Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Very well, thank you!

I was quite pleased with how our square foot gardens turned out this year.  My husband was doubtful, but I think I proved him wrong.  (oh, the small pleasures). 

So here's how it went down - from the beginning...

The boxes my hubby so kindly made:

Colton working hard at making the perfect mix.  The boys thought it was fun to play in it until I told them they were playing with cow poop.

All filled with dirt and looking beautiful. (There was supposed to be pea gravel in between, but, yeah, that never happened.)

Taking care of our seedlings shortly before planting:

Square feet marked off:

Planting the marigolds to ward of the pests:  (Don't look at that thing in his mouth, now that it has been gone for awhile it really makes me wince.)

And in the end?

Some things made it, some didn't.  Sometimes it didn't get enough water.  Sometimes things got left too long and went to waste.  But really, the best part is that we have had lots of yummy, fresh produce and my kids learned a little bit about where food comes from.  And so far they really enjoy the tasks of gardening.

 

And doesn't that look tasty?

And since this is our first time doing it this way, here's what I learned:

• Even though we love squash and zuchinni, I really can plant less than 3 or 4 plants of each. (But I have found some really yummy new recipes to use them in!)
• Although many of our seedlings worked, it may not be worth it considering some of the plants are only .75 to buy and that my sanity was waning after a certain 2 yr old pulled them out or dumped them repeatedly.
• Beware of squash bugs. You can buy something that kills them, but I learned that too late to save our poor pumpkins.
• Prop up tomatoes early on, or they will go crazy and you may become too lazy (or overwhelmed or something) to deal with it.
• Keep an eye on wild hooligans that may find it fun to whack at plants with sword-like objects.
• Remember what was planted - I kept waiting for my "green" tomatoes to turn red.
• The soil mix really does work . . . no weeds!  (In the garden anyway, too bad our lawn was covered.)

Any other pointers?  How did your garden turn out?  Do you do traditional or boxed?  I really want to know.