Wowza! Take a look at the square foot garden. It’s growing like crazy.
I had absolutely no idea you could pack so many different vegetables into a 4×8 plot. The peas, carrots, radishes, strawberries, celery, onions, cabbage, kohlrabi, broccoli, kale, bok choy, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, cucumbers, Swiss chard, beets, and lettuce are all doing great together.
Check out the kohlrabi. You can see the bulb starting to form and I think it looks really cool. Last year I grew these successfully for the first time and I think I may have harvested them too early.
So this year, I plan on letting them get a big as the palm of my hand. I saw some pretty huge ones at the Puyallup Fair last fall so I’m going for it. The packet I planted contained purple and green kohlrabi varieties and I’m hoping for a couple of purple ones. We’ll see.
Kale. Whop T Do.
Even though I’m not a big fan of this leafy green, it sure does grow well in the Pacific Northwest.
First radish harvest from the square foot garden. Yum!
The bok choy bolted here as well as in the pallet garden. I think I might have planted them a little too early, but I started another flat yesterday so we’ll try again. I can still use the leaves in a stir-fry or salad.
The green beans are breaking ground. Don’t they look like little aliens?
The lettuce should be ready to harvest by the end of the week.
Here is a view from 6 feet up. The sugar snap peas in the upper left corner are about 3 feet tall, the bare looking squares in the center are where the beans are breaking ground and in the front row of the square foot garden grid, there are cucumbers starts I transplanted last week.
Pretty neat-o if you ask me!
Are YOU square foot gardening this year? Have you been surprised with your results?
~Mavis
Read more about my adventures in Square Foot Gardening.
Are you thinking about putting together a Square foot garden? See the how I built a square foot garden grid HERE.
For more information, check out All New Square Foot Gardening. It is an amazon bestseller and the author, Mel Bartholomew is basically the king of square foot gardening.
Samantha M. says
I’ve square foot gardened for years. When I first moved near my Father in Law and he saw my garden he paniced when he saw how I gardened, and kept giving me dire warnings about disease and wasted seedlings. Now 3 years later he loves to go and poke around my garden and see what I am growing where, though he still gardens in a more traditional manner, he has started trying a few new types of veggie from having seen them in my garden. Try as I might though I can’t beat his green beans.
Elise says
Like Dawn (FB comment), I heard about it from your blog and check his book from the library! I have my beds about full, I started with 1 2X5 ft, then made another 2×2 that is 12 inches deep JUST for carrots, planting 1 row every week, 2 inches apart, I will have 11 rows with 11 carrots each, so I can have a perpetual carrot bed. Then I made ANOTHER 2×2, since I had a little room, and I felt like I wanted more than my original 2×5 ended up providing.
We started some seeds about 6-8 weeks ago, and I now have 9 snap peas (saved seeds from the best plants last year), 14 string beans (2 didn’t survive transplant), 3 tomatoes (bought those as 4-inch pots), 2 cucumbers, 2 sunflowers, 2 sets of beets (8 each, 2 weeks apart, mix of red, gold and candy-striped), 6 red onions from starts a neighbor passed along and 4 yellow marigolds marking the 4 intersection points in the 2×5 bed. I didn’t put in square markers, so I don’t have an official SFG per Mel, but I’ve done everything else.
In the other 2 beds I have 2 rows of carrots so far (1 week apart, first set just started sprouting 2 days ago), 4 chard, 1 zucchini, 2 basil and 9 more red onions.
I have 6 more red onion starts, but I’ve run out of “onion room” so I’m looking for homes for them in the neighborhood. I have also gives out a LOT of starts that I just didn’t have room for. Our neighborhood has some good gardeners, so I’ve found home for lots of sunflowers, some chard, zucchini and a few onions.
Now I need to find someone with canning materials to borrow. I believe in “community resources”, things like odd/bulky/special cake pans, canning equipment, and power tools! My neighborhood is pretty awesome about things like that. One neighbor even let me borrow seed packets he was done with for the season. But I do need to get my OWN carrots… I don’t want to abuse his kindness, and I want multi-colored ones anyway!
Heather says
Mavis,
Have you tried roasted Kale? It is so good my kids ate it by the handful! Preheat oven to 350. Wash and dry kale. Toss with olive oil and some seasoned salt. I did garlic adobo seasoning. Roast for 10-15 until crisp. We ate a whole bunch and my kids are begging me to go buy more kale. ( I didn’t think to plant it)
Deb says
What variety of kale did you plant?
Mavis says
Italian Lacinato Nero Toscana