The Square Foot Garden - Two Weeks Later

The success we are now having with our square foot garden means we have been bitten by the gardening bug. Everyone in the family is loving checking the growth progress every day, watering the plants, and looking for new vegetables. It is amazing how much better we are doing now that we had a little help. Our first garden is still going, and the cucumbers continue to attack everything in site, so we seem to have a lot of cucumbers in our future. We came to the conclusion that 102 degrees and 14 hours of direct sunlight really is too much for most plants...also part of the downfall of garden number one. So we embarked on building an arbor over all three beds. In true Cammilleri and Texas form, we did so while the thermometer read 107. (Why can't we think of all these projects in the winter when it's a balmy 60 degrees? We and the plants were in great need of this shade. Then we added an Adirondack bench that Tony had built, and our small metal bistro set, and umbrella...and all of the sudden we had a beautiful, backyard garden oasis! The plants are doing even better. It's amzing that the soil is actually still damp at the end of the day instead of bone dry. They are getting plenty of sun, just not 14 hours of direct, extreeme temps. And by nine o'clock at night it's actually cool enough to sit out in our little oasis and enjoy it. We can't wait for fall, so we can spend even more time out there. Pumpkins perhaps??

Garden Round Two - The Square Foot Garden

Some of you may remember that a few months ago we decided we wanted to try our hand at a garden. It went something like this...build frame, buy cheap dirt(who would pay lots of money for dirt??), get a few packets of seed of things we like to eat, let kids sprinkle them in, hope for the best. Well...many weeks, and only one tomato later, we determined that we needed some help. All that work, and we got one tomato out of the whole garden. Basil died, wind and sun battered the tomatoes, carrots are in there somewhere growing SLOWLY, and the cucumbers, of which Ellie planted way too many, are taking over. No cucumbers to pick yet, but the vines have suffocated the tomato plants and are setting up home on their cages, they are climbing over the fencing and along the ground. We still have hopes of having some cucumbers some day from our first garden.

After seeing pictures of a friends garden, and their plentifiul vegetables, that were planted same time we did ours...we realized we needed help. We deffinitely did something wrong. She recommended the book they used called "Square Foot Gardening" which is all about growing enough vegetables for our whole family, in a very small space. We read up on what to plant when, how many seeds to use, which can be trained to climb, what blend of soil to use, and we went for round two. Wow, what a difference! It rain every day for a week right after we planted, and by the showers cleared and we got out to check the seeds, we had plants!! Not just sprouts, real plants!! Yes, the larger ones we bought and transplanted, but the wax beans have come in, the zucchini and acorn squash are well on their way. I guess the special recipe of dirt was worth it. And yes, as soon as it was planted, we were back to Home Depot to get more fencing. Matthew thought he had a great new place to dig.

How orderly and well planned!


Texas sized garden pest :)


Beans that grew in six days!!!!

The first pitiful attempt at a garden. Attack of the cucumbers on one side, and empty dirt on the other.