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.