GLENN'S CURRENT GARDEN PROGRESS
Click This Link To Return To My Gardening Links PageSquare 1 on May 21, 2005
 This year I have two actual square foot garden blocks; this is the first or Easternmost one. |
This Square Foot Garden area gets less sunlight than the other one due to a large, unfortunately located tree just to the East of my garden. If I hadn't needed to use the chain link fence for one side of my garden enclosure, I could have avoided the shade by making the entire garden farther to the Northwest where I am going to plant yellow crook-neck squash and watermelon. I was hoping that lettuce and spinach would benifit from the location in the extreme heat we experience in our region. Everything in my garden this year other than the tomatoes and onions were started from seeds. The two squares on the left of the top row each contain two burpless cucumbers, The two squares on the right of the top row each contain one cherry tomato vine. The second row from the top has 16 green onions in the left square and 16 red radishes in the right square. All radishes were harvested after this picture was taken, and the square they occupied will be replanted tomorrow. The four central squares have a catch crop of 4 spinach plants with one Jalapeño chile plant in the center of each square. The last square on the right in the third row contains a Cilantro plant. The other 5 squares had old lettuce seeds. Most of those didn't sprout, so I'm working on some lettuce transplants. |
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Square 2 on May 21, 2005 |
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This square gets more hours of sunlight than the other one, so the plants
seem to be growing better. The top row has two squares of burpless cucumber in the two left squares. I planted two in each square but only half of them sprouted due to old seeds. The other two were re-planted and are up now. The two right squares each have one red cherry tomato. I had planted yellow pear tomatoes in these two squares, but the seeds were about 15 years old and after a long wait I gave up on them germinating and transplanted the ones you see here. Guess what? About a week after I transplanted these, the pear tomatoes sprouted. I transplanted one to ''Main Tomato Area 1,'' put two in a small spot at the West end of that same tomato area, potted up the others and give them away. Since I had over-seeded due to the old seeds, I ended up with about 9 extra plants! The central 4 squares each have a catch crop of 4 spinach plants and 1 New Mexico Long Green Chile transplants per square. The left square in the second row from the top contains 4 Sweet Basil plants and the right square in that row contains 16 white radishes, which were harvested after this picture was taken. That square will be prepped and replanted tomorrow. The left square in the third row contains four dill weed plants and the right square contains 16 Green Onions - minus the 7 we've already eaten. The bottom row contains two squares of four Kohl Rabi plants (squares 1 and 3 left to right) and two squares of nine beet plants (squares 2 and 4 left to right). |
 This is the second or Westernmost square of my two square foot garden areas. |
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Companion Planting Experiment Area on May 21, 2005 |
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 My Companion Planting Experiment Companions Area No. 1 |
I may live to regret what I did in this area! I wanted a place
to get some squash off to a fast start before I got around to clearing the area
where my main squash hills are now. I have 5 Zucchini Squash, 5 Yellow Straitneck Squash, and 5 White Patty-Pan Squash down the middle of this box. Probably way too many plants in a 10 ft. by 20 in. box, but we'll see. At this point, there are juvenile female blossoms already formed on all of the squash plants in this area. Next, I have 18 green onions in a row to the left of the squash (for pest control mainly) and will add white radishes in with the squash in the center for additional pest control. I was unable to find any information about interaction between Okra and Squash, hence the ''experiment.'' I have 10 Okra plants in a row at the right side of the box, hoping they will get tall enough that the squash won't shade them out as they grow. At the top of this picture, you can see the edge of my daughter's flower box which contains 20 Pansies. She also has 4 Swiss Chard plants in the Southwest corner square of that box. |
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My Tomatoes on may 21, 2005 |
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Area 1 had six Miracle Sweet tomatoes - indeterminate. One of them was apparently eaten
by grasshoppers or some other pest, so I replaced it with a miniature tomato (Yellow Pear) that
I had sprouted from seed in one of the square foot areas, then I placed two more Yellow Pear
tomatoes in a small bed at the West end of the area. There is also 1 garlic plant in
each of the six watering areas, and 6 bush beans in the islands that separate each plant and
at each end of the row.
Area 2 has six Better Boy tomatoes - indeterminate also. Each watering area has 1 garlic plant as well and 6 more bush beans to the East of each Garlic plant inside each of the watering areas. Area 3 has bush tomatoes (determinate): four Roma tomatoes on the East end, and six Celebrities on the West end. I plan to put some onion sets into the bed also. This bed is inside a trench oposite the ''Companion Planting Experiment Area'' inside the chain link fence. I built up a bed inside the trench and left part of the trench to isolate the Bermuda grass in the back yard from the garden area. From the tomatoes to the West corner of the yard, I plan on putting in some winter squash (Acorn and Butternut). |
 Main Tomato Area 1 main Tomato Area 2 Main Tomato Area 3 |
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Main Squash Hills Area on May 21, 2005 |
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 My Main Squash Hills Area No. 1 |
Okay, so I love squash... I tend to overplant it, but we DO have
a lot of friends and relatives who also like it and never get around to gardening.
Maybe I'll even try to sell a little to groceries or restaurants; if there's any
left to sell after cooking, canning, and freezing! The hills are between the cantaloupe hills on the right and the watermelon hills on the left. The two hills nearest the camera on are Zucchini Squash; the two hills in the middle are Yellow Straight Neck Squash, and the two hills farthest from the camera (to the East) are White Patty Pan Squash (called ''Calabaza Estrella'' in Spanish) - my absolute favorite. These were planted on April 25th, so they have a while to go before we see results, but they do get much more sun than the ones inside the enclosure, so they should grow and produce better in the end. |
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My Melon Areas on May 21, 2005 |
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There are 18 Watermelon plants in these six hills to the North of
my main Squash area. This is the extreme Northwestern border of my
garden area.
There are three Cantaloupe plants in the center on the Southeastern edge of my garden along the chain link fence of my backyard. The other two hills have been replanted four days ago and have not yet sprouted. |
 Watermelon Cantaloupe |
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Main Cucumber Area on May 21, 2005 |
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 My Main Cucumber Area |
My main cucumber area will be planted in a new area I'm preparing to the North of the Chile bed and East of the Eggplants (to the right of the bed pictured here). | |||||||||
My Other Garden Areas on May 21, 2005 |
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I have a few other incidental planting areas planned - along fences and between other areas.
I've added a bed with six eggplants intersperced with blackeyed peas (cowpeas) in one area ,
with a couple of other areas containing Sugar Snap Peas and Green Beans (Pole Beans).
I also want to add some Winter Squash (both Acorn and Butternut) soon, and I'm preparing beds
for two breeds of corn and some pickling cucumbers.
I'll put in information and pictures as soon as they are prepared and planted.
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Okay... ever wonder what Kohlrabi is? Kohl is the German word for Cabbage, and Rabi is the German word for Turnip. Sort of a combination vegetable. The bulb actually grows above the ground and is an enlarged stem from which the leaves branch off. This vegetable is relatively unheard of in the United States, and is more common in Germany and other European contries. I'll post some Kohlrabi recipes soon. Here are three pictures from my garden, taken June 8th of this year: 
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