My 1st SFG - 2012

Well, here is the beginning for me; boxes built & filled thanks to my wonderful men. I've been wanting to do this for 13 years, but there simply was never a chance. Now my gardening dreams can come true. We'll see if I'm too late for all the crops I want this summer...and I'll try some things in the fall that I was too late for this spring. The weather here is more like summer, but with low humidity (for here). We hit 90 degrees both yesterday and today! My supports weren't a big priority just yet; besides, that's something I can do myself if necessary. It's the building of boxes and toting of soil I couldn't do.

Hmm, thought I'd go ahead and post a list of my planned veggies since I'm awake and nobody at my house cares what we grow since they're all picky eaters...My 10-y/o and 5-y/o boys like the idea of growing things, just not eating them. lol Anyway, here's the list:

Asparagus (from seed; I know, I can't harvest for 3 years)
Rattlesnake Beans
DiCicco Broccoli (in the fall)
Tendersweet Carrots
Y Snowball Cauliflower (in the fall)
Lucilla Swiss Chard
Ashley Cucumber
Rouge De Hiver Lettuce
Red Long of Tropea Onion
Tokyo Long White Bunching Onion
Walla Walla Onion
Connecticut Field Pumpkin
Red Malabar Spinach
Golden Summer Crookneck Squash
Gray Zucchini
Round Zucchini
Table Queen Acorn Squash (in the fall)
Heatmaster Tomatoes
Golden Cayenne Peppers
Bonnie Green Sweet Peppers

I'm just hoping something actually produces despite the unusually early summer weather!

your box's look great!

your soil looks so dark and wonderful.....i made a comment to hubby....and showed him your pics...... and the kids...who are still up ....no school tomorrow.....said..*.its all in the compost mom*.... ....*.i wonder what kind of poo they used?*

...LOL....kids are so cute....and have learned so much from gardening!

dont give up on your kids eating from the garden.....my five year old is eating a lot more things now that he is helping in the garden.....now...he refuses to eat carrots from the store unless they still have their green tops on.....LOL...they are not real carrots with out the tops

hugs

rose....who should be

It looks like you made a good start. Sometimes kids will try a veggie just because they helped to grow it so keep them interested and helping.

I know that when I lived in Fla for a few years, many gardeners had shade cages over their crops to help keep the plants from cooking in the sunlight. Made mostly with 1" x 2" poles and screening. That might help you grow things longer.

I was thinking about trying a tent sort of thing to shade the garden after visiting Home Depot yesterday. I'll play it on the fly, and if my plants look over stressed from the heat, get the makings for one. I am really hoping the boys will give the veggies a try after working on the garden with me. We'll do a photo log of things, and I'll help them make a scrapbook of this experience. Yet another activity to keep them occupied this summer!

Michelle, your garden looks great !

I wouldn't worry too much about what your son eats for school lunches, experts say that over the space of a week, children unknowingly will eat a balanced diet provided the foods are offered. btw, my friends son has had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for school lunch every day since kindergarten. He is a strapping healthy 6 footer !

If it is texture he doesnt like, have you tried veggie soups? Since early in his life my son has loved the soups, I just never told him what was in them. He is 18 now and still asks me to make
1. Jack's Special Soup - potato and leek
2. Dad's special soup - carrot and potato
3. Mum's Special soup - a surprise mix
and his most favourite soup of all is broccoli which i still blend up. Cook the florets and stalks in milk and a chicken bouillon.

I sneak veggies into everything,grated carrots in bolognese sauce, broccoli in the lasagna... and so on

Try to grow some things they can chomp on while in the garden - that they don't have to wait for maturity for - like herbs, greens, cherry tomatoes (definitely try to get some kind of cherry tomato plant if you can), peas when it's cooler. I have an 8 year old niece who will pick pieces of mint leaf off and eat them, just because she knows she can. You have to be careful to stress that they can't eat a plant without checking with you because only some plants are edible...but it's just too cool to a kid to be able to just grab something and eat it as they are walking by it....come to think of it...it's pretty cool to an adult too...

Michelle, your mix is so dark and gorgeous! What did you use?

It sure does look lovely Black Gold !

Oh my gosh, you guys, I didn't make this mix...or rather, I didn't force my husband to; he's simply worked to hard this year for me to force too much on him during his spring break. Since we can't buy bagged Mel's Mix locally I bought an organic potting mix heavy in compost, don't recall the brand but one of the big names. While I was very pleased with how dark and lovely it looks, I'm a little afraid it's too dense, but I suppose we'll find out when I actually start growing things.

Thank you for the suggestions. Sadly, my older son won't touch soups, though I'm hoping that if I have him help me make soup with what we've grown he'll try some. I'm also growing a large number of herbs that will be, as suggested, something the boys can just grab a leaf off of and eat straight out of the garden. I thought I'd start by just having them pull the leaf off, then smell each type...ostensibly just to smell it, but I will eat one while we do these little experiments so that perhaps they will decide to take a nibble without my having to suggest it. Hopefully that will be enough, since my son has panic attacks if he thinks we're going to force him to try something. Seeing that my younger son can't read, I'm going to place little coded markers in each square, with codes for squares that contain a plant that you can eat leaves off of, things that you can eat a veggie from straight from the garden, and plants or veggies that we must wait for kitchen prep of.

givvmistamps wrote:Oh my gosh, you guys, I didn't make this mix...or rather, I didn't force my husband to; he's simply worked to hard this year for me to force too much on him during his spring break. Since we can't buy bagged Mel's Mix locally I bought an organic potting mix heavy in compost, don't recall the brand but one of the big names. While I was very pleased with how dark and lovely it looks, I'm a little afraid it's too dense, but I suppose we'll find out when I actually start growing things.

Thank you for the suggestions. Sadly, my older son won't touch soups, though I'm hoping that if I have him help me make soup with what we've grown he'll try some. I'm also growing a large number of herbs that will be, as suggested, something the boys can just grab a leaf off of and eat straight out of the garden. I thought I'd start by just having them pull the leaf off, then smell each type...ostensibly just to smell it, but I will eat one while we do these little experiments so that perhaps they will decide to take a nibble without my having to suggest it. Hopefully that will be enough, since my son has panic attacks if he thinks we're going to force him to try something. Seeing that my younger son can't read, I'm going to place little coded markers in each square, with codes for squares that contain a plant that you can eat leaves off of, things that you can eat a veggie from straight from the garden, and plants or veggies that we must wait for kitchen prep of.

Your pictures sent me scurrying to Camprn and walnut to make sure I didn't mess up my mix yesterday!! I saw how dark yours was, compared to mine and went OH NO!!!

philct wrote:


Your pictures sent me scurrying to Camprn and walnut to make sure I didn't mess up my mix yesterday!! I saw how dark yours was, compared to mine and went OH NO!!!

From what I remember after 13 years since my class, the color of your soil depends largely upon the types of compost you incorporated...but seeing how I don't have experience with this, definitely make certain through the experts!

I forgot to add this updated photo here; I added my markers yesterday, and plan to start planting seed and my three plants in a little while.

givvmistamps wrote:

philct wrote:
Your pictures sent me scurrying to Camprn and walnut to make sure I didn't mess up my mix yesterday!! I saw how dark yours was, compared to mine and went OH NO!!!

From what I remember after 13 years since my class, the color of your soil depends largely upon the types of compost you incorporated...but seeing how I don't have experience with this, definitely make certain through the experts!

LOL, I picked my plot because the dirt was a nice dark color, had a great squish, and pretty free of weeds (compared to other available plots).

What I couldn't see (or didn't know) was the crab grass that comes in from the compost pile area. It mostly effects the 2x10 box closest to it (even root pieces from this grass will sprout new plants.)

I added peat moss to lessen the alkalinity, and bone meal to raise the phosphorus. I watered and let it rest for several weeks, then planted. So far, so good!

MM is great...you can move to it later.

While I'd love to have MM, I'm physically incapable of mixing it and my husband is really busy year-round due to work. He teaches overtime, coaches the college Brain Bowl teams (they had 3 teams this year), is in training to be the regional chairman of the Brain Bowl league, hosts occasional stargazing parties (he's an astronomer) and has to take care of many things around the house that I'm physically incapable of. He really deserves this week to relax, as he was sick recently and the next time he gets more than a 3-4 day weekend won't be until December! Perhaps someday MM will be available in our local stores, but until then this will simply have to do.

Well, we got my three plants in the ground (a tomato & 2 peppers) and managed to plant seeds in one 4' box...but toward the end we were attacked by mosquitoes, who chased us into the screened porch. That's the problem with the really mild winter we had and having a lake just a couple hundred yards down the hill. They came out very early in very large numbers this year! So, we'll go back out tomorrow and finish the job.

givvmistamps wrote:Well, we got my three plants in the ground (a tomato & 2 peppers) and managed to plant seeds in one 4' box...but toward the end we were attacked by mosquitoes, who chased us into the screened porch. That's the problem with the really mild winter we had and having a lake just a couple hundred yards down the hill. They came out very early in very large numbers this year! So, we'll go back out tomorrow and finish the job.

I mised my first batch of MM yesterday and still can't move around too well... It is backbreaking to say the least, but I'm so very excited to see if it works!!!

philct wrote:

givvmistamps wrote:Well, we got my three plants in the ground (a tomato & 2 peppers) and managed to plant seeds in one 4' box...but toward the end we were attacked by mosquitoes, who chased us into the screened porch. That's the problem with the really mild winter we had and having a lake just a couple hundred yards down the hill. They came out very early in very large numbers this year! So, we'll go back out tomorrow and finish the job.

I mised my first batch of MM yesterday and still can't move around too well... It is backbreaking to say the least, but I'm so very excited to see if it works!!!

It LOOKS backbreaking in the book, that's certain. Good job, and good luck!

UnderTheBlackWalnut wrote:Try to grow some things they can chomp on while in the garden - that they don't have to wait for maturity for - like herbs, greens, cherry tomatoes (definitely try to get some kind of cherry tomato plant if you can), peas when it's cooler. I have an 8 year old niece who will pick pieces of mint leaf off and eat them, just because she knows she can. You have to be careful to stress that they can't eat a plant without checking with you because only some plants are edible...but it's just too cool to a kid to be able to just grab something and eat it as they are walking by it....come to think of it...it's pretty cool to an adult too...

My grandkids love that NaNa's yard is all edible. I don't plant anything that is poisonous. However, they are also taught to only eat what they have checked about!

Last year the big thing was beets Hate them things lol..but I planted for my brother to have pickled beets ...but they didnt do so well..when I was pulling them up the kids were here...they ended up eating them raw! Yuck and double yuck for me! But they loved them! So they have an order in for more "red things this year NaNa"!!! grrrrr!

Beets? Not for me either. I thought about trying parsnips (I've never eaten any), as I'm told they're sweet and appeal to kids, but with only two boxes this year I'm out of space! Definitely expanding next year!

Last year was a terrible year for beets, I am hoping for better luck this year. Fingers crossed.

OK, for some reason NOW I can post photos, where before I couldn't. Probably a user-error...

I know this is not terribly exciting to y'all, but I am thrilled to be able to
say that almost all my squares have something in them! The exceptions have
various reasons, from finding out that one packet of seeds seems to have gone
missing, to my being uncertain what I want to put there yet, to my needing to
find plants. So, here's the progress...

First is my squash & herb box. I can't seem to find a packet of the thyme I
know I ordered...it's on my packing slip as being backordered, but I purchased
them last year so there's no way the company will honor a request for
replacement now...so I'll have to locate a plant to put in that square. And I'm usually so good about checking the shipment against
the packing slip, too! *sigh*



Then comes my veggie box with a square of nasturtiums. I want to add Roma and cherry tomatoes here, and add carrots to the 2nd half of my carrot box in a couple weeks.



My
poor peppers & tomato look so lonely! I can't wait to see more growing in
these boxes!

As an aside, my son came out this morning to watch us finish the seeding and
started examining the box we seeded last night (he's bored with the planting
phase already)...The silly boy said "Is anything sprouting yet?"

DH asked him: "How long did it take your seeds to sprout when you did your
science fair project?"

DS answered "I don't know."

Mind you, this experiment was done in December, he put his
presentation together in January...and he's 10.

So, we reminded him that it took about 3 days for the beans to start sprouting,
and that time we didn't have soil to hide it from us, so it'll probably be several days
before we see anything...

Kids today, all they want is instant gratification...this demonstrates one of the main reasons I thought it would be helpful for my kids to learn gardening: to learn patience.

Just a suggestion Michelle.

Last year my 6 squares of tomatoes took over the box even though I was
vining them on a string trellis.

The suggestion is to put your tomatoes in a separate box.

I will be planting mine in a 10' x 2' box with a 10' tall string trellis this year.
When I get it assembled Ill post pictures. I have to tear out a fence first.

.

Hoggar wrote:Just a suggestion Michelle.

Last year my 6 squares of tomatoes took over the box even though I was
vining them on a string trellis.

The suggestion is to put your tomatoes in a separate box.

I will be planting mine in a 10' x 2' box with a 10' tall string trellis this year.
When I get it assembled Ill post pictures. I have to tear out a fence first.

.

I love pictures!