updated pics of my gardens

I just updated my flickr site with pics from my square foot gardens. Thought I would share.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/kshimpi/sets/72157624695599142/with/5036992222/


Kristan

How beautiful and inspiring !

What a great slideshow. It looks like a happy family affair.

Are you going to 'hill' those potatoes?

I notice the boxes have little feet. Do the boxes have bottoms or are they directly on the ground???

Good luck and enjoy.

Looks great! Could be cabbage worms getting the collard. They green and really blend in with what they are eating. They like to hang out on the underside of the leaves. I'm battling them like crazy right now, so they are always the first pest that comes to mind, lol.

quiltbea wrote:

Are you going to 'hill' those potatoes?

I notice the boxes have little feet. Do the boxes have bottoms or are they directly on the ground???

--
I just put in some adirondack blue potatoes left over from spring just to see what would happen. What does "hilling" involve?
The boxes have bottoms on them (with drilled holes for drainage). My garden area can get a little soggy with lots of rain, so I put them on bricks to keep them a little elevated.

Kristan

--
elliephant wrote:

Looks great! Could be cabbage worms getting the collard. They green and really blend in with what they are eating. They like to hang out on the underside of the leaves. I'm battling them like crazy right now, so they are always the first pest that comes to mind, lol.

--
Yep, it was cabbage worms. I sprayed them one morning but did so on a day where the afternoon temps got into the upper 90s (oops). My cabbage did not make it, but the broccoli is trying to recover.
Here is a picture of the little boogers...need to put in my flickr album.

Looks great. Love the pics of the kids helping.

Kim

Hilling....When you plant a potato in the ground, you usually plant it in a hole with the soil banked up around it.
When the plant reaches 6" or so you fill in the hole up to level.
When it grows another 6" you 'hill' up the soil around the plant so that only the tops are visible.

This gives you lots of room underground for little potatoes to grow.

This was last year when I tried my first potatoes.
This particular raised bed does not have wooden sides but its raised just the same.
I dug a trench for the potatoes and placed them inside, then covered with soil. As the plant grew I hilled up the soil around the main stem of the plants.
I had lots of lovely potatoes under that hilled soil when it came time to harvest. Whatever you do, you do not want light to touch your growing potato harvest.

I like the pinwheel garden markers.

thanks for the explanation quiltbea. That explains why my plants fell over this spring!

Ok, I am trying to update my garden pics every couple of weeks. Here are the latest.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kshimpi/sets/72157624695599142/

My arugula and romaine lettuce seem to be almost done, but the red lettuce seems to be almost ready to harvest. Sugar snap peas are starting to grow up the trellis, potato plants are getting bigger, bigger, and bigger! Not sure about my swiss chard...not sure what size it should be before harvesting...the chard I get from the grocery is huge, so that is what I am using as a guide which might not be right. The broccoli seems to be making a come back after the cabbage worms, but the collards did not make it.
So, all to say, so far so good!

You can harvest chard when the leaves are 6" or longer, about the length of your hand. Just clip off the outer leaves and it will continue to grow.

We in Maine are putting our beds to sleep for the winter so I envy you in the south that can keep on harvesting a few things for a while longer.

Good luck.

What a lovely garden! And wonderful helpers!

GK

How inspiring! How long have you been SFGing, and will you be adding more squares?

I love your little gardeners! It really helps to get them to try new veggies if they grow them!

Betty

that for the swiss chard info quiltbea :-)
Betty, this is my first try at square foot gardening. My plan is to add 2 more beds in the spring, but this will require taking down a big oak that blocks a lot of the mid-day sun, so I wanted to try 2 first.

Kristan

Your garden looks so nice------neat and cozy.

Great looking garden, Kristan. Thanks for the photos.

Your pictures are great! Thanks for sharing. I love to see the process from start to finish!