Been so busy, but got in the gardens

I cannot tell you how busy I’ve been lately, and it’s been rather difficult to find time for anything but I did manage to get in my two square foot gardens (above-ground, sized 4′x4′) over the last two weekends (while battling the constant rain here, which David and got caught in one day). I was going to wait this year, because we don’t have the time/money to install a fence around it (due to the naughty pooch), but I found a cheap way to make a little cover out of chicken wire to keep Brenner out. Everything I’ve been doing is straight out of the All New Square Foot Gardening book by Mel Bartholomew. Last weekend I got in the first garden, using pre-started plants from Lowes. It was a little too late to do peppers and tomatoes from seed. Here’s what the first garden looks like:

I would have liked to make this the “salsa” garden, but I had plants that needed to get in the ground and we didn’t have the second garden frame complete yet. The only seeds sowed were the beans seeds, which are already sprouting, and one of the squares of basil (the other I bought). My tomatoes in the garden were supposed to include a cherry tomato, but by accident I put those back, so I had to buy some for the other garden (I now have extra tomatoes that need to go in pots… this was not how I planned this and I will have way too many tomatoes if they all do well).

The second garden is almost all by seed, except the cherry tomatoes:

I have never grown lettuce, cukes, beets, or spaghetti squash but figured that I would give it a whirl. I’ve heard that cilantro does horrible here, but thought I’d still try for David’s sake (he cooks a lot with it and I use it in salsa). I also think I may have some trouble with the squash because they take up so much room, but I figure I’ll see this year and learn. So far everything is doing well and I should know soon how the seeds go. We are super excited about this, especially since everything that vines we are growing up on trellis’ (yes, even the canteloup). I have a little area behind these gardens where I planted two of the extra canteloup plants, and I bought some pumpkin and gourd mixed that will go there too (also to be grown on a trellis). Yesterday we also bought and cut some re-mesh (concrete reinforceing wire) to make some square tomato cages and a trellis from… we still need to get more, but they seem much sturdier (and cheaper) than what I’ve seen on the market. I’ll have to take a picture soon.

Next year, if we get the picket fence in, I’ll keep the veggies in the garden and hang some window boxes on the fence for the herbs. I’ll also move the compost pile to something a little more practical inside the fenced area (right now I’m just using a big trash can and the process is a little too slow, although I used some anyway.