A few years ago, Tobia read an interesting book called Square Foot Gardening (by Mel Bartholomew). I remember her sharing much of what she read with me, and I was most impressed and intrigued.

I decided that one day, when I owned a house with a backyard, I’d have to try it. We moved into our home about 2 weeks ago, and despite it not being finished, I decided it was time to garden, before I miss out on the season.

For starters, we had a lot of weeds in our backyard. They ranged from a few inches tall to a few feet tall. I decided to rent a roto-tiller to turn over my soil and dispose of these nasty weeds. After calling around for a little while, Home Depot in San Jose had one I could rent. These machines are huge so I needed a sizable car to move this machine around. We went down to Tobia’s parents house, where her dad, Cho, gladly let us borrow his awesome beat up van.

About to start my long morning of roto-tilling.

The machine was really strong and heavy; this was no easy job.

3 hours later, I was done. I thought it looked much better.

My left elbow was in pain and swelled up. I got some medicine and a sling.

Back at the house with the machine about an hour later, I got started making roto-tilling noise at 9am. This was a difficult beast to tame, extremely powerful and heavy, but damn effective. 3 hours later I was done with the back yard. I returned the machine and while doing so at Home Depot, inadvertently hurt myself on the ramp used for the machine. A couple days later this turned into an elbow infection that hurt miserably and also inflamed my left elbow severely.

Working on the box perimeter.

Finished assembling the 5 boxes.

After raking the land to level it out, I went to buy some Douglass Fir boards for the square foot garden boxes to be built; and while at it got deck screws, and borrowed a drill, and drill bits from Cho. The boxes came out roughly 4 feet long by 6 inches high by 2 inches deep, the work was pretty easy.

Next, I needed to get some compost. I drove down to Morgan Hill to get some mushroom compost. This was followed by going to the Sunnyvale SMART station and getting some redwood and fir tree compost. I had to purchase the rest of the compost for variety, and also the other ingredients necessary for the soil.

The Mel’s Mix soil material all mixed up on the tarp.

Tobia’s mom helping me move the heavy mix closer to the boxes.

Finished putting the mix into the boxes.

With all the ingredients waiting in the garage, Tobia helped me put on the weed cloth at the bottom of each of the squares. The following day I mixed all the ingredients on a large 12′ X 16′ tarp and filled the boxes with this Mel’s Mix material.

I had to prune the neighbors’ tree after setting the boxes down because it was sticking into my property, but more importantly, creating an unnecessarily early afternoon shade for my boxes.

This is what each box looks like.

My back yard layout, these boxes look like they’re ready for seeds.

Tobia had a good idea to stick in some evenly spaced nails to create the grid the book discusses. Without the grid, the author claims you can’t call it a square foot garden- which makes sense to me. It helps create a visible division and separation, which in turn allows one to grow various vegetables comfortably beside each other. I hammered in some evenly spaced nails, then wrapped some twine in a clever pattern Tobia devised.

I finally started planting! I started with green beans.

After that, the only step that remained was to plant the seeds. On Saturday, July 5th, I finally put in all of the seeds. Due to this year’s late start, I did not have a chance to do things properly by seeding indoors and taking all the necessary pre-outdoor seeding steps. Not everything requires a lot of pre-planting setup, so I hope to get a nice yield from my 5 boxes, each with 16 squares for a total of 80 independent sqaures to plant.

I have planted the following:

Green beans, beets, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, swiss chard, lettuce, mesclun, onion, chive and basil. Having four more squares available, I will put some more peppers (variety), cucumber, artichoke and some cowpeas. I am really excited and can’t wait to see how this all turns out.

I planted my seeds 1 week ago today. Some are growing impressively well (green beans), and others are taking their sweet time (eggplants). As a whole, I’m quite pleased to see that my setup has the general makings of at least a reasonable operation. I’ve been pretty nervous about knowing virtually nothing and not having perfect timing to get a good yield this year.

I plan to start indoor seeding my fall crops in the coming days- cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, spinach and hopefully strawberries. Even though initially opposed to this idea, the problem I am concerned I’ll run into is the season not being long enough (especially summer) to have success with vegetables like tomatoes and eggplants, which require lots of time and sun.

It’s not so much that initially it just seemed so fake to indoor seed that bothered me, but also that I had missed the summer pre-seeding season. Fall season pre-seeding is right about now (probably could have been started a couple weeks ago), so I need to start as soon as possible.

Darth Vader composter.

I finally have a composter now, I got it from the County of Santa Clara. It looks like something out of Star Wars, but seems like quite a well designed and easy to use tool. Eventually, after harvest time, I will pull out the crops and add home-made compost in their place. Having finished the square foot gardening book, I am now on to “The Vegetable Gardener’s Bible”. It seems like the next step I need to take with learning crop rotation, more about seeds, and just more specific growing science. I can’t wait to learn more…

Box 1

The tomatoes are coming around very slowly. Only the small stem and leaves can be seen.

Box 2

Eggplants and peppers needs about 19 weeks to harvest, very little can be seen here so far.

Box 3

Most promising box. The green beans with their big dark leaves, and the smaller greens are the beets.

Box 4

I was hoping for a bit more out of the lettuce, but at least the swiss chard is coming around.

Box 5

This box has quite a variety, but only the cow peas (black eyed peas effectively) and cucumber are showing promise so far.

This week I realized that some of the boxes weren’t getting enough sunlight due to the side-yard dying walnut tree. I chatted with the neighbors, who are sadly getting foreclosed, so they didn’t mind what I did with the tree, so long as they didn’t have to be a part of it. I got a few estimates for trimming the walnut tree, and went with a no-bull down to business gardener. He did a great job not only with the walnut tree (and now the boxes get more morning sun), but also the back side plum tree was trimmed nicely to give the boxes some more late afternoon sun.

I’m quite impressed with how the beets and beans continued to grow this week. They continue to lead the progress race. The tomatoes have started coming around and the lettuce is beginning to flower. The cowpeas, cucumbers and artichoke made a nice push too, this week.

I ordered some seed catalogs in the mail, I seem to have trouble finding fall crops to indoor seed (I haven’t started yet ). Hopefully when these catalogs come, I will be able to order some of those. I was fortunate enough to find non-hybrid broccoli and will start indoor seeding that as soon as I can. I love broccoli and want to get a good yield of it.

Box 1

The tomatoes made a good jump this past week, hopefully we’ll get an edible yield.

Box 2

Definitely the slowest box (eggplants, peppers), but I’m glad to see more crops sprout out.

Box 3

The beans and beets are a pleasure to look at; can’t wait to eat em.

Box 4

Can’t wait to make a dinner salad out of these lettuces.

Box 5

Cowpeas doing great. Cucumber coming around nicely. Artichoke beginning to assert itself. Chives, basil and onion coming around too, just hard to see in pic.

Starting top left and going clockwise- broccoli, brussels sprouts, strawberries and spinach.

Indoor seeding has finally started. I put broccoli, brussels sprouts, spinach and strawberries in the garage in little potting plant containers. The plan is to leave them in there for 6-8 weeks in the peat moss and vermiculite soil I have created. After that, it’s outside to the square foot garden, by which time the lettuces, beets and beans will have hopefully been consumed and relinquished their (prime real estate) squares.

Radishes will follow whatever next spots will be available outside. Those don’t require indoor seeding so it requires significantly less preparation. Still haven’t found cauliflower to grow, but I will try at the flea market this weekend.

Before

After

For a week now my Swiss Chard has grown really nicely and its leaves have been getting quite large, to the point that I figured I could start eating it. So after work tonight, Tobia and I picked the 6 largest outside leaves to eat for dinner. Tobia sauted the leaves with garlic and olive oil and we got a chance to enjoy a small serving of fresh delicacy.

I don’t know if it was excitement, freshness or really good taste, but I thoroughly enjoyed eating it… I only wish there was more than a small serving to barely feed one of us. The good news is that there are still many large leaves left to eat.

This is a great start and I hope the beginning of many back yard inspired meals.

Things are going fairly well in the garden. The cucumbers are stretching pretty high, about 5 feet, I think. The tomatoes are coming up nicely, and are requiring a cage to hold them up for support. Crops are growing at different rates but overall are showing promising signs. Even the indoor seeding of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts is coming along nicely.

I had the opportunity to serve guests lettuce, beets and swiss chard this weekend. My poor test subjects didn’t even see it coming. The beets were a hit, as the young, sweet oven roasted reds took on a great flavor, enhanced by freshness. The lettuce was received well by those who tried it, and the swiss chard was appreciated by some, despised by others. The chard can be a bit bitter admittedly, but I still enjoy it.

The compost is decomposing well and I hope to be able to use it soon. The leafy crops are ready to be consumed, and in their place I hope to lay down my compost and the four vegetables I’m indoor seeding at the moment.

I also got some deep pots that I have drilled at the bottom (for drainage) and plan to use for carrots, possibly potatoes, and the “Scarborough Fair” herbs.

With much back yard space and recent knowledge that Butternut Squash will likely grow well under current conditions, I’m going to try to plant that in hopes of some good soup around Thanksgiving time a few months away.

I’m quite excited at the possibilities and hoping for success with the current remaining crops.

A couple of things have been slowing me in the garden this week.

The first was the insanely hot weather that killed some of the leafy crops (despite being watered every day). I think it reached either 100 or very close to it, and for some of the crops this was damaging.

The other nuisance are the squirrels. They run around our power lines and fence lines carrying nuts all day long. It’s not enough for them to eat these nuts, they actually come into my boxes and dig them up to store their nuts inside. This has damaged some of my soil and has bothered me greatly. I have since put in some fox urine packets on the fence posts. This did a bit in the way of dissuading them from getting in, but not completely. Today I bought ground-pepper-smelling natural pellets to put around the perimeters of the boxes (can’t sacrifice the quality of the food inside) and hope those will keep the bastards out. If this doesn’t work, I think the next step will be bb guns… I’ve had it and I’m really frustrated!

I also finally took the time to weed some of the dead leaves and stems to free up space in some of the messy boxes. Lots had wilted.

As for watering, we got a nice head for the hose that distributes water very gently (finally found a good one) and it not only makes water quicker now, but also easier as it can reach into places none of my other tools can.

Maybe it’s time to build some more boxes…

Box 1

Tomatoes

Box 2

Eggplants and bell peppers

Box 3

Green beans and beets

Box 4

Swiss chard, lettuce and mesculun

Box 5

Chives, basil, onions, cucumber, artichoke, bell peppers and cowpeas

The tomatoes continue to grow impressively. I really hope the warm weather holds up another month so I can harvest some good, finished tomatoes. The eggplants and peppers have also been growing nicely in the heat, though I’m less hopeful about their success this year.

My hope is to eat the green beans this week and to continue making some kind of dent in the 100 or so beets we still have left. Tobia loves em, so I expect she’ll be eating dozens this week.

The leafy vegetables are becoming a bit more bitter as I should have really been harvesting them a few weeks ago and eating them in their prime.

The cucumbers are really bitter and are dominating the last box. I’m thinking of uprooting them, composting their remains, and making room for new fall crops.

On the subject of fall crops, I’m eager to get my indoor seeds out to the boxes already. I have made so many mistakes this season, but have learned a lot and know how to correct most of those for next year.

Composting is still going well, the pile is getting nice and dark (and also heavy to stir). I will use it to supplement (all natural) the fall crops.

I hope to stop only giving new boxes lip service and actually get those going this weekend.

Box 1

Tomatoes

Box 2

Eggplants and bell peppers

Box 3

Green beans and beets

Box 4

Swiss chard, lettuce and mesculun

Box 5

Chives, basil, onions, cucumber, artichoke, bell peppers and cowpeas

The tomatoes are getting nice and big now. Unfortunately they’re still green so we can’t eat them yet, but I’m excited at the thought. I just need the heat to hold up a little longer. The peppers and eggplants are flowering right now, I still don’t think they’ll make it this year.

We harvested all the beets and green beans from the middle box. I took the green beans for lunch at work along with some beets and enjoyed those. The box is now empty and the squirrels are having their way with it. I’m hoping to cover the box with the poultry wire I bought. The broccoli and cauliflower will likely make their way into this box
soon.

The swiss chard and lettuce are well overdue in terms of harvesting. I regret not picking those and eating them earlier. They are both significantly more bitter now, but hopefully cooking, at least the chard, will make it edible. Once that box is freed up, I’ll likely put the cabbage and brussels sprouts in there.

The last box contains fabulous smelling basil that I chop up every so often to enhance my tomato salad. The cowpeas should soon be ready for consumption.

Box 1

Tomatoes

Box 2

Eggplants and bell peppers

Box 3

Green beans and beets

Box 4

Swiss chard, lettuce and mesculun

Box 5

Chives, basil, onions, cucumber, artichoke, bell peppers and cowpeas

Tobia and I put up poultry wire around the three boxes that are growing from seed. Because the squirrels get into the boxes and dig them up, seeds will never make it without this protection. I have transplanted broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and brussels sprouts into the boxes for the fall. I used the compost I’ve been making for the last two months to mulch the soil before planting these. I also added beets and spinach, from seed, to grow this fall.

To make room for all of this, we harvested all of the swiss chard and lettuce. Tobia sautéd probably 400 chard leaves for an enormous batch, and the lettuce we divided among ourselves and our families.

I’m still hoping the tomatoes, eggplants and peppers benefit from our California sun to yield something in a month’s time.

Independent of the Square Foot Garden boxes, I’ve planted carrots and radishes in separate pots we bought recently. The quick to harvest radishes are already visibly sprouting.

I’m excited to see how the fall crops do and am also starting to think about how to try to extend the season through winter.

Box 1

Tomatoes

Box 2

Eggplants and bell peppers

Box 3

Brussels sprouts and spinach

Box 4

Last of the lettuce

Box 5

Basil, artichoke and cowpeas

Fall is now here and it’s been a really hot one here in the Bay Area. I’m not complaining though, because my peppers, eggplants and tomatoes are doing extremely well in this heat.

All the indoor seeds have now been transplanted into the SFG boxes and I have thinned them out to give the existing ones all the resources and a chance to flourish. I also took the time to thin out branches that clearly won’t yield anything this year. This too will focus the sun and water only on those crops that are almost ready to bear harvest.

The radishes and carrots in the pots are both doing well. I think in just a matter of 2-3 weeks, the radishes will be ready for harvest.

A nice, gardening coworker of mine gave me some spaghetti squash seeds to plant next year during the Spring. Looking forward to trying that.

The other new thing I’ll try growing next year is watermelon. I found some seemingly good seeds (first time) and will follow their instructions next Spring.

Box 1

Tomatoes

Box 2

Eggplants and bell peppers

Box 3

Brussels sprouts and spinach

Box 4

Beets and cabbage

Box 5

Basil, artichoke and cowpeas

To my surprise, the tomatoes are turning red. I picked 6 tomatoes from the bush today and had 3 for dinner. They’re getting redder and sweeter. The green peppers are also growing nicely, one of which is almost ready to be eaten. Eggplants, too, continue to grow and hopefully we can make some lunches out of those this week.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinning out each square, making sure each crop has all the sufficient resources to grow large. The beets in particular, this time around, look promising and will hopefully turn out nice and big.

The squirrels managed to hop over the fences we put up on some of the boxes and terrorized some of the crops in there. It’s so despairing to see that happen. We’ll probably put a roof top on the boxes now to completely keep those bastards out.

The transplants have been growing nicely. The brussels sprouts, in particular, are becoming sturdier as their stems are thickening.

Radishes

Carrots

The cowpeas are drying out and should be cracking open soon, at which point they will be ready for harvesting. We’ll take those and soak them in water in hopes of getting them to puff out and eat.

The radishes in the front are doing quite well. I expect them to be done in a couple of weeks. The carrots are coming along nicely too.

And finally, I planted some parsley, which can grow in any season.

Box 1

Tomatoes

Box 2

Eggplants and bell peppers

Box 3

Brussels sprouts and spinach

Box 4

Beets and cabbage

Box 5

Broccoli, cauliflower, basil, artichoke and cowpeas

The summer and heat have held out late this year, we’re still getting close to 80 degrees here in the Bay Area. Though it’s really hot for me, the tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cowpeas have really blossomed well.

Heirloom tomatoes

I’ve been eating my tomatoes for a couple days now. I’ve just plucked almost 20 more from the vine over the last day or so. I’m really enjoying the fresh taste of vine tomatoes.

Eggplants, green pepper, basil and tomatoes

I’ve also been able to pick off close to 10 eggplants, which, along with a green pepper, got cooked for lunch today.

And finally I pulled off the cowpea pods this evening for what looks like at least a meal’s worth of black eyed peas. This all came out from 1 square from the square foot garden.

Cowpeas

I am extremely happy!

Despite the late summer start, no indoor seeding, and a whole bunch of mistakes along the way, I still get to enjoy a reasonable summer harvest.

Square Foot Gardening has been great, hopefully the fall crops will make it too.

It continues to be hot here during mid-day. I just don’t know how much longer this can hold up.

I’ve been extremely fortunate to harvest roughly 15 tomatoes due to this. The eggplants and peppers continue to come too.

The fall crops are growing slowly but surely. The carrots and radishes, at the front are doing well too. I expect to harvest the quick growing radishes this coming week.

Box 1

Tomatoes

Box 2

Eggplants and bell peppers

Box 3

Brussels sprouts and spinach

Box 4

Beets and cabbage

Box 5

Broccoli, cauliflower, basil, artichoke and cowpeas

This evening I harvested 41 eggplants from the garden. I planted 8 square feet of eggplants with 1 seed in the middle of each square. I’m surprised SO many have come out… much more than I would have imagined.

Tobia and I prepared them and cooked them in the oven. The plan is to eat them for our upcoming lunches- probably for a good while.

Our backyard project is now complete and I finally was able to put my compost bin back in its place. Along with that, I bought a new bin to start the Fall/Winter compost in time for next Spring. I had a handful of buckets with compost material out in the yard, and when I poured those into the second bin, they smelled attrociously bad. Since then they’ve been in the compost bin for a few days and thankfully the smell is gone. Anaerobic decomposition is a really nasty thing.

On the gardening front, I gave the radishes another week to grow and they’re looking good. I will harvest those any day now. The carrots are coming along nicely thickening stems.

We thinned out the tomato vine to ensure that the remaining tomatoes get what little sun is left this season. I did the same to a less dramatic extent with the eggplants and peppers, hoping to get one last harvest before it turns cold. The rest of crops (all cool weather) are doing well with the current fall temperatures. Hoping for a good fall harvest.

Box 1

Tomatoes

Box 2

Eggplants and bell peppers

Box 3

Brussels sprouts and spinach

Box 4

Beets and cabbage

Box 5

Broccoli, cauliflower, basil, artichoke and cowpeas

The front yard radishes are coming out, so I harvested a bunch of those. I also plucked some more eggplants, tomatoes and peppers. My dinner salads have consisted of radishes, peppers and tomatoes with olive oil- so fresh and delicious!

As for the eggplants, those will make good workweek lunchtime meals.

The summer crops are are still hanging on a bit longer; it’s time to start focusing on the fall crop.

Well, the inevitable has happened. The weather has cooled down, the angle of the sun is now different (thus hitting the boxes for fewer hours), and my crops are growing significantly slower. Only the radishes have been kind to me, producing quite consistently. The front yard carrots are taking their sweet time growing. Following the carrots are the beets, cabbage, brussels sprouts, cauliflower, spinach and broccoli. I have my doubts as to whether or not some of these crops will make it, but I keep watering and giving them attention.

Surprisingly, the composting is going quite well. The breakdown and decomposition also requires heat so I’m surprised.

This weekend I’ll take some pictures and put them up.

Carrot harvest

Carrots

Following too much time away from the garden (due to job search and subsequent job change), I spent most of Saturday with my crops. I harvested a couple tiny peppers and some nice looking carrots. The broccoli, the spinach, and the beets are all pretty close to harvest at this point. I hope there will be enough sun for them to make it before it gets too cold for anything to grow. I finally completely removed the tomato, eggplant, and pepper plants, and put a fence around the last of the boxes. Slowly I will put all the boxes to rest for the winter. I plan on getting some mulch to put on top of the soil.

I had forgotten how much fun gardening is, and missed it. It was enjoyable to be back at it again this past weekend.

Box 3

Spinach and cabbage

Box 4

Broccoli and beets

Box 5

Cauliflower, brussels sprouts and artichoke

Things have been slow in the garden. A recent rise in temperature has given my crops some more sunshine and it was enough to make them ready to harvest.

I pulled out a big bowl full of spinach leaves, some broccoli, cauliflower and also 4 beets. The vegetables were not particularly large as we have not had much sun or heat around here, but considering I was able to produce anything at all during Winter, I was extremely pleased.

I bought some organic mulch and laid it on top of what were the tomato and eggplant/pepper boxes back in the summer. I’m giving the soil in those boxes some rest for the duration of Winter.

Around late February or early March I expect to start the Summer crop indoor seeding, and probably also the Fall crops.