Square Foot Garden Update

The garden is in full swing. We had a little trouble with me neglecting it on my latest business trip, but it is looking like we are going to have a great year. Right now we have: pumpkins, watermelon, musk melon, honey dew, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, eggplants, bell peppers, hot pepper, squash, artichoke, tomatillo, Swiss chard, and various herbs (and a lone Brussels sprout that I will dig out soon). We have some big tomatoes and even our watermelon is coming in great! Our grape/cherry tomatoes do not last long as I keep eating them every morning. mmmm.

SFG Update and fun Mom time

Check out the progress on the veggie patch. I've been munching on the fresh peas, lettuce, and Swiss chard. The lettuce has bolted so I am a bit sad. I am thinking of putting in some salad mix seeds in its place so we can continue our fresh lettuce use. Now we have tiny tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers coming in. I even saw a tiny pumpkin! I am getting very excited to eat locally soon!

We had a rainy weekend in sunny San Diego which disappointed the boys because we couldn't got to Elephant park and have a picnic as planned. I swear I never even heard from the news that we were expecting rain. I think the San Diego meteorologists must have graduated last in their class. They are so used to saying sunny and 70 that they miss the few times it does rain. I do love the rain (especially for my garden) but I wish it would just rain during the week!

Their daddy had a special treat and got to get away to go up to LA with the guys to watch the Wizards v. Galaxy match from the owners box. I was jealous at first and then he reminded me that Becks was in Italy. Meanwhile, the boys had fun with mom shopping and they were so well mannered that we finished our evening with a hot bowl of noodles at a restaurant on a rainy day. Mmmm. I was so proud that they were the best behaved children in the whole place. (Maybe it was due to the big bottle of hot sauce on the table.)

Garden time

One thing that makes me very happy is growing things (little boys included). Now that I finally have a home with a yard, I have really been enjoying my hobby. My garden has been a huge experiment for me and I am continually learning more and more about how to select and take care of my plants. My favorite time of year is when it is time to get my vegetable garden going. Each year I get more ambitious and I think I have been getting better results. I have learned over the past few years that San Diego has really crappy soil. I have amended the soil, composted, and mulched like crazy, but I still haven't had the success I hoped for. However, this year is all going to change because I was given a great book from my friends, Rob and Nicola, All New Square Foot Gardening, by Mel Bartholomew, http://www.squarefootgardening.com/. I used the magic Mel's Mix for my soil and Tim built the boxes for me. Check out the results so far in my first SFG:

I have tomatoes, broccoli, artichoke, leeks, lettuce, and onions growing in this one. (Oh and don't hate on my tomatoes, I know I got too excited and I planted them too early. It was too wet with the rainfall so they caught a fungus. I am working on fixing them with some veggie safe anti-fungal spray.)

Below, my second SFG is shown . I have peas and pea seeds, bean seeds, cucumbers (lemon and normal), tomato, Swiss chard, lavender eggplant, Brussels sprouts, purple bell pepper, banana hot pepper, rainbow beet seeds, and a squash that I grew from seed and some animal came by and snapped its stem last night- grrr. The other pics show my seeds/ seedlings (I have them in the sun during the day and take them in at night), and my SD farm bureau membership sign to show I am legit- ha ha.

Now I need to convince Tim to help me build my third SFG to accommodate all the seeds that I have been trying to germinate. For some reason my bell peppers and hot peppers aren't coming up as fast as all the others. I think I should be keeping them warm- next year. Also according to Mel, those seeds take a long time to germinate. Hopefully they will come up. If not, there is always the garden store!

Another tip for next year, make sure that the pen you used to label your seeds does not come off when the container gets wet. Oops, I guess I will have to wait and see what I am going to get.