Snow is Flying

It's been snowing steadily since yesterday afternoon--big, pretty flakes. We had snow last weekend as well, so I hear (we were out of town.)

Crocuses and daffodils are just starting to poke up through, but this will probably slow them down a bit.

Snow Fun

After a few days of cold December rain, we had a white Christmas after all! Christmas Eve the temperature dropped, making the rain turn to snow and sleet.

We only got about 3 inches, but it was enough for some fun in the snow Christmas afternoon. Mama and baby stayed inside where it was warm!

All bundled up.

Brrr! Cold faces!

Despite the frigid temps, Jacob didn't want to come in.

Hot chocolate was enjoyed by the two snow adventurers as soon as they got inside.

Garden Evaluation: bush beans, beets, carrots

Box 1, revisited: Fall crops
bush beans, beets, carrots, (+ annual sunflower and zinnias)
planted July 17

Bush Beans: 3 sq. x 9/sq
Variety: Blue Lake Bush
Yield: Plenty for eating fresh
Pests, problems, diseases: none, since they were planted after the Japanese beetles had mostly gone away.
Finished: beginning of September
Comments: Good flavor! I was impressed with the yield for the number of plants put in. Also, for planting them at the end of summer, they did great! We harvested several meals' worth before the end of the season. With the warm planting weather, they grew really fast. They did overrun the other fall crops, though. Would need to plan that differently next time.

Carrots: 2 sq x 16?/sq
Variety: Short 'n Sweet
Yield: nothing
Pests, problems, diseases: bush beans crowded them out
Finished: n/a
Comments: these came up ok, but I didn't thin them out. I don't think it would have made much difference, in the end, if I had. The bush beans were so vigorous that they completely took over the space. Will have to give these a try in a different setting next time.
Beets: 2 sq. x 16?/ sq
Variety: Detroit Dark Red
Yield: none

Pests, problems, diseases: bush bean takeover

Finished: n/a

Comments: as with the carrots, these put up little shoots, but then were completely overrun by bush beans. Maybe next time I'll put these and the carrots in their own box and see how they do.

Garden Evaluation: squash, cucumbers, peppers

Box 3: zucchini, cucumbers, cayenne peppers, tomatoes (see earlier post)

planted May 16

Zucchini: 1 hill / 9 sq. ft x 3-4 seeds per hill

Variety: Elite Hybrid

Yield: enough to eat fresh and enough to make several batches of zucchini bread

Pests, Problems, Diseases: powdery mildew

This disease came on pretty strong toward the end of the summer, cutting back yield quite significantly in August/September. Almost all of the big leaves had to be removed at some point. What remained was still vigorous enough to produce a few more squashes, but not nearly what we had been getting. You can see the whiteness of the leaves on the last picture for this box, below. Not sure if they just weren't getting the air circulation needed with the tomatoes crowding in the box, or what.

Finished: end of August

Comments: One hill gave us all we wanted for eating fresh and baking. I did a post earlier in the summer about it being a space hog, but to recap: finding a variety that would climb the trellis would be a definite plus, leaving more space for other veggies in the box itself.

Cucumbers: 2 sq. x 4/sq. (one square in the corner of each box, next to the trellis)

Variety: Don't remember, and didn't write it down. But I need to try a new one next time, so I hope I will recognize it by the description!

Yield: Enough to eat fresh and some to give away, while they lasted.

Pests, problems, diseases: of the 4 plants per square, at least 1 in each box wilted away completely before its time. Not sure if it was lack of nutrients in the soil from all the other veggies crowding in, or what.

Plus, not really a problem per se, but growing them up the trellis produced several that were deformed, as they would grow through the netting and then get tangled up in it as they got bigger. A couple of them had to be cut off the trellis in a few pieces.

Finished: end of July--they finished rather abruptly, which surprised me. I had just given some away feeling confident I would have more within the week, only to find they were done.

Comments: This variety produced foot-long cucumbers with a good flavor. I want to try a different variety next time--it was huge or nothing with these. Maybe one square with a different variety of slicers that would grow to a more medium size, and one square of the variety especially for pickling. I was hoping to do some pickles with the ones from this summer, but they were not ready for picking until they were extra-long, and I let that intimidate me.

Cayenne Peppers: 1 sq. x 1/sq.
Variety: Cayenne, Long Thin
Yield: Several little peppers, about the size of my pinky finger.
Pests, problems, diseases: Just overcrowding by tomatoes and squash. Once they grew above the tomato vines they started producing.
Finished: end of season
Comments: I used some of these in the salsa I made this year, and some in other dishes. As mentioned above, they didn't really start producing until August or so, as the tomatoes weren't letting them have any space. Used our old tomato cages to hold them up which seemed to work well (again, it would work better if they weren't also supporting stray tomato vines!) For hot peppers, we like these. I might be tempted to try jalapenos at some point...we'll see.

Box 4: yellow crookneck squash, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes (see earlier post)

Yellow crookneck squash: 1 hill/9 sq. ft x 3 plants per hill

Variety: no special name, just yellow crookneck

Yield: for as big as the plant got, yield was a bit disappointing. We got an occasional squash from the plant--one or two every couple of weeks maybe.

Pests, problems, diseases: Lack of water? An earlier post mentions that after a week of rain there were several little squash growing, where we hadn't harvested any for a few weeks up to that point. I did water faithfully this summer, but perhaps the squash needed more than they got.

These also had powdery mildew problems, though not as bad as the zucchini.

Finished: end of August

Comments: as with the zucchini, I would like to find a climbing variety to free-up some space in the box. I would like to try a straight yellow squash, also, rather than the crookneck. The neck was always really tender, but the bulbous part would start to get mushy by the time they were big enough to pick.

Bell peppers: 1/sq. x 3 sq.

Variety: Banana Supreme, and The big Early

Yield: finally toward the end of the summer we harvested a handful of banana peppers. It wasn't until mid-to-late August that we got any bell peppers. We probably harvested 4 or 5 total of the regular bell.

Pests, problems, diseases: overcrowding by the tomatoes kept these from producing as much as they could have. They flowered regularly through the summer, but it wasn't until fall, when the plants were tall enough to peek out above the tomato vines that we got any peppers coming.

Finished: end of season

Comments: more space for these! Good flavor, but really no time to ripen from green as they didn't produce any peppers until August/early September. I bet I could be more successful with these next time, as the garden box layout will be planned differently to give them a bit more room.

Garden Evaluation: corn, beans, herbs

Box 2: variety

sweet corn, pole beans, basil, garlic, flowers

Planted: May 16

Corn: 3 sq x 4/sq.

Variety: 'Peaches and Cream'

Yield: 7 full-size ears, 1-2 little ones--enough for one meal

Pests, Problems, Diseases: We didn't have problems here, which I guess is unusual. Not sure if the dog kept the animal pests away, or we just got lucky. Really no trouble with bugs either. They did seem to need more support of some kind--they fell over in a strong wind and never seemed to go back up straight again.
Finished: mid-August
Comments: I'm not sure I'm sold on growing corn just yet--particularly in a square-foot garden. They did grow big and tall, and tasted good for that one meal. There's the problem, though. With a yield of 1 ear per stalk for the most part, you really have to grow a lot if you want it to feed your family. We do like corn on the cob, and would eat frozen corn if there was enough to process. However, you can get fresh corn at the Farmer's Market for cheap--3 for a $1.00 or something, in season. Or if we lived closer, Mom and Dad F. give it away! I could see it as a good choice for a kid's garden box: easy to plant, it grows satisfyingly tall, and yield would not be as important in that case.

Pole Beans: 2 sq. x 9/sq.
Variety: 'Blue Lake Pole Stringless' I actually liked the flavor of the bush beans better. If I try these again, I think I would do a different variety.

Yield: substantial amount, after the beetles left

Pests, Problems, Diseases: Japanese beetles! We didn't have any harvest at all until end of August/beginning of September, because it took that long for the vines to recover after the devastation of the beetle attacks.

Comments: These were supposed to be space savers because they grew up the trellis. They tried to take over the world! At one point I couldn't reach the beans to pick them because they had grown up the sunflowers and were way above my head. They literally wrapped around the sunflowers that were growing next to them and took them down! They also reached across the gap between the boxes and started twining around the tomato vines.

These seemed tougher and less flavorful than the bush beans, but I don't know if that was because I it took me longer to pick them or what.

With their unstoppable growth potential, I could see these being another good choice for a child's garden box, or make a stick tepee and let the vines go wild, and your little ones would have a shady hide-out.

Basil: 2 sq. x 1 plant/sq

Variety: 1 from Lisa, variety unknown, 1 'Spicy Globe Basil' (I mistakenly bought it thinking it was oregano--oops.

Yield: Great potential yield, if we had done something with them

Pests, Problems, Diseases: none

Comments: The Globe Basil did awesome. It grew almost 18 inches tall, and was very healthy, green, and bushy. We just didn't do anything with it. If I had cut and dried it, we probably could have had enough basil for the whole winter. I need to do better with the herbs next time around. It smelled good every time we were over there working with the other plants.

The little plant from Lisa did okay as well, but same problem. Just didn't use it.

Garlic: 1 square

Variety: unknown, gift from Lisa

Yield: nothing--the tops died about a month after they were planted, and I didn't dig them up.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: none

Comments: Maybe they will come back next year? We probably should have just used the cloves that we got from Lisa instead of replanting them.

Sunflowers: 2 sq. x 1/sq

Variety: 'Evening Sun'

Yield: Several large, pretty flowers on each plant. I didn't attempt to get any seeds from them.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: The pole beans! Growing these two together was a bad idea. As mentioned earlier, the beans twined all the way up the stalk, and eventually caused the sunflowers to bow down under the weight, breaking the stalk.

Comments: These got to be so tall! It was awesome! At least 7-9 feet--high above our 6-foot fence. The flowers were pretty, but the colors seemed kind of faded. I think I would prefer the brilliant yellow next time. The birds seemed to enjoy them.

Nasturtiums: 1 sq x 4/sq

Variety: 'Jewel'

Yield: n/a (although edible, I didn't try to eat them!)

Comments: Grew these from seed. They took a long time to get going, but once they did, they produced bright orange flowers throughout the fall months, adding lovely splashes of color to the box. I didn't get any good pictures of them in their full glory, but I quite enjoyed them at the end of the summer.

Garden Evaluation: peas, onions, potatoes

Box 1: Early Spring Veggies
Peas, onions, potatoes
Planted: March 27

Peas: 4 squares x 8/sq.

Varieties: 'Sugar Daddy' (stringless pods) and 'Super Snappy' (edible pods w/ huge peas)
Of the two, I actually preferred the Super Snappy--the pods were thick, sweet, and crunchy.

Yield: About 75% came up. Plenty for eating fresh, enough to use in a recipe now and then.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: None to speak of

Finished: July 23: harvested the last and pulled up the plants.

Comments:

Since we will only be here until the end of June next year, this would be a good crop to plant. We'll get to keep most of the harvest, and it will look good in the box for selling.


Onions: 6 squares x 16/sq. + 2-3 squares in box 2, maybe 5-6/sq., from Lisa.

Varieties: um...don't remember, some yellow and some white. Also, some I bought individually (they were already about green onion size) and I got one bunch of the tiny ones.

Yield: at least one orange basket-full, most golf-ball size, a few tennis-ball sized. We used them up in a 2-3 weeks.

Pests, Problems, Diseases: None

Finished: end of July
Comments:
I've since heard that this was a bad year for onions. I don't know, but none of mine got to be really big for slicing. Also, they were all extra strong flavor, when I thought home-grown were usually more mild.

Very easy crop to grow.

Next time I want to plant more, all of them the kind to grow into big slicers. Green onions are cheap to buy, and you can get the quantities you want without taking up a lot of garden space
(or having to continually replant). Also, the big onions could be stored for fall/winter use if we had more than we could eat in the summer.
I'll have to admit, I didn't do anything with the ones from Lisa. They are supposed to be hardy, so maybe they'll come back on their own next year and we'll harvest some.

Potatoes: 6 squares x 4-5/sq. + some in a bucket
Variety: Yukon Gold--tasty
Yield: This much (see picture), plus 7 or 8 more, plus one huge one today! (10/31)

Pests/Problems/Diseases: none except dog jumping on them.
Finished: end of July
Comments: Potatoes are fun to grow! Harvesting them is like digging for buried treasure--you never know how many or what size will come up, with no sign of the seed potato pieces you planted. The plants themselves got to be 3 1/2 feet tall, and were beautifully green and bushy until they got smashed by Diamond. We had to harvest these early this year due to afore-mentioned smashing. We eat so many potatoes, that I wouldn't mind planting an entire 4x4 box (or even more) of just potatoes. Especially since they also store well for winter use.
Potatoes in the bucket didn't do nearly as well on any front. Top-growth was scrawny and diseased-looking, and harvest was very small. They probably needed a lot more water than they got. So unless there's a really good reason to do otherwise, all potatoes will go in the ground from now on.
Probably won't plant next summer, as we won't get any of the harvest.

Winterizing

After another long week of rain, we've had sunny skies yesterday and today. So we finally could get some winterizing done!
1. Pulled out all dead (or nearly dead) garden plants and put them in the compost pile.
* we found one more baking-sized potato as we cleared out the one box! *
2. Mowed lawn and leaves, and added the mixture to garden boxes.
3. Put away all hoses, and random gardening stuff left out (baskets, etc.).
4. Took down camp chairs from porch and put in garage.
5. Took down/threw away remains of the wading pool.

Just need to get the hyacinths planted, and perhaps some last weeding done and we'll be all set!