Plans and preperations

Winter is over and it's time to start growing!
Plans for this years garden are completed but remain somewhat fluid. The last frost date is a little more then a month away so I'm trying to prepare for this years garden. The garden has been cleaned and given a good soak. I started seedlings for bell peppers, rosemary, Greek oregano, Broccoli, brandwine tomatoes. I also plan on growing swiss chard, lettuce, onion, other varities of tomato, kohlrabi, and possibly some other herbs, melons or potatoes. I'm curious to see how much yield I will get this year (my first full year of Square Foot Gardening).

Pictures to come.

Update

The bed continues to grow and the tomato plants are spilling over the side and into other partitions of my garden. I've had several small harvests of tomatoes and peppers. There are still many green tomatoes on the vine.

I'm looking forward to harvesting the "sweet genovese" basil which I intend to make pesto with.

I have also set up a 2nd 4x4 bed which I intend to use primarily for growing salads. I started garlic, chives, beats, spinich, and sierra lettuce in this bed. I plan on putting in additional types of lettuce and other greens in the future.

spaced out?

Because I started late, I decided not to follow the exact SFG placing formula, and now it's looking like I may have over planted. Here is the garden on 7-4:



..And here it is on 8-2:




I don't regret it. This is all a learning experience for me. Next year I plan actually follow the spacing directions. At this point, I'm not thinning it out. I'm just going to wait to see what happens.I figure we have at minimum another at 1½ months until frost and probably a maximum of 3. On the plus side I should be able to harvest a few cherry tomatoes and green peppers in the next few days.

getting started

It's something I've wanted to do for a while, but this year I finally got around to starting a garden. I'm using the Square Foot Gardening technique, which basically is a 4'x4' raised bed filled with an equal mix of compost, vermiculite, and peat moss. It's a form of intensive gardening which promises to grow more in less space. This method makes sense for me because I have very poor soil quality (clay) and limited space.

I planted several varieties of tomatoes, peppers, strawberries; herbs like thyme, oregano, basil, parsley, and rosemary. I've also got some lettuce growing in containers.The gardens only a little over a month old (I started late), but the plants are starting to take off. I'm begining to think I may have planted thing too close together. Perhaps I should have followed the spacing instructions more closely. We'll see.

I plan on this blog being documenting my experiences with Square Foot Gardening. I'm near Denver, Colorado (zone 5) and I know the front range's semi-arid climate and hot summer temperatures can make gardening a challenge. But I'm up for it.