What not to plant in a SFG.

This what you shouldn't plant in a SFG as stated by Mel in the SFG book. In reality, I put a boarder around the tree a few years ago and had planted flowers in the garden but they didn't take. Either the original soil wasn't good, the flower seeds were too old or we have a drought here in Florida. Maybe a combination of all three. I have since planted aloe and they are doing well around the tree.

Here are 3 pics of my SFG. The first two are as of today. The third is one I am getting ready to plant. I am not using Mels mix but topsoil from a brand name company. I have a 4th frame I don't have ready yet. It's smaller and will be used for flowers. BTW, the SFG is in my front yard. You might see part of a wire fence in the pix. That is to keep my dogs out of the garden. I am about to harvest the radishes and have a few potted plants to replace the harvest.

...somehow I don't think a tree like that would settle for 6 inches of soil, even if it were Mel's mix...

The tree was planted about 10-15 years earlier than the SFG frame.

lol - that is funny

Your garden looks great though - thanks for sharing. I love the flower. I have gotten so much tunnel vision on my garden beds that I forgot (gasp) to put in flowers - but as my broccolis come out I will slide a few marigolds in for good measure

I think I have something in my manure that promotes leafyness - my raddish leaves are gianormous, same with broccoli leaves - getting good heads of broccoli and good raddishes, but the leaves have blown me away. I had 9 raddishes/sqft and the leaves are so thick. I noticed in your picture that your raddish leaves are much more sensible in size... I do't know if this is a problem or not for me ---probably not, although now I think about it, the raddish bed is also the one where the arugala flowered before I harvested, where in the other bed I just had leaves and no flowers before picking... who knows

The garden is only three weeks old. The tomato's, flowers, strawberries, egg plant and zucchini are from the plant section of the store. The rest are from seeds.

I was noticing the lack of staking in the tree (my cauliflowers fell over - then I learned what I should have done in mels mix

Well, I started a forth SFG unit. This time I used Peat moss, Perlite and 2 types of compost. I had an over abundance of mix. I am storing it in a bag and a few pots. I hope this works out better than the brand name topsoil that I used. I found out using the topsoil by itself will damage the seeds (so the company told me) because it is high in nitrogen.

I am still learning what not to do. I guess that would make a good teacher by learning from mistakes. In a few days, I'll take a pic of the 4th SFG and post it when the seedlings are peeking through the soil. I am glad I didn't use all the seeds at once.

BTW, with all the nitrogen, the garden looks GREAT!! but has burned a few of the crops. It has hurt the peas and slowed down the flowering of the tomato's.

John

I just used a little too much chicken compost on one of my gardens, and 'burnt' my tomato, and sweet peppers. A good neighbor of mine who is 'totally' organic (where as I 'try' to be organic and sometimes miss the mark on little things like composition of compost or find after the fact that I have non-organic components to a fertilizer I used) told me that an over abundance of nitrogen will inhibit the uptake of magnesium - and the solution is to add a table spoon of epsom salts to each plant that is affected. He even brought the book over and I read it for myself. Also, the magnesium will stop your tomatoes from dropping their flowers in the hto weather - I would give that a go - apparently you can't put too much epson salts on your tomatoes. see what happens - or you can wait a few days and I will let you know what happened to my plants...

Good luch

I love epsom salts !! It helps the plants take their nutrients better, I do think it needs to be kept away from sages. I am post the link to epsom salts council as well. A friend gave it to me last year. I used it for my peppers and it really helped them get the nutrients they needed. Epsom salts is an inexpensive tool I keep in an ice cream bucket in the shed.
Link to Epsom Salt Usage
Ha-v-v

I love this forum and the info everyone shares! Cinnamon for ants? Epsom Salt? who knew! Thanks everyone from a newbie who does not know about any of these things! Please keep sharing tips even if you think they are common knowledge.