square foot garden plan
ninth bed
Sun is lower so pots are getting even less sun. Cherry tomato is hanging on. Beans are doing well, setting fruit. Csi Csa thinks its her domain. She loves the bean poles and does her slalom run through them all.
She is a pest and companion. I shoo her away and she’s right back again. Love what Chris Condello has to say about cats in the garden.
fifth bed
The fifth bed is started, planted two new tomato plants and transplanted the very sad Roma from the black pots hope it survives, also put out four teeny tiny baby pepper seedlings; hungarian golden wax, Romanian anthoni, hamson and big red tomato seedlings. Transplanted kohlrabi, beet and turnip seedlings. I think I’ll just sprinkle seeds for the next generations. Planted sweeter yet cucumber seedling in second bed. Calendar said best for leafy, so I do the root and fruit but they’ll still be happier than in the starter pots. The bush cucumbers are doing better with the fertilizer application, greened up within the week, radish companions going fine. Beans and weeds are doing alright in first bed, lost a few varieties, too much rain, everyday for two weeks. Runner beans are doing better, but they were higher on the slope.
Lost
top crop
strike
slenderette
commodore improved
top notch wax
harvester
cherokee wax
pension
Weak
provider
royal burgundy
blue lake
Doing Well
wax goldcrop
tendergreen
roma II
Jade treated
Jumbo
stringless green pod
Gita
smeraldo
helda
white mountain
Pots Update:
Heinz Tomato dead
green bush marrow ok
pension bean ok
golden crop bean ok
lebanese white marrow weak
jumbo bean ok
roma II bean ok
tatume squash turning white, mildew?
orient express cuke ok
White flies all over papaya leaves, info PDF
Attracting beneficials
Is it over fertilized or white flies? Have no clue
soil mail
I’m so excited, going to send off my soil sample to Logan labs today.
They’ll send me back a report like this one sample report which will tell me all the secrets of the universe inside my soil.
While I’m waiting I think I’ll start some tomato and pepper seeds. It’s been so long since I had a great tasting tomato or a pepper as meaty and sweet as my Dad grew or I had in Hungary. There is a little round variety that is stuffed with cabbage as a pickle side dish. I think I need some more hungarian ones.
Just checked my pepper collection and I only have eleven varieties. I think my oldest ones now are acongagua and corn di toro from Seeds of Change.
Growing update:
Beans are in and I transplanted the marrow and bush cucumber in the first bed and some pots.
The cherry tomato is flowering yay!
first bed
Finished clearing weeds and measuring up the first bed. Thinking of names to call them as the nifty planner has a title block, good idea to keep track.
I didn’t bother marking the squares too accurately. I was going to use chopsticks and string but I don’t have enough of them yet, so I just dragged the hoe through the foot increments. It’ll do for the bean trial garden I want to put in right now. The biodynamic Calendar says it’s a good time for fruits so it’s a go. I bought Maria Thuns book a few years ago, and read Steiner. I read and study so much, but the actual practice of gardening is a disaster.
I love love fresh green beans, I’ll eat them off the vine raw. My favorite bean dish is definitely green bean stew, sometimes with sour cream, or made with wax beans. To kick it up a few rich notches, dollop a spoonful of beef stew in the middle, rich! Yum. Oh yeah, add a splash of the spiced vinegar to cut the richness. I’m thinking I’ll have to start a recipe page if all goes well. Hungarian food as I knew it was vegetable heavy, so many great meals.
I did get soil from two places so I can sift it and send the two cups to the lab. I’m forcing myself to be scientific and as methodical as possible, it’s tough, by nature I’m impulsive and a little haphazard.
Csi Csa, big help, but better than walking over everything I’m doing as usual.
I’m tired of getting my seed packets full of soil, so I decided to make my seed tray based on my sfg plan.
This idea works well in theory, but I bumped it a little and they jumped spaces. Good thing I could tell them apart.
I’m thinking I need something like a pez dispenser instead.
I got the beans planted, marrow and cucumber seedlings planted. Trellis for the pole beans (thinking positive)
And…sifted my soil sample. I was going to leave it on the porch to dry, but thought not in case Kitty thinks its her litter box.
Not that she uses it all the time, she’s mostly an outside cat who lived her formative years under the shed and inside my husbands car.
But that’s another story for a rainy day.
I officially hate this game. I was putting in bean maturity dates and I inadvertently deleted the bed. No undo. This is all that’s left.
I’m going back to my notebook with a pencil and big fat eraser and not playing with this planner anymore, instead I’m going to make some squash soup.
And Seeds 