As I’ve mentioned before I’ve taken the Square Foot Garden approach to my veggie garden this year, and am so far growing and harvesting a fair crop of our most regularly consumed veggies. I’ve been taking advantage of the very mild climate of the West Coast here and so far have direct seeded pretty much everything (save some cheater lettuce seedlings I bought early in the season, and the basil I bought from my favorite herb lady at the Farmer’s Market). I’ve had surprisingly good ratios, which I’m almost too superstitious to brag about here, lest the gods of the veggie seeds hear my bravado and punish me for the rest of the season. But really, I’ve been lucky. Of my 3 bean squares that I planted I’ve had 1:1 success so far (though beans aren’t exactly tricky stuff), my lettuce has been almost the same, though I often put two seeds in each hole and just thin out if necessary, but I’ve always ended up with a full square. And my radishes, for whihch one 1′ x 1′ square will accommodate 16 seedlings have so far shown about a 7:8 ratio of success at worst (we’re on our 5th replanting already, though they’ve been staggered).

In fact, the only problems I’ve experienced so far have been directly related to my planned dill pickle canning blitz. For starters, the dill that I seeded a good month ago or so now, refused to grow more than two of the four spots alotted it in the square. I’ve reseeded twice now and nothing. Not sure if there’s some dill seed loving ant somewhere in my garden or what, but it looks like I may have to pick up some dill seedlings from my herb lady. Perhaps more importantly only 5 of my 8 cucumber seeds seem to have taken, which isn’t too bad in the scheme of things, but when it comes to pickling time I’m going to want a full crop (I’m already regretting not having more room for growing goods for canning projects like this). So this weekend I reseeded the missing 3 and with the clarity of the computer here in front of me it strikes me that I should perhaps seed a few in some currently dormant squares and just move them over as they take.

As I’ve already said, I think I’ve been extremely lucky with my direct seeding experiments, but given the limited space I have to work in, and my desire of even more veggie goodness I’m starting to see the ways of the seed starting and transplanting route. So far my gardening experiments of this year continue to point in the “oh boy would I ever love a greenhouse” direction, so I think I may have to officially write that on the wish list for household projects.

cucumber seeds