Mary the "square foot gardener"????

[tvillemom]

I haven't put in my garden yet, but getting it tilled up for the first time this week. I have never used this method, but I read the book and loved it.
I am going to "tweek" it just alittle. Where I want more tomatoes, I will till up around my fence area (chain link fence) a "trench" for just tomatoes about 2 4 foot sections so I can have 8 tomato plants...is that right?? Oh wait; the 4 ft. section will only be 1 foot wide, just for tomatoes specifically...and then 2 more 4 ft. squares for other plants. I wish I could draw it out. I just want more tomatoes than anything else. AND...I love zucchini...but they take up so much space...is there anything that I could plant in place of zuch. that I can use in recipes that are similar to zuch's?? Climbing squashes, and which kind?? Thanks for your help.
Wendi

[Regen]

I put tomato plants at the sides of my boxes so as you would look down on it from above, two sides are tomatoes in a sort of L shape at the side furthest away from the sun. They need sun to ripen so they get the maximum in this formation. The other squares have lower-growing plants taht won't block the sun from the tomatoes. Consider companion planting with marigolds and nastursiams, too.

[Doe]

tvillmom, there are bush varieties of zuke that don't take much space. They've been around a very long time too. I remember seeing one growing in a woman's garden maybe 25 years ago. Sorry I don't know the variety name. I actually saw the listing for one recently while searching through heirloom and open-pollinated veggie seed companies.

Hope you find it, zukes are good, prolific, and can be used in lots of ways.

The 1' x 4' patches of square foot garden sound fine. Why are you tilling? Square foot usually involves building frames, filling with equal parts peat, perlite, can compost, marking the squares and planting. we use this system as well as smaller containers. Works great!

teri

[RowanC]

I wonder if you could pinch back those big old leaves, putting more energy into the fruit? Anybody here a botanist?

[tvillemom]

I am tilling because we have pretty good dirt in that spot from previous gardens. I know I will add some peat moss, and compost....
I'll look for those bush variety zukes...thanks for the tip.
Wendi

[Mary]

Hello Wendy!

Sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday about square foot gardening... I had a pretty bad day yesterday...

Anyway, about your questions:

I did square foot gardening for the first time about 5 years ago when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. I did it in raised beds, as my soil there was really rocky. At that time, I grew both winter squash and zucchini vertically, along with my beans. They did great that way! You wouldn't think they would hold up, but they did!

In my current garden, I have divided the 4-foot squares into four 2-foot squares. I like planting a few tomatoes at a time, and then use a tomato cage to hold up all three plants. This is what I'm doing with my tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. Vertically, I'm growing string beans and lemon cucumbers. Then, in the smaller spaces next to the beans I planted carrots and beets. The other inner 2-foot squares have cauliflower, brocolli rabe, fennel, artichokes, wild cardoon and basil. I have reserved the outer squares for sprawling plants like the melons, pumpkins, and cucuzzi (Sicilian squash that's kinda like zucchini, but it's a really long, snakelike gourd... very tasty!).

I still have a little space left for some other plants; haven't decided what's going to go in there, but probably some companion plants of some kind that will repell bugs, like marigolds and/or garlic.

I hope this helps - if not, please let me know! I'll be eager to see your garden! Now... off to water! :)

[tvillemom]

Sounds great! Thanks for replying! I can't wait to get my garden growing!
Wendi

[luckitri]

I have tried to grow a bit in the past but my plants in the squash and pumpkin families did not produce as much as I expected. I think that maybe I am supposed to trim back the ever-reaching tendrils so that the plant will concentrate on its fruit instead of its territory?

I saw someone growing eggplant on a raised platform made of that criss-cross wood (don't know what it is called) that is used for shading porches and for decoration. It gave me the idea to find the right angle for large sheets of that criss cross wood and get the climbing things growing up there and creating shade for more sun-fragile crops underneath like the lettuces. Since I am not a gardener I don't know if that would work here in the hot desert. Maybe the heat will kill the lettuces even with less direct sun. Anybody know?

[carolg]

Fennel? Started from seeds outdoors? How long does it take to show up? Thanks.
carolg colorado z5 still waiting for weather changes before tomatoes / peppers hit the ground.

[tvillemom]

DH finally tilled up my area and I have plants in the garden!!! When I started planting everything, I realized that I had TOO MUCH space. I made the planting area 4 feet wide, 4 feet deep, when I think it should've been only 2-by-2. Now I'm worried that too much space will overwhelm me later. I also have too many climbling things. I've got 3 baby watermelon plants, 3 tomatoes (going back for 4 more of a different variety), 2 cantelope, 3 cucumber, 2 yellow straightneck squash, I think that's it. We also have, in the garden, onions, 4 loose head lettuce plants, some radish seeds,
I have about 5 more square feet of planting space, that I'm afraid will overgrow with weeds if I don't get something going. What would be good that won't take over. I thought of some marigolds....and maybe some carrots, but I'm afraid my soil will be too hard down deep to grow nice carrots. We also have several pepper varieties, but I'm going to plant 1/2 of those in planters and a few in the garden to see which ones do the best.
Any ideas would be great!!
Thanks for all your help...I'm pretty inexperienced in gardening altogether, noone in my family grows anything other than 1 tomato plant. The year my mom tried to grow some squash and zucchini they took over her whole 2 ft by 4 ft garden (I told her that her area wasn't big enough for those squashes, not to mention the 2 tomato plants, but she didn't listen. )
OK..enough said...HELP.
Wendi
OH, I forgot to mention that DH is going to till me a trench to support all those extra climbing plants...I had too many of them for the square area, and I don't have enough room in my squares to support adding more climbers.
I feel alittle frustrated, but DH said we did good for the first time....oh well.

[vwinters]

Tvillemom,
Do you have photos of your gardening projects on-line somewhere? I want to see!!!

I'm also about to start my first square foot gardening project. Fun stuff.
VW

[carolg]

I used to watch Mel, Sq. Foot Gardening on TV, and got his book way back.

For more plantings, I love doing variety of plants too: roma, beefsteak, etc. Same with cukes as there are so many different kinds I have growing from seed right now in my sunroom. I am not doing the square foot as I have tons of room. I can however divide the boxes very easily and get several squares going. I'm going to also be growing herbs as I have in the past.

carolg

[tvillemom]

VW...have you read the book??? I don't have any pictures...but I will take some and see if I can get them up on the photo thread. Thanks for your interest. My DH and I used PVC pipe...which the author of "Square Foot Gardening" said NOT to use, but it was so much cheaper than galvanized piping. DH said if this worked, and the pipes didn't hold up over the winter, we would replace them next year. I love the easy ideas the book gives. Thanks again for your interest.
Off to find my camera and take some pictures for you.
Wendi

[vwinters]

VW...have you read the book??? I don't have any pictures...but I will take some and see if I can get them up on the photo thread. Thanks for your interest. My DH and I used PVC pipe...which the author of "Square Foot Gardening" said NOT to use, but it was so much cheaper than galvanized piping. DH said if this worked, and the pipes didn't hold up over the winter, we would replace them next year. I love the easy ideas the book gives. Thanks again for your interest.
Off to find my camera and take some pictures for you.
Wendi

Yes, I recently bought the book and I also bought some square foot patio boxes off of his website and I’m anxiously awaiting their arrival. New Toys!!!
VW

[tvillemom]

VW: I haven't forgotten about the pictures....just haven't had time. I didn't know he had a web-site. The book from the library was pretty old. Sounds neat, new toys;)
Take care....I love seeing your weight ticker....glad you are still here, and doing remarkable!!
Wendi