gardening | Square Foot Gardening!

Square Foot Gardening!

Or: The web design for the official site is so GOD-AWFUL BAD I want to CRY. I can't even look at it any longer. GOING TO CRY.

I need some help planning my vegetable garden, I'm doing just a 4x4 raised bed this year to get a feel for growing here in the Boulder, Colorado, US area. I literally have no idea what I'm doing, so someone who is willing to hold my hand through the process of figuring what to plant and when would be much loved.

OR, pointing me in the direction of sites with correct and detailed information? Because so far I'm finding nothing but contradictory info and stuff written for people who have degrees in botany.

HALP! I just want to grow some lettuce. Maybe some tomatoes. Broccoli? Sigh.

(edited to clarify location because I'm trying to remember that internet is not *just* in the US :D )

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I have absolutely no experience with growing in your sort of area (I'm in Ireland, so a lot further north, a lot more temperate, and a *whole* lot closer to sea level), but I can offer some general comments. Please ignore if it's not what you need.

Don't plant out until it's pretty likely you're not going to get a hard frost. So you probably have a while! There is a thing called a wall-o-water, which I heard about from a friend in Fort Collins (I'll see if she has any insights from her garden) -- it's a plant surround that you fill with a thin layer of water, and it works to even out day/night temperature shifts, and also diffuses the UV so plants don't get sunburned. You might find it useful for the tomato(es), if it's findable / in your price range.

You can start seedlings now, I'd say, if you have space indoors; it's better if they're not *too* warm or they get very stretched-out and thin, but giving them a head start is a good idea. It always takes longer for things to germinate than I think it will.

When you plant them out, give them a sunshade for the first few days -- like a piece of newspaper propped up over them. It'll help them acclimate. Some sort of sunshade might be good for lettuce, too -- UV retards growth, and that makes lettuce bitter by the time it's big enough to eat.

Brassicas -- which includes broccoli -- do not like a lot of heat. There are fast-growing salady leaves -- arugula, mizuna -- that you could put at the ends of the summer, before and after the intense heat. The tougher brassicas, like kale, are quite frost-tolerant.

Thank you! That's actually very helpful. I didn't know that about lettuce, and that's exactly the kind of information I'm looking for.

And yeah, I want to get some seedlings started now because I think it's closer to May before we're out of the frost period. But that requires figuring out what I can grow.

What do you know about mustard greens? My husband has developed a fondness for them, so I'm hoping to grow some.

Mustard greens are another class of brassica! (There are lots. *g*) It looks like they do *better* in cooler weather, but they, and arugula and the others, *can* take some heat, and they do mature really fast. (You can cut the leaves off, leaving the roots, and they'll come back a couple of times before the plants are finished.)

Returning to the lettuce question -- loose-leaf varieties might do you better than the heading varieties. Um, oak leaf is one that springs to mind? They can be picked/cut (same as above, "cut and come again") earlier, before a heading lettuce would have, well, headed. Plenty of water is going to be key, mind you, and if they start to bolt, they're going to be bitter.

Oh, passing on a piece of info I just got from a very successful tomato grower: if the seedlings get very tall, just plant them deeper when you pot them up or plant them out -- you can bury the extra stem/leaves. It encourages them to put out more side roots, and makes for a stronger plant.

Zucchini would love to grow for you (note: they take a *lot* of water), but they are big; one would probably take up your whole bed. But you could grow one in a container, provided you make sure it doesn't dry out, or just consider it going forward.

You are my new favorite person ever. :D

So, tomatoes and zucchini. I have been told that growing them in hanging pots works just as well as in the ground, and then you don't lose ground to them. True/false?

I have been looking at the yard today, and going on what you've told me I think I found the best place for planting, it's a bed that gets half shade half sun. The decorative plants I grew last year taught me well about the sun in that bed. I can get a big variety in that one bed, if I can keep the tomatoes and zucchini out of it. And we have squirrels. Lots and lots of squirrels. Even our beagle hasn't scared them all off. I think if I can hang the tomatoes from the HOUSE I might keep more this year than last. I got to keep ONE of like 24 that popped up.

I have never tried growing in hanging pots! I do not know! Hmmm... zucchini can put out pretty long vines, and in a hanging pot, I'd think there was maybe a concern of them cracking under their own weight? But they are pretty tough ... they'd probably be fine as long as you made sure to pick the fruit before it got too big. [/thinking out loud]

a bed that gets half shade half sun

Sounds good. Shade in the middle part of the summer day will probably make everything happier!

Squirrels, gah. I have no suggestions (that might work), short of.... protective cages covering the entire bed/plant. Possibly the entire yard. *wry g*

:D I think I will try to hang the zucchini, since it's not a beloved vegetable, no one will be heartbroken if it doesn't work, lol. (Okay, I will, because *I* love them, everyone else merely tolerates them, heh.) And I bet if I pick them small I'll get more mileage out of them anyway, excellent point.

You can get seeds for varieties of cherry tomato which do especially well in hanging baskets; "tumbling" seems to be a good search term. Example:

http://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/tomato-tumbling-tom-yellow-hybrid-prod001626.html

Thank you! I was lying awake last night trying to figure out if I had imagined the name Tumbling Tom!

Ooooh, those look cool. Thanks for the tip, I never would have thought of "tumbling" as a search term for tomatoes. <3

I've always thought they look fantastic in hanging baskets:

http://dobies.hostserver1.co.uk/im/pd/VETOM10398_3.jpg

But I love the smell of tomato leaves, so having them at easy sniffing height strikes me as a bonus. *g*

Btw, I haven't tried growing regular broccoli, but IIRC purple sprouting broccoli worked well in a square-foot plot.

Take a couple afternoons to go visit the main plant nurseries in your local area - they should have books you can use for reference, staff that can answer questions and even the right varieties of plants for your altitude and zone. Some of them will even offer to help plan out your garden for you for free in the hopes that you will purchase your supplies and plants from them.

One other tip I have learned along the way - whenever possible, buy your seedlings locally rather than online! They're already acclimated to your particular area and aren't in shock from being shipped from some other zone, hence are much more likely to do something useful like...live. ;-)

Good luck!

You're right, I think I may have to give in to the inevitable and sacrifice actual playing in the dirt time to going to the nursery. Sigh.

I didn't know you could get seedlings shipped, either. I suppose it makes sense though, heh.

I used to have the Square Foot Gardening book!

I always plant in beds rather than rows, and vaguely go by the spacing suggested on my seed packets. Some seeds (like lettuce), I'm prone to loosely scattering across the prepared area. I grow from local nursery seedlings more than from seed - partly because I've done the seedlings in the house thing before, and I know I'm not great at it/too busy; but also because seed packets give me way, way more plants than I have space and I like different varieties. (If I have room for 8 tomato plants, they're likely to be all different heritage varieties.) Some vegetables (like tomatoes) should be rotated - not grown in exactly the same spot year to year, because of the nutrients they draw out of the soil.

Last hint: some folks swear by collecting some brushed out dog hair and putting it around the garden to deter squirrels.

Good luck!

Would the book do me any good do you think? The site is ATROCIOUS but maybe the book is more useful?

What's your favorite tomato?

Well. I got rid of the book after having it for years because I didn't find it terribly useful.

I love weird heritage tomato varieties - there's a farm I get mine from - I like ones with black stripes. I'm usually grow a couple of different cherry ones - red and yellow pear. I love yellow/orange tomatoes too.

I used the All New Square Foot Gardening book last year and it worked. You have to grit your teeth through the tons of propoganda in the book about how great it is, but the techniques worked fantastic for tomatoes especially. (I'm in central Maryland near the PA border.) And the lack of weeds was great. We'll see how well it works this year.

Hello! I live in Nebraska so we are neighbors. Kind of. ;-)

I have found UNL's extension service to be useful in terms of planting info and varieties, so I did a quick search to see if Colorado had one. Have you checked them out yet? They seem to have a lot of gardening info links collected here and especially here.

I never replied to you, and I feel terrible about that. Those were very helpful links, and I appreciate it so very much :D

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Square Foot Gardening!

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Thanks!

Re: Thanks!

Square Foot Gardening Book is OK

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