Construction Block and Cattle Panel SFG

This is a wonderful and very productive, well thought out garden, PM. I look forward to your updates.

CC

I like posts with pictures so I thought I'd continue to update this thread with more pictures. I was a little lazy in July and didn't add posts. The SQF is going well and these cattle panel supports I think will hold anything I throw at them over the next many many years. On to the pictures.....

Southeast bed: The southeast bed has two tomatillos along the east and 8 bell peppers along the center/west. Along the trellis are two tromboncino squash and one butternut squash. The Tromboncino squash are great. We've enjoyed a few and are letting one mature into a winter squash. I did not realize the tomatillos would be so crazy. Their shade has stunted the butternut squash; though we might get one or two still yet. The tomatillo harvest really got going in early August. So far we used 6.1 # and made roasted tomatillo salsa (16 cups so far). Since last weekend probably have harvested another 3-4# and will make another huge batch.........freezing most of it. The peppers haven't produced like I would want......I think shade is the biggest problem and hot weather in June - first 1/2 of July. Next year I'm thinking of growing tomatillos in a east/west fashion along the north end of a bed.



Southwest bed: In this bed I had spinach and peas early. Now you see butternut squash were the peas were. There are two nice sized ones and another three small ones forming. The peppers in the center of the bed are doing very well (this is why I think my other peppers are shaded too much). I've got a serrano and mini bell peppers; which are producing wildly. I did put some spinach seeds in along the western squares, we'll see how they do with shade.



Northwest bed: Along the trellis are lots of Sweeter Yet Cucumbers. The cucumbers have produced nicely after suffering through the intense heat of late June/early July. They have done very well with the cucumber beetles that are not overwhelming, yet still not sparse. The tomatoes are doing quite well; well 3 of 4. The celebrity (NW tomato); Sungold (SW tomato); and Brandywine (NE tomoato) are doing great. The tough boy/momotaro (SE tomato) has had a sickly appearance all year; produced very few, undersized fruits. I gave two other of these plants to family and they are doing quite well, I'm beginning to think the plant I kept was some sort of mutant seed, because the other tomatoes are doing great; but this one is significantly under performing it's nearby brethren.



Northeast bed: In this bed we had onions, garlic, broccoli, and 2 squares of swiss chard in the spring. The onions and garlic are cured and stored (very good year for garlic; so so for onions). The swiss chard is still going strong, though puny in these pictures because I cut, processed, and froze 2 lbs of it for use in soups this winter (if the freezing works out; but they freeze spinach so why no swiss chard). In the bed currently I've got fall broccoli and radicchio. If you recall earlier posts I had buttercup squash along the trellis; but that was attacked by SVB; pulled out; bagged and thrown away. I'll be sticking to butternut and tromboncino since they did not have any SVB issues.


Deck bed: In the deck bed I had my lettuce and some onions. Onions are all cured and stored now. The lettuce was done by late June; but you can now see more lettuce which I sowed July 27. The largest area of leaves are radishes (harvested 27 of them today and replaced with 30 seeds). I've also got a few squares of spinach just poking through the ground.


Asparagus bed: The asparagus (1st year) has really filled in nicely as the summer progressed. Early in the year I figure I was not watering enough; so I watered more regularly and they really took off. As you can see by the pictures they're still sending up shoots.


Although I did not take any pictures; the Sungold tomato on the deck is doing quite well. The potatoes in the 1/2 whiskey barrel are doing very well. One was poking through the ground so I dug it out and made it for dinner (very good). I trimmed all the vines to the soil level yesterday (they were beginning to die) and plan on harvesting the potatoes in 10-14 days.

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions!

WOW! I don't know how I missed this before. Awesome garden!

Thanks! I was VERY pleased with how my first year went with this setup. Herbs grown in the construction block holes worked out great, as did the flowers (although nasturtiums got too big, so I'll do all marigolds next year). Most of my beds are winterized (everything removed; tilled in compost and composted cow manure). I planted some fall garlic in its area for next year (sprouted a little but will mulch with straw when ground starts freezing). I still have some radishes, chard, spinach, broccoli and raddichio going, but those will be done within the next week (had a couple 24-25F lows lately and that is what got nipped but is still living).

A few things I learned this year and I'll change slightly next year:

1) Grow tomatillos east-west along the north end of a bed where spring peas will grow, otherwise they shade stuff too much because they get huge.

2) Grow all butternut and tromboncino squash and no buttercup (SVB).

3) Going to do radishes/spinach in a spring bed and follow with either sweet corn, brussel sprouts, bush beans or zucchini (leaning sweet corn).

4) The fall version of lettuce bed will be lettuce and spinach (9 total squares) which will be enough for us.

5) Growing all hot and mini sweet bell peppers; the mini sweet bells produce a lot more than the full sized bells.

6) Sweeter Yet Cucumbers produced nicely and resisted cucumber beetles.

7) Was amazed how many asparagus shoots were around by the end of the summer; the asparagus took very well and we're looking forward to spring.

For our climate or at least this year; starting fall broccoli and raddichio seeds on July 5 was not early enough--will probably do about 10 days earlier.

Well the garlic got their winter blanket finally:

I can't believe I missed your posts this summer. I'm glad you posted again, even if its your winter blanket over the asparagus. You had a wonderful and prolific garden this summer. I'm be curious to see your next spring's beds with pictures.

Wow, your garden did wonderfully! Congratulations, I am happy it was a success!

Thanks! I've got things planned for spring. If you don't get Baker Creek's seed catalog request one, it is by far the most beautiful seed catalog ever! I'm thinking about framing some of the pictures in it.

I get Baker Creek and have bought their heirloom seeds but being in the north country of zone 5a, I find more that thrive for me from johnnyseed.com and Pinetree Seeds (superseeds.com) so will buy a few hybrids to try from them both this year.

Love, love, love the vertical supports!!! I hadn't thought about using cattle fencing with metal conduit woven in and out! I'll be using that in this summer's garden, for sure! I had purchased the woven trellis you can get, but it broke on everything I tried it on- tomatoes, cucumbers and beans. Thanks!

Judi

Thanks! They're not terribly expensive either, especially when you figure they'll last for darn near ever. I wove the conduit through every few squares of the panel, I don't think going through each one would be possible; at least not without some sort of mechanical assistance that would bend the panels. They were quite strong, supporting my squash and cucumbers even during summer time thunderstorms with 60+ mph gusts.

jmsieglaff
Did your potatoes produce well in the 1/2 whiskey barrel?
I might try it this year. My barrel was filled with water pond lillies and other plants till some wild critter(s) tore it up and ate nearly everything in one night. Suspect it was deer or raccoons.

Yes they did turn out. We cut up a couple small seed potatoes around 1.5# of pieces and got 4# of potatoes. Certainly not the 10 to 1 return I've read about, but was hoping a return a bit better then ~3 to 1. This was the first time I've grown potatoes ever. I filled soil onto them as they grew up. One thing that I found odd was the bottom half of the vines had little tiny potato buds--not fingerling type size potatoes, but sizes that weren't useable. The top half of the vines had nice potatoes--anywhere from golf ball size to a few that were a little bigger than an extra large hen egg. The potatoes were very tasty.

Our summer was very hot and dry and being in a barrel I wonder if they were warmer than they would have preferred; even with my frequent deep watering, pretty much daily when temps were in the upper 80s or higher. (One time when we were gone for a weekend we came home to severely wilted potatoes, so that might have had something to do with decreased production.) We'll certainly try them again in the barrel--hopefully in a cooler summer. I'll probably never do potatoes in my plots because my rotation is already maxed out with Solanaceae family.

Thank you very much, I was defin. hoping for all the details!
My barrel receives over 12 hours full sunlight. After reading your response I'm not going to confine the taters in there even though the barrel depth seemed perfect to me. I suppose regular wider sfg beds helps keep things a little cooler. Instead I'll fill it with flowers.
Thanks again-

I guess I don't want to come off as discouraging--either way you grow potatoes, please share your results this year! I think the biggest reason we aren't going to do potatoes in the barrel this year is because the 1/2 whiskey barrel is going to be our 3 year old's garden, where he can plant anything he wants.

A childs garden sounds perfect - start em young

There was a rather large potato growing thread which I copied for you down below. Near the bottom of pg 13 the results from my original sfg box that was 12 inches deep instead of 6. It was so much fun. I'd like to have an entire 4x4 box just for them again this year with a 12 inch depth for starters.

https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t9747p180-potato-growing-methods

So my leeks have been sprouted for a week and a half and the lettuce and broccoli seeds we planted Sunday morning sprouted yesterday/this morning. I've got my polycarbonate cold frame on the deck (along south wall of house). Last year was the first year with the cold frame, prior to using it I also built built a polystyrene shell to keep it insulated at night (polystyrene is covered with a tarp). The cold frame was great and the shell did keep the temps up some at night since I had milk jugs in the cold frame to capture solar heat. This year I've did two things to increase insulation for keeping night temps up--spray painted milk jugs with flat black paint and used a piece of polystyrene on the bottom. So far it seems to be doing better than last year. Right now it is 28F outside and it is 48F in the cold frame. I'll post some pictures soon in case someone might find the idea useful. I am worried about our nighttime temperatures the next 7-10 days, it looks like we'll have a number of nights in the 10s, so depending on how the next couple nights do with temps in the 20s, we'll see if I keep the seeds out there with the nights in the 10s. Anyone else worrying about cold frames and lows in the teens? What a difference a year makes.

I love all of your pictures. What a great garden. I have cattle panel and was just wondering how to prop it up. Great idea, thanks!

So here are a few pictures of my seed starting setup. The very cold night temps still have me bringing in the seeds at night, especially in the coming week with lows in the single digits now expected. But last night got down to 18 and the cold frame stayed at 34. You can see from the pictures it's 23 outside, but 59 in the cold frame with full sun. The milk jugs are spray painted with flat black spray paint the polystyrene shell helps keep the warmth in at night. After the very cold nights this week the seeds might have to stay in the kitchen along the patio door because it will be much too cold to put them out prior to sunrise.

Wow! You have quite the setup!

I went to the local Horitculture Center run by the Master Gardeners yesterday..and they had cattle panels shaped into arches..they said the local nursery was selling them. I went up there for other reasons and checked out the arches..$200! I have a feeling it would be much cheaper to make my own.

So..how hard is it to curve the cattle panels? I ask for 2 reasons..my truck is a Ford Ranger with a 6' bed..will a cattle panel (or more) fit? Can we curve it or roll it to fit in the truck? If I can do that, will it spring straight when I get it out so I can get the curve I need for my boxes?

and..is zucchini too stiff of a plant to grow over the arch? I'm actually thinking of beans..but would love to find a way to grow zucchini so it doesn't take up as much space..

Thanks!

Turnip

I bring home cattle panels by bending them into an arch. I slide one end on edge to the back drivers side bed wall and then walk and bend the other end over to be held by the bed wall on the passenger side. TO load the next just slide the first end next to the first and then bend it and slide along side the other. The arch will be laying down out the back of the bed on the tail gate. You end up with many layers of cattle panel arched and held by the sidewalls. I think 10 is the most I ever loaded and that got rather hard to do. I tie down the ends then so it does not come loose and start popping out on our farm road driveway. Unload carefully, there is some SPROING energy stored in those arched panels. They straighten out fine, and if any hold the arch when flattened just walk on them to flatten it more.

Turan wrote:I bring home cattle panels by bending them into an arch. I slide one end on edge to the back drivers side bed wall and then walk and bend the other end over to be held by the bed wall on the passenger side. TO load the next just slide the first end next to the first and then bend it and slide along side the other. The arch will be laying down out the back of the bed on the tail gate. You end up with many layers of cattle panel arched and held by the sidewalls. I think 10 is the most I ever loaded and that got rather hard to do. I tie down the ends then so it does not come loose and start popping out on our farm road driveway. Unload carefully, there is some SPROING energy stored in those arched panels. They straighten out fine, and if any hold the arch when flattened just walk on them to flatten it more.

Wouldn't that take at least 2 people to do that safely? Humm.... you could tie the ends together so that it would fit into the truck bed and 2 people could lift it in. I've also hauled them by putting one end up over the pickup cab with the other end just off the tail gate with a full size pickup. Both ends need to be tied down.

I usually haul them in my livestock trailer because I have a camper shell on my truck.

We transported ours curled in a small pickup truck bed. With two of us it was fairly easy, agree on the be careful when taking it out, they've got some potential energy to release.

So we've had a number of unseasonably cold nights (teens and single digits) and I've kept my broccoli and lettuce seedlings indoors at night. The cold frame has been doing remarkably well though. My biggest finding, which probably isn't a surprise to most, the night time temperature in the cold frame is highly dependent on the previous day sunshine or cloud cover since I use black jugs with water to retain heat. Below are the morning lows and low in the cold frame with previous day weather noted.

March 17: 18 outside, 34 cold frame, sunny day before
March 18: 27 outside, 35 cold frame, sunny day before
March 19: 11 outside, 25 cold frame, cloudy and light snow day before
March 20: 8 outside, 33 cold frame, sunny day before
March 21: 9 outside, 34 cold frame, sunny day before
March 22: 9 outside, 32 cold frame, sunny day before

This at least gives me confidence as long as we've got some sun the day before and/or the lows stay in the 20s, these seedlings will be fine outside.

Last year summer came in March, this year winter has held through mid April--but finally the garden is starting up and I share more pictures this year.

Here is the garden, just waking up. It's been very cold and we're at our 4th wettest April ever--with another week to go.




Peppers, tomatoes, and tomatillos coming along.



Broccoli, parsley, chard


Chesnok red garlic and recently planted onions


4 squares of lettuce planted out on Sunday.


After 2 weeks of cold and rain, the spinach, lettuce, radishes, carrots and peas are starting to emerge. The beets should follow sometime soon.