpkins to the left hand side of this plot. I do have some planted in the second plot (to the right of this photo) and they are growing nicely over an area that wouldn't grow anything (will take photo's in the next few days).
Over the next week or so I want to make some individual notes about each type of plant I've been growing over the summer and what I would like to try differently next year.
Wednesday, February 6, 2008
How Big is a Square Foot?
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11 comments:
It's all about the learning....
my pumpkins haven't produced a thing this year, so I know not to put them behind the garage next year. I learned not to nurture potatoes but just ignore them to get a better crop. Blackjack zucchini stay in the one place instead of roaming all over the garden, so they're real winners. We got heaps.
It's fun though. Last night we had corn chowder made with our spuds. The night before was mock fish with our spuds and zuchini. Tonight will be something pasta-y with our leeks and tomatoes and herbs. Feels good, doesn't it!
I am interested in what you are going to plant in autumn ... I need some guidance here
and when is best time ?
I added this blog to my rss now ...
Ps - I like the template it is very pretty and functional ... I am undecided about menu buttons or just the titles - did this template come with buttons or did you add them ?
It is all about the learning frogdancer - that's so true. That's why I need this blog. So that next year when I'm scratching my head trying to remember what it was I did and didn't want to do, I can come back and read it here. I'm just so slack when it comes to writing things by hand these days (I type so much faster). And the pretties (eg header) really encourage me to write things down (not to mention other peoples comments :) ).
BabyAmore - haven't decided exactly what I'm going to plant yet but you'll be sure to know once I do decide (especially if you get my posts via feedreader regularly).
Menu Buttons? Do you mean the ones under the header? They came with this template - took me a while to figure out how to edit them (as I'm more used to wordpress now). But I figured it out.
wow, you're certainly a
blog-a-holic!!!!
your jungle is certainly producing well :)
lol - my best pumpkin efforts are the self-seeded from scraps variety - luckily they did so under the frangipani so I just had to keep the tendrils turning. Zucchini, however, we had no luck with due to mould and premature fruit drop.
Looks great.
That is one thing about the zucchini - you need to give them a ton of space! We've grown them for a couple of years here, along with cucumbers and I think they take up a good third of the whole garden area.
And, to answer your question about the size of a square foot - that's about how much you need for a single tomato plant (just the plant, not spacing for the other plants). ;)
Sephyroth
http://www.sephyroth.net
Oooh Lightening, another blog! How exciting! I love reading your blogs and I am going to enjoy this one VERY much. I have been discovering, over the past few months, how much I really enjoy gardening. I relish in pottering around out there in our yard. So much so that if I start gardening at 5pm I can still be out there at 6:30pm with tea still uncooked and three wild, dirty children unbathed and unpajama-ed running around like savages. I like working up a sweat unloading mulch from the trailer and spreading it around the garden one wheelbarrow-full at a time. I enjoy picking out weeds. I really enjoyed, last night, digging up some deep rooted saplings that had come up in a place I didn't want them. I think that most of all I enjoy the unlimited potential of gardening. The dreaming, the possibilities.
I've addes this blog to my favourites!
Love Kendall
Ali - yep, I'm a blogoholic for sure! Is there a 12 step program for that???
Jeanie - we grew a pumpkin plant like that once at our old place. Came up from scraps and was right under a dripping tap so it grew and grew. Fortunately it was in an area that it didn't matter how big it got. Unlike my current pumpkin plant that is right in my way and now growing out into the kids play area. LOL. It had BETTER give us LOTS of pumpkins!!!!
Sephy - thanks. I think I'm going to need more garden beds. We have plans to build a chook enclosure with 3 rotating beds....when DH gets time. Thanks for that info. I think I got a little overexcited with how much I planted. It'll be interesting to try less plants next time and see if they fruit more prolifically. My poor tomatoes have been trimmed a few times and have still gone insane!!!
Kendall - thanks. :) I'm hoping this one won't take up heaps of time (doesn't take that long to type a post about what's happening) and will help me to be a better gardener. Gardening is GREAT therapy and so is running around outside getting dirty. ;) OUr kids seem to LOVE being outside around that time of night!!!
I reckon it is better to overplant than underplant; it keeps weeds out!
I don't plant pumpkins in my vegie patch at all as they are just too big. They go under the lemon tree and can try to take over the back yard if they want.
Baby-Amore might like to have a look at the Global Garden Website for their planting guide; I find it very helpful.
Thanks Chookie. It's true that I haven't had too much trouble with weeds coming up. :)
Have you got a link for the Global Garden Website? Then I can put it into a post and make sure everyone gets to see it. Sounds like a website I'd like to check out. :)
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