Square Foot Gardening!

[indeliblesasha]

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 )

Comments

[indeliblesasha]

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.

[chalcopyrite]

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*

[indeliblesasha]

: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.

[rydra_wong]

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

[chalcopyrite]

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

[indeliblesasha]

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

[rydra_wong]

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.