Mid-May 2011 Garden

Here is a look at how well things are growing. The cukes are starting to climb and the bush ones are filling in the front of the box. The tomato plants are all past the first rumg on the cages and have lost of blossoms as well as several golf ball size tomatoes. We have been eating squash for about a week now. We are on our third planting of radish. Everything is looking good. I think we have successfully survived the 40 mph winds we have had all spring. (double click photo to enlarge)

Mid-April 2011 Garden

Here are a couple of pictures of the start of my 2011 spring garden. Everything seems to be growing fine. We have 13 tomato plants (cherry, Porterhouse, Better Boy, and a variety of heirloom), 16 chili plants (Hatch, Big Jim, AZ88, serrano, and jalapeno), Swiss Chard, radish, Texas Supersweet onions, bush cucumbers, vining cucumbers, squash, and I gave one of my boxes to my daughter-in-law (who lives over the back fence) to grow some plants that I don't have in my boxes. I'm going to add more boxes my the end of the summer. I think I'll make a couple of 8x4 boxes to handle plants that need room to spread out. I tried an experiment last summer and grew some of the Supersweet onions in a box and some in an area near the garden that had pretty good soil....no comparison....the best onions were from the box. I love SFGing. I took a trick that my neighbor used many years ago....I cut the bottom and part of the top out of a plastic milk jug and placed them over my young tomato plants. I place a broken golf club shaft through the handle and into the ground to keep them in place. With the constant hard winds we have had this spring I think that trick has saved my plants. (double click on photo to enlarge)

2010 - 2011 Winter Garden

We had a great winter garden this year. There was lots of broccolli, cauliflower, chili, and most of all sweet potatoes. We even grew kolrobi for the first time. It's not bad to eat. Think I'll try it again this next fall. The garden gave us quite a good amount of food to eat. Again I'm more sold on Square Foot Gardening than ever before. It's pretty hard to have a bad SFG. Our local nursery sells Mel's Mix in bags now...already mixed. I'm going to keep making my own for now. I like the fact that I can mix my own composts when I can do it. I need to thank Don Richins for the idea of the compost bin. I copied his pattern and made enough to totally supply my compost for my mix in order to top off my 13 (4x4) boxes and enough left to fill a large (50 gal.) barrel....thanks Don. All the plant residue from the winter garden is "cooking" right now and getting ready for the fall garden.

July/August Garden

A lot has happened since my last post....but first here are a couple of Armenian cucumbers that got away from us and hid in the vines (notice the sweet potatoes behind her). They are being held by my grand daughter. In the past month we have been busy canning lots of produce from the garden. We have canned about 15 pints of salsa, 25 pints & quarts of Bread & Butter pickles, over 35 pints & quarts of dill pickles, canned & froze & gave away bags and bags of chili peppers, canned several quarts of tomatoes, and harvested and ate lots of cantaloupes & honey dew melons. We are still waiting for several watermelons to get rip. We froze many bags of green beans & harvested about 18 spaghetti squash. We have about reached our limit of zuchini squash and swiss chard. I've cleaned out many of the boxes, added compost that I've made, and prepared them for winter plants. I'll be planting my winter garden tomorrow. Our sweet potatoes are doing wonderfully. I think we are going to have a huge harvest. We are going to plant peas where the melons were. I'm keeping the tomatoes, cucumbers, chard, and peppers going from the summer boxes. We have been blessed with lots of rain since the 4th of July. I've had to do very little watering of the garden. I have a second bin of compost about ready to use. All in all I can say that we have harvested much more than ever before (in any type of garden we have had). I LOVE MY SQUARE FOOT GARDEN!! I have four other people who have watched my garden this summer and have started boxes for their winter garden or have started boxes for next spring. I think I've had to pull about 4 small weeds this entire summer....and the garden looks great. Thanks again Don & Dorothy. (double click to enlarge photo)

My JUNE Garden

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April in Grandpa's Square Foot Garden...

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Gilly's Chili....

On the way back from Tad's house (Albuquerque, NM) last weekend we passed through the town of Hatch, NM. Since that is the chili capitol of the world....great Mexican chili anyway...I thought that I would stop and see if I could find some place to get some seeds to plant in the garden. I stopped at "Gilly's Chili" or better know as the Hatch Valley Chile Company. Gilly was super helpful and made sure I left with an ample supply of Sandia Medium, Sandia Hot, and AZ88 chili seeds. I'm looking forward to getting some of those seeds in the ground. If you have never had a Mexican dish prepared with Hatch chili you have been missing something special. So if you ever make your way to Hatch, NM please spend a few minutes at my "new friend's" store and buy some chili. Gilly is a super guy and will help you any way he can.