newbe SFG in Georgia

love the time-lapse photos.

Sorry about not updating somewhat weekly. I have been really bummed out about my beans; as well as much of my attempts this year. I will continue to show why MELS MIX is the best way to go by documenting this years progress(or lack there of)

Bed 1 Alot of changes lettice bolted and gone as are the kohlrabi(I kept telling the misses they were ready) collards in their place, cabbage is way late but finally making heads, ruttabagas nearing time



Bed 2 'maters are progressing OK , the cherokee purple did not restart after breaking the main leader.

Bed 3 A study in messed ups. Between SVB and PM(squash vine borer & powery mildew) all the squash are replacements. The cukes are the biggest bright spot in the garden many meals and 5 pints of pickles so far.

Bed 4 peppers are starting to produce, pole beans that is a sad story anemic is probally a kind assessment.( problems discussed in a different thread here https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t11999-need-advice-with-pole-beans#127291)

New Bed 6 This one has MM sweet potatoes on the back row; fordhook lima beans(bush) in first two rows; stringless green bean (bush) in third row except for the nineth sweet potatoe in the leftmost square row 3. Yes that is bed % in progress in the extreme fore ground.

EXTRA tomatoes

More peppers and fennel

Pickling cukes

A few leaf romaine

Wow - I'm impressed.

Thanks for the photos.

Update time again

Bed 1 is still looking peeked the onions did not make as expected collards(new) on the left side, cabbage(heads are forming) then the rutabagas(their time has come) on the right

Bed 2 tomato ally they are really producing the cherokee purple(far right foreground) has restarted

Bed 3 the replacment squash are really coming into production PM is rearing it's head again , the cukes have produced another 5 pints of bread and butter pickles.

Bed 4 the peppers are the bright spot here and they have not hit their stride as yet; the beans .... aphids have colonized them almost erraticating the complete stand. I have tried tomato leaf juice three times; today I resorted to insecticide soap spray.



Bed6 fordhook limas left side green beans center, sweet potato right side [all beans are said to be bush]

Bed 5 made but not yet started( bed 6 background)

the extra tomatoes

the romaine leaf lettuce

pickling cukes

fennel and extra peppers

okra in the flower bed

Nice update pepper, the Georgia boys are bringing it today.

I haven't forgot about you, been busy with new baby and all. Your garden is looking good.

You are doing so well with your garden. Keep it up.

Kay

thank you Kay . I am in this for the long haul but it is so easy to get depressed. Planted 9 rutabagas got 9 back none bigger than a tennis ball. I should have used MM. 2 liter Dr Pepper bottle for scale [url=https://servimg.com/view/17430354/123][/

I've never tried to grow them. Did you have large bushy green plants? I wonder is they, like potatos and carrots need a bit deeper soil.
Is it possible you harveted a little early?

Kay

Toss some good rich homemade compost into those empty squares and plant again.

camprn wrote:Toss some good rich homemade compost into those empty squares and plant again.

+1 They are cool weather crop and so might really enjoy your fall/winters.

Ya I do realize the rutabagas do better in the fall but they were available as transplants so I planted them. You asked about how they grow (bushy?). They are behind the marigolds and cabbage (that are in the first row right to left) they got about 2 ft tall. I planted 2 per square with one in the middle of the four (2 by 2)squares used. I have 12 inch deep beeds all around; so I can do a full crop rotation without needing 'stackers'. They were in the ground 98 days and had began to look really peeked. Remember I am NOT using MM in this bed; it has a bad LOW nitrogen content( too much forest products not fully composted). I am goint to wait to replant this bed till I decide what to do about the cabbage; it was susposed to be 45 day. Only one has formed a tight head. [This is an old picture but shows off the rutabagas ]

I ammended the left side of this bed already with Black Kow(40lb) Mushroom Compost(40lb) and Black Hen(20lb) all mixed added to the bed then mixed in. I will do the same to the right side before replanting. This should be my first late summer bed.

time for another update
Bed 1 pulled the cabbage was 45 day hahahaha they never did any good. Anyway time to amend this side of the bed and prepair for more STUFF

Bed 2 the tomatoes are the better highlights in the garden so far
Bed 3 darn SBV keeps ruining my squash I wrap the stems they attack from above go figure. The cukes have produced 10 pints of bread and butter pickles and many salad fixins when I can keep the pickle worms at bay.
Bed 4 The peppers are beginning to shine, Lord knows the beans have been decimated by the aphids. I am about to replant more beans in the voids, hoping the insectidal soap rids me of aphids.
Bed 6 (MM) Had to add a trellis for the BUSH lima beans to climb; took me by suprise that it was needed. They fell over on the bush green beans(in the middle) so have had to support them also. The sweet potatoes (back row trellis) are progressing nicely.
Extra tomatoes got my first cherrys this week from these
Extra peppers and fennel
Pickling cukes begining to flower big time
Leaf romaine bolting

Update time again
Still have not amended the right(back side in this view) half and planted anything yet, collards holeie but growing
Tomatoes are smallish but good and tastie
Not sure what is happening with my cukes SVB got the squash AGAIN. The pickle worms got in the cukes I treated with BT and Neem. Between all the pests my treatments and ants here is what is left
Ah the pole beans the aphids decimated, the ones that are left are doing so-so, peppers are producing a little. I just planted replacements for the pole beans yesterday. There should still be time to salvage this season.
My sweet taters,bush green and fordhook limas are really jumpin (this is my MM bed)Limas in the foreground stealing the show
The extra 'maters still small yet
Something is chomping on the sweet tater leaves, have not seen any buggs but think the grass hoppers have found the dinner

Till next time............

Pepper - Your cucumbers look like mine. An 8' long row of cucumbers at the back of my 3 x 8 all getting hit with some kind of fungus/bacteria. Next year I plan to split up all my plantings of the same vegetable into different beds. Maybe they will not all succumb if in different beds.

Needless to say I did get extreemly depressed by my lack of quality crop output this year. The bugs decimated me this year! My mistake of not making 5 yards of Mels Mix reaked havoc on fruit size and quality growth. Earlier in this thread I said I was in this for the 'long haul'. The wife somewhat shamed me into another planting this fall so about the middle of October I replanted beds 1 thru 3. Can you believe the mild fall we have had. I got broccoli growing heads today Dec 22 2012!!!!!

I got my toule ready for them bugs next spring

so here is bed 1: left to right last of the Romaine has bolted, the cabbage is small but beginning to head, the blank space is where 8 white kohlrabi were( they were GOOD), the red kohlrabi looks good altough it still has not formed the 'fruit' ball, the broccoli has small heads.


here is a close up of the broccoli heads

closeup of the red kohlrabi it looks like the fruit ball is beggining to form


bed 2 (left to right) five rows of onion sets, two rows of spinich transplants, five rows of Mesclun salad mix seeds, the last two rows of squares are Kaleidoscope seed mix. We have picked the mesclun salad one time already better than a two gallon of leaves probally that much is ready again (about 15 days)

bed 3 [visible in the back ground of bed 2 pic] in the left half is collards the right is turnups

Bed 4 [in bed3's background] about all that is left is all the peppers still producing here are the bell peppers first the red

then the yellow
The other pepper pics did not come out good enough to show. So in bed 6 (bed 5 still not in) there are a few fennel plants from seed

I do hope with all I have learned this year next I will be better in patience, discovering trouble BEFORE it explodes into non fixable, do a better job in caring for my "children". I am ready to do the other 3 beds for this year making 8 4x8 by 12 in deep beds.

pepper....your beds are looking great. Nice to see things grow in another part of the country while mine are under a blanket of snow.

Tip on Broccoli.....If you cut off the heads when they are smaller, like 4" to 5" across, they'll put out many more side shoots than if you wait til the head is large. Also, the leaves are edible as well. You can enjoy lots from one broccoli plant.

Side shoots showing up all over the place on one plant.

Newbie question - What does SVB stand for (that got your squash)?

SVB is Squash Vine Bore it is the egg of a flying insect that becomes a grub the feeds on the stalk of your squash plants. It kills the stem affected, then the whole plant.

quiltbea. I did not know that. will they handle frost or light freezing temps?????? I will watch closely, might have to cut heads before the 4 inch mark.

audrey.jeanne.roberts here is a link to the svb problem I thought I had that ended up being "pickle worms". The damage looks similar except for the attack point. https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t13234-squash-vine-bore-attack-from-the-top

These critters also LOVE cukes invading the fruit; squash to.

Broccoli can take a light frost and with a little protection, like light row cover or blankets braced over their tops, you can keep harvesting up to about 4 weeks after that first frost.

I'm in California, I don't know if we get them, but I had something that caused my squash to turn to mush and leaves died. I never saw any bugs, I'm assuming some sort of disease and I didn't take pictures to try to figure it out for next year (learned my lesson on that one!)

Hello, everyone! I put in my first SFG in February (two 4' x 16' beds), added one (4' x 12') in April and still have plants growing. We're getting ready to add two additional 4' x 12' boxes along with some 1' beds against the fence for cucumbers and melons. This spring/summer (between February & September) we grew squash, zucchini, corn, okra, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, lima beans, zipper peas, carrots, lettuce, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, cantaloupe, basil & parsley. Between the aphids, PM and SVB, we lost the squash, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes & melons. The aphids finally got the beans & peas, but we managed to get quite a bit before they died. In September we planted cabbage, broccoli, collards, carrots, spinach, lettuce & swiss chard. We've harvested all of the broccoli heads and are now enjoying the side shoots (although my hubby really wants to pull it up, cut off the leaves and shred the main stem for broccoli slaw!) and we'll be harvesting our first head of cabbage today for lunch. I am amazed at how much we're harvesting in side shoots! This year we're going to try the aluminum foil around the squash & zucchini vines to see if we can "foil" the SVB and hoping that weekly spraying will prohibit the PM from developing (now I just need to find on these posts what I need to spray with- I know I've seen it!)

We've had so much fun with this, with marginal success, that my husband and I just built my 81 year old mother two 8' raised beds yesterday and my sister-in-law is getting ready to install several 4' x 4' beds this spring. My mother had gardened all of her life but never used SFG methods. For once she was asking ME what soil I was using, what I used for fertilizer, etc!!

WOW IS THE BEST I CAN SAY johnsonjlj you guy's jumped in even bigger than I did!!! to the forum

I had some success with the aluminum foil for the SVB just to have pickle worms attack from the top. I did not have much luck with all the "remedies" for PM. What I thought were aphids were three-cornered-leaf-hoppers. Seems the bug defense is the greatest learning curve involved in SFG.
At the bottom of the left most columb is a "search" feature that lets you stay inside the forum may lead you to the remedies you seek. Most folk just post a picture and get 'experienced ' help from the good folk on here.

Again to the forum. I will be looking forward to following your successes and all your progress.
Mike

Welcome johnson, to the forum. I like hearing about the Florida gardens since we will be moving there in the next few years.
Sounds like you had some success for an area with tons of devouring insects.
Have you tried lightweight row covers at the start of the season to deter the pests from laying on your crops? It should help.
A safe insect solution is NEEM.

I'll be hoping for pictures and stories as you delve more into SFG this year. Good luck.