Agh. A week went by and I ran out of time to do a review of what’s going on with my second square foot gardening box (a 4’x 4’ square), and now that I look back at this photo that was taken only a week ago, I realize that it barely resembles the state of that box as I wheeled my bike past it this morning. Funny what a heat wave will do to your cucumbers I tell ya.

Regardless, this photo gives you a good sense of what is in the box at this point in the year and I think I need to get some good evening hours of photo updates in this week if possible to document the crazy growth and bounty that is happening these days. Just need to find an evening off.

Anyway.

Square Foot Gardening Box 2

Starting from the top left of the photo:

  • Actually here we’re best to get out of the box or a minute so I can tell you what’s in those two black pots. Those pots contain four pickling cucumber seedlings that I transplated out of the box. As you can see from this photo they are dwarfed by their foot high kin that are located in the top left corner of the box. These were all planted at the same time and came up together nicely, but the lacinato kale you see on the right of the box is doing so well that was shading half of my cukes. Because this is the one veggie I’m growing particularly for preserving (pickling in fact), I was pretty unwilling to deal with a half my projected yield. So stuck the little seedlings in pots, two per pot and as soon as they start to shoot upwards I’ll give them each a bamboo pole to climb up. They haven’t been showing much growth since I transplanted them, and I’m a bit concerned that my dreams of a bounty for pickling were too ambitious, but I haven’t lost faith yet. Moving along back into the box, the ones that are in there are going gang busters. And this weekend I swear overnight two of the little cucumber nubbins turned into what look like healthy little dill pickles. Yum! I’ve been having to tie these up every other day and each time they grow easily 4” above the last tie. Now if only their potted friends would catch the growing fever.
  • Moving down to the left side on the next row we have some beet seedlings you can’t really see in this photo. The SFG method says each square can accommodate up to 9 beets, and my one square that has already been harvested and replanted with something else was so thoroughly enjoyed in our kitchen that I’ve gone a bit beet mad in this box. This row, and the next two all start with a square of beet seedlings. I had really mixed luck with my nine seedlings last time, with about 6 of them producing lovely little beets (all of which I picked as fairly baby beets) and the other three just kind of fizzling out. Not sure what that was about, but I’ve got my eye on all three of these squares and am hoping that I’ll also be able to harvest a few extras to keep in cold storage. The next square, moving right, is some chives that I planted early on in the season. These get harvested here and there for dressings, garnish etc and are doing quite well. As an aside, I’ve now planted chives all around my garden nestled into flowers and such both for the look of them and because folks keep telling me they’re good for warding off things like aphids on roses. We’ll see. Next to the chives is a square of dill that is in two stages. Two of the plants are quite mature and flowering, the other two are still quite small as they were replanted several weeks later after only half of the first crop of seeds sprouted. Finishing off this row is my very healthy Lacinato Kale. I harvest bits of this to add to salad greens, soups, breads and sauteed veggies every day or so and it just keeps on producing. My partner’s nine-year old daughter who isn’t the world’s biggest fan of vegetables or things that are green and leafy when they’re on her dinner plate, will also eat this by the handfull direct from the plant. For a while there I thought I had quite a slug infestation. Turns out, it was her. I’m not complaining.
  • The next row starts with beets of course. Then nine leggy little bush bean plants (yellow beans) in a square. These are flowering now, though not growing at nearly the rate of their pole bean kin in my other box. Then I’ve got some red oak lettuce that I mostly harvest the leaves of leaving the larger head to keep growing. But I think this square is about to bolt, so either we eat a bunch of salad this week or what remains may go in the compost. The final square in this row is some also very healthy lookin’ green chard. Again, this I harvest leaf by leaf for salads, steamed veggies and such. It just keeps producing and is such a lovely jewel of a green colour that I relish it each time I lay it on my cutting board. Yum.
  • In the final row, again we start with beets. Then I have a square of arugula, which if you read my notes for this photo at Flickr, I’ve said needs to be replanted. Wrong. I guess I forgot to look at that square closely for maybe a day or two and presto! I now have four healthy little arugula plants that I’d say are a week away (if this heat keeps up) from being gently harvested for salad greens. Huzzah! I love arugula. A lot. The next square contains one final head of green lettuce. I’ve got the other three out of this square already. Like the red oak lettuce, this is ready to bolt and will need to be eaten this week. Salad it is! Finally I have four walla walla onions that I grew from seedlings bought at the market. I caved and bought those on a whim. I’m not convinced they’re doing all that well. I need to do some research to figure out how long they can stay in there, but they don’t seem to be getting any bigger, or doing much, so I may just grab them next time I need some onions rather than buying any.

      • Now, I should get out from behind the computer and go water things. With the temperatures we’ve been having lately these boxes are taking a lot of regular watering and weeding to keep up on the rapid growth!