My first garden

[Lisa0825]

I thought I would go ahead and start a thread to document my progress over time.

Here is my first Square Foot box on the day I planted my bell peppers, tomatoes, and jalapenos. I will have more to plant when my seeds are ready.

Day 1 on 3-26-08



Banana Tree Day 1 3-30-08



Avocado tree Day 1 3-30-08

[hippywife]

1. Way to go, Lisa!

Looks wonderful. Wishing you lots of success! :hi:

[K8-EEE]

2. I'M AVOCADO GREEN WITH JEALOUSY!

I soooooooo badly want an avo tree! I DON'T HAVE ROOM FOR ONE.....

do I? hmmmm.....

[Horse with no Name]

3. Oh nice

You give me hope for today!
Thanks!

[Lisa0825]

4. Thanks for the cheers! Here's an update....

garden box on day 6... can you see already how they've grown at least a couple inches???



Look closely... My first baby tomato! The plant is still so small that I can't see how it could have a tomato already. Will it be able to grow and ripen on such a small plant???



Blueberries!!! Waiting impatiently to ripen...



My seeds are starting to sprout! Unfortunately, it also seems they have mold or something... it looks like white fibers like sparse cotton candy. I took the lid off the container, hoping it woould dry out enough that the mold (or whatever) would stop growing. Will the seedlings still be salvagable?

[Lisa0825]

5. Day 11 update

The tomatoes keep on growing. The one on the left is not growing as fast. I'll have to check and see which variety it is. I think it might be cherry tomatoes. The one on the right is grwoing like gangbusters! I think it was Bonnie Select.

I also planted a few more things... I planted sweet banana peppers and hot banana peppers that I bought as seedlings today. I also planted a few of my own sprouts... peas, beans, sweet corn, and "peaches and cream" sweet corn (yellow and white kernels). I think my carrots will be ready to plant next week. I also have lettuce, broccoli, cukes, and a couple other sprouts working.

I should fill up the last squares, and then I will have to decide whether I need a second 4x4 or put a few things right in the ground or in containers.







edited to add: after I took those pics I also added a wire frame for the tomatoes, beans and peas to climb. I was going to do the thing described int he square foot book, using electrical conduit and rebar, but the pre-made wire support was only like $3, and the supplies to build my own would have cost at least 5 times that. If I decide to do it anyway, at least Ii only wasted $3, and I suppose if the support I bought isn't sturdy enough, I can always add support to it.

[NMDemDist2]

6. beautiful Lisa

:yourock:

[Lisa0825]

7. Thanks! :-)

I am really excited, but I know a whole lot can happen between planting and harvest, so I hope I get some good results!

[wildeyed]

8. Nice!

The cheap supports probably won't be strong enough for indeterminate tomato vines, been there, done that. They will be fine for determinates, so it depends what type of plants you haves.

I always pinch the blooms off the plants until they get a bit bigger. It lets the plant put energy into getting sturdier before I let it fruit.

[Lisa0825]

9. More pics....

My plants are still showing signs of Nitrogen depletion... lighter green all over, and yellow leaves at the bottom. I added some organic plant food, and have put a container out at work to collect coffee grounds. I hope they will start to get greener soon.

My original garden box on day 21:



I planted a second box last weekend. I had enough seedling sprouts to fill the perimeter, and planted flowers in the middle. I forgot to pick up twine or string to cordon off the squares. I hope no kitties find it inviting before I finish that!

I moved the peas and beans over there so all plants needing support to climb would be on one side. I also planted more corn, my "mystery sprouts," more lettuce, and strawberries.



My first baby tomatoes on plants 21 days old



I also have baby bell peppers and jalapenos!





I have lost a few more leaves to caterpillars. I plucked them off and brought them to the compost bin way across the yard. No more sign of the snakes... I am wishing they would come back, even though they startled me! LOL

[Lisa0825]

10. Day 33 update

I used an organic plant food because my tomatoes were losing their green. The lower leaves were yellow and the rest were turning light green. It has been 12 days, and the green has come back nicely!

Before:


Today - Day 33


I have about 10 baby tomatoes of 2 varieties:






But the Bonnie Select is getting taller and prettier yet with no flowers or tomatoes so far:



I went ahead and planted a second box on 4-13, so these are actually day 14. I had some more sprouts than I had space for in the first box, including some mystery sprouts. I also found a beautiful red corn that I decided to plant. As you can see, I didn't adhere to the square foot dimensons this time. I forgot to but something to cordon off the sections with, and also decided I wanted to try to squeeze more corn stalks in than recommended, so I just sorta planted stuff willy nilly at that point.... not really, I tried to space them reasonably well, and once the seeds sprout, I will try to mark the lines better.



Do these seedlings look familar to anyone? I have no idea what they are. They could just be weeds that landed in my seed starter for all I know!



Lettuce, maybe??



One of my peas has a stem that has turned brown, yet the rest of the plant is growing very well, with several new leaves and tendrils appearing in the last 2 days. I'm not sure what is wrong or if it will continue to grow, so I planted some more seeds in that section today.



I also planted more carrots, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and celery, because most of those got eaten by something last week :banghead:

[Inchworm]

11. Looking good!

I just tilled up my new garden today. I hope I have good luck. Yours looks great!

:thumbsup:

[Blue Gardener]

12. Eaten by bunnies or eaten by insects?

I have good luck with Liquid Fence to keep the bunnies at bay. Your tomatoes look great! I'm hoping to get mine planted in a week or two. It got down in the 30's last night so it's still a bit chilly.

[Lisa0825]

14. I am sure they are just insects.

The leaves have been nibbled little by little, and the carrots were just little tiny sprouts with no veggie yet. I have picked fat caterpillars out of the bed a couple times.

[Lisa0825]

13. Holy COW!

The tallest tomato plant, Bonnie Select, finally grew some blossoms! In the past 48 hours, suddenly about 18 tiny flower buds popped up! I am going to be drowning in tomatoes, with any luck! :rofl:

[brer cat]

15. Your mystery sprouts look like cilantro to me

Pick a leaf, rub it between you fingers and give it the sniff test.

[Lisa0825]

17. I didn't plant cilantro....

but now that I htink of it, I did plant basil which I thought didn't sprout.... so I wonder if I accidentally put the basil in the wrong rows? what do basil sprouts look like?

[crispini]

21. I don't think basil has a lobed leaf like your mystery.

Could be just clover. Let it get bigger and see what happens! :)

[bhikkhu]

16. Those look great!

Where I am it is still lows in the twenties and snow occasionally...I have beds prepared and a bunch of stuff going, but baby tomatoes are still a long way off! I'll post a picture when I get the chance.

One advantage of living in the "high desert" is a lack of insects. There are no particular worries here from bugs, other than slugs on the lettuce and some odd whiteflies that get into the broccoli.

[Lisa0825]

18. WOW! We rarely even get lows in the 20s in the middle of winter!

But I envy your lack of bugs!!!

[Lisa0825]

19. Garden day 39

Goodness, it is amazing to see how much everything has grown, and unbelievable that it has only been a little longer than a month!!!

Look at the first pic of my first garden box vs today:

Day 1



Day 39



The first signs of ripening of a tomato!!! I have 2 bunches of cherry tomatoes, and about 20 more buds. One of the cherry tomatoes has started to ripen.





"Better Bush" (Well anything is better than George)



Once my Bonnie Selects decided to bud, they went nuts! I am not sure how many you can see, but over 2 days, suddenly over 20 buds appeared!



My second garden box... as you can see, the more mature bean plant is rather yellow, whereas the new sprouts behind it are very green. I added organic fertilizer and more compost, hoping it will help. That did the trick for the tomatoes in about one week. The mystery sprouts are thriving, as well as the second batch of lettuce, spinach, and rosemary, that didn't do so well in round one.

[ThomWV]

20. About those tomatoes - if you plan to grow tomatoes please read this

I think you are headed for tomato problems. There are two types of tomatoes, determinate (what you have there - notice that two of them are called "bush" tomatoes on the tag in an earlier photograph) and indeterminate, which is what you may have wanted to plant in in your circumstance. Most folks who are aware of any difference between the two types will tell you that one climbs and should be given support and the other is a 'bush' variety that doesn't require staking. Those definitions are accurate, but they leave out a lot.

Here is where I think you may be headed for trouble. You have pictures of 2 bush (determinate) tomatoes there and they are going to spread out. Any one of those plants you have there has the ability to overwhelm your entire planting box, two of them certainly will do it. The things will grow to large size. The next thing about your determinate variety that you should know is that with them you DO NOT prune the suckers off, it will reduce yield if you do. However, while they are called bush tomatoes in truth you can support them to some extent, but generally not over about 3 or 4 feet at the maximum; these tomatoes grow out, not up. If you try to grow them up the the stalks have trouble supporting the weight of the fruit. You may have hit it lucky in that the particular variety you picked is advertised to be very compact for the type, guess you'll be finding out. The Husky Cherry Red tomato you have there is OK, its a indeterminate variety that will only grow to about 4 feet tall, and should be pruned of its sucker leaves. Indeterminate varieties don't seem to suffer from sun scald too much, like determinate varieties tend to do.

Now let me tell you about what might be the most important difference between the two and the importance of picking the one that best suites your needs.

Determinate or Bush type tomatoes make fruit much differently from Indeterminate or climbing type tomatoes. With bush tomatoes the plant will make fruit until the top bud sets (starts making a tomato) but after that happens it will not make any more fruit. Also, once grown all of the tomatoes will ripen within a short period of time, usually just a week or two, then the plant dies.

Indeterminate (vine type) tomatoes, the ones that require staking, will set fruit over an extended period right up until the first frost which will kill them. They generally require staking and tall stakes at that. I've read that they can climb to a height of 8 or 10 feet, but most of the ones I've ever seen only grow to about 5 feet. Also, with climbing varieties you may prune the plants in an attempt to increase yield somewhat. Some say it works, some say it doesn't

So, if you are growing in a limited area you will generally want to use Indeterminate varieties, the ones that do not spread to cover your entire growing box but instead grow upwards. You also want the version you can prune because it won't shade the rest of your box so badly, and of course finally if you chose a determinate variety you get a much longer growing season rather than have them all come on at once and then die off, which is what is going to happen with your bush varieties. Also, bush varieties tend to let some fruit set on the ground where it is susceptible to insect damage and rot, which are generally things we do not want.

For whatever its worth indeterminate varieties are getting more difficult to find. That is because they are not well suited to commercial production. It is a crying shame but what we get for seed as home gardeners is generally the same seed that commercial growers use in the fields - even though their needs are much different than ours. They don't care about taste, they care about consistent size and fruit that is hard enough to ship without being smashed, they also want everything to ripen all at once, whereas we generally want a crop that lasts a while (unless we are canning).

So, if you are planting in an area of limited space like boxes or pots try to find indeterminate varieties. They will give you a longer picking season, they will grow up rather than out, and you can prune them. Many 'heirloom' varieties are indeterminate; Early Girl and Big Boy as well as most cherry types are good choices. If you have room to grow and particularly if you want the crop to come in all at once then grow a determinate variety; Mariglobe and Rutgers are pretty good choices for this type.

Hope this helps someone out a bit.

[crispini]

22. Thanks for the very informative post!

I'll remember to prune them! I have Brandywine and Arkansas Traveler, which I see are indeterminate. I also have pole beefsteak, which I don't know what they are.

[Lisa0825]

23. Thanks so much for the very informative post!

It's my first year, and I don't know a lot of the tricks yet, so I figured I was bound to make some mistakes. If I get enough tomatoes to eat, then I don't much mind anything else that happens! :applause: If they start overwhleming the rest of the box, maybe I'll just dig one up.

I started with seedlings about 3 inches tall this year, and just picked a few varieties that were available. I did not see any at the time that said they were vines. Next year, now that I have some of the basics down and will be learning more as I go on, I will plan to start from seeds, so I won't be limited to whatever plants I find on the shelf.

[ThomWV]

25. Oh, you'll be just fine

Its just going to take a little more care than you might have anticipated, more like raising precocious child than bringing up Jeffery Dahmer. What really gets me unpleasant at the nursery is that most of the little label signs they put on tomatoes don't tell you which they are. It would be so easy for them.

Your garden looks great by the way. Don't worry about a thing, close attention and care are much more important than variety selection and you're going to be burried in tomatoes anyway.

By the way, have you ever just tried a tomatoe ring? We used to grow one in Miami that fed the whole neighborhood and the trashmen too. Real easy to do and greatly improves your soil.

[Lisa0825]

26. No, I have never heard of a tomato ring, but I am intrigued!!!

:wow:

[ThomWV]

29. Here's how

First you need a length of welded wire fencing to make a ring out of. I like the stuff that is 4 feet tall and you'll need about 12 feet of it for a ring.

You take the fencing and roll it over into a ring and bend the tab wires from one end around the holes from the other end to hold it together. Stand it up on its end and it should be 4 feet tall and about 4 feet in diameter, smaller is OK too, but don't go much smaller than about 3 feet in diameter. Find a sunny spot. Set your ring down, and see where it goes. If you are industrious dig the soil and turn it over in the area where the ring will sit as well as a strip about 6 inches wide ar5ound the outside. Then in the strip you cleared outside the ring at 4 points around it dig holes about the size of a coffee can - plant your tomatoes in those holes. You will tie the tomatoes to the ring as they grow. From now on the inside of that ring is your compost pile, just dump everything in it, particularly your grass clippings, leaves, and all the weeds you pull from the garden as well as vegetable kitchen scraps - no meat or fat. Do not water your tomatoes other than the heavy watering in you do when you first transplant everything. What you want to water is the center of the ring. Do that with a hose once every couple of days, keep it damp at least the first month, until you get a bit of a pile built up in it..

Your tomatoes will thrive, the longer that ring stands the better they get. What your plants will do is send their roots under the ring to capture the nutrients that leach out of the pile in the center. Particularly after the first or second year you will be simply amazed by the sort of yield you can get from one ring. Once every couple of years you move the ring and what you have left is a nice pile of compost and a great spot to plant anything you like.

[Inchworm]

24. Great tomato info!

Thanks for this. Definatly helps me in deciding what to grow.

:yourock:

[Gormy Cuss]

30. Absolutely right, ThomWV

Determinate plants are good for a flush of tomatoes at once (sauce types.)

Indeterminate varieties planted at the edge of such gardens can meander outside of the box and be quite happy.

[hippywife]

28. Looking great, Lisa!

You're doing such a great job even if this is the first time you've tried. Awesome!

[Gato Moteado]

27. great job!

now that you've started, you won't be able to stop.

[midnight armadillo]

31. bananas are herbs, not trees

But I am only pointing that out due to jealousy.

[Lisa0825]

32. LOL!

I have heard them referreed to as a "false tree." But it's an awfully damned bug herb plant!LOL

Don't be jealous yet... despite the fact that it has already grown 6 inches and sprouted 4 new leaves, it will likely be 2 years or more before I get any fruit. So for now, I have no bananas. I'll let you know when to be jealous! :evilgrin:

[japple]

33. I admit it: I'm jealous. To have a tomato that is nearly ready

for a sandwich this early has me green with envy.

[crispini]

34. Ha. But there IS no real 'summer growing season' here --

we have Winter, Spring, Hell, and Fall. During Hell, everything stops growing and dies, unless you're careful. Shade, water, etc. And even if you can keep it alive -- it certainly doesn't feel like putting any energy into growing veggies. :)

But, you can grow a pretty decent winter garden, so I guess we have three growing seasons too, just a different three. Ha!

[Lisa0825]

35. Update day 45

In the past week, I have eaten 2 cherry tomatoes, one strawberry, and a blueberry. I am looking forward to the day when I will have more than one ripening at a time!LOL

The tomato plant on the far left never seemed to fully recover from the nutrient deficiency like the others did after I added organic fertilizer. Should I pick the two tomatoes off of it? Would it be better if it could put its energy into growing the plant, as opposed to growing the fruit?





The Mystery Sprouts are growing very slowly, so I figure they probably aren't weeds.

[Juneboarder]

36. Your Tomato Stakes

I have never seen tomato stakes like that; just the conical looking ones. Is there a difference between the two and is one better than the other? I have 4 tomato plants about 8" high right now and will be getting ready to give them support in the next month as they get bigger and would like to get it done right the first time. Thank you, and your garden looks great! I wish I had the space to do a garden like this :)