2014 2,000 Square Foot Garden

The 2014 garden is turning out even better this year. Here are the new pictures:

This year's map:


Due to it being a little over 100 feet I couldn't get the whole garden in one picture. 

Bottom section of garden:


Upper Half of Garden:


Upper Top Left Corner (Pole Beans, Bush Beans, Strawberries, Okra, and some cut flowers):


Upper Top Right Corner (Cucumbers, Dill, Corn, Various Herbs and Flowers):


Upper Section, Bottom Left Corner (Squash, Zucchini, Beans, Carrots, Radishes, Spinach, Celery and lots of companion flowers):


Upper Section, Bottom Right Corner (The peas have already finished and been pulled in this section but there is still Corn, Turnips, Kale, Potatoes, Spinach and flowers.


All the plants are so big it is hard to get good pictures of the lower section. This is a picture of the aisle in the Lower Section between the outer square and center square (The peas have already finished in the outer square but there are beans galore and many flowers that bees love. I keep having to prune the tomatoes in the center square so they will give all the peppers, eggplants, basil, lettuce, flowers, etc. some space):


The beans seemed to be thrilled that the peas are out of the way:


Next, here are a couple of pictures of the aisles between the center square and inner square in the lower section:



Taken from the center of the Lower Section:
Lower Section, Top Left:


Lower Section, Bottom Left:


Lower Section, Bottom Right:


Lower Section, Top Right (While there are a lot of my neighbors' houses in the backgrounds of the pictures, the side of the white stucco house with the greenhouse in the top right hand corner of this picture is mine):


The harvest is keeping me busy. Since I am in the Pacific Northwest, the beans have just started. I am averaging getting canned about 2 quarts a day but based on what I see on the plants that should bump up to 7 quarts a day within the week. The tomatoes and peppers are also just starting to turn so I will have them up to my ears shortly. The strawberries have been producing about a galloon per day and have just switched from the midseason variety to the late season ones producing so they are finally slowing down. Every 4th day I am making up a batch of 14 pints of pickles. The squash and zucchini section has been filling a 5 gallon bucket every other day. I have had a little break from having to put up the zucchini because two days of hard rain caused powdery mildew which resulted in flower bottom end rot. I sprayed the plants with a milk solution and they seem to be back up and off to the races. The corn should start to be ready soon. I planted 4 different varieties so I wouldn't have it all hit me at the same time.

Hello,

That looks incredible! It's nice to see that SFG can be done on a such a large scale.

   for the pictures.

Oh, I was hoping you would post photos. That was a fun tour through your garden. I think you originally stated that it was a multi-family garden; what is your percentage?

Those photos are stunning.  That all looks like something out of a magazine.  It's like your own little paradise in your back yard. 

Thank you for sharing those.

sanderson wrote:Oh, I was hoping you would post photos.  That was a fun tour through your garden.  I think you originally stated that it was a multi-family garden; what is your percentage?

Actually it is all mine. There were two neighbors that helped a little last year but couldn't this year. So everything you see is work done by my son and myself. However, I have 14 neighbors that are eating regularly out of the garden and I ask all of them to get more than they need and get it to somebody that needs it. I will can/freeze enough for my family of 3 through the winter and everything else is given away.

Bless you

   wow.   

diggin' on all the cool colors and textures...beautiful.

Kelejan wrote:SLake, that is some productive garden, how on earth do you keep up with it?
Have you had any real failures?  Beautiful pictures. I am in awe.

I have a little bit of okra under plastic but it is growing really slow. 

I tried some eggplants that are supposed to be for cooler climates but the plants are tiny so I don't think they are going to produce but bless their little hearts they are trying. The little plant is just over a foot tall and the two eggplants are about an inch and a half long. You can see the tomatoes in the background that give you an idea of the scale.


I discovered that corn really doesn't like to be planted around the squash and zucchini. It is half the size of the rest of the corn scattered all around the garden. This little corn is only about 2 feet high including its tassel but it has a tiny ear with silk on it. 


The biggest problem I have had is figuring out what varieties grow well here and how to adjust feeding and planting times. This is the 2nd year I have had the garden since moving from the deep south to Washington state. We did get invaded by slugs early in the season. My son and I would go out every night as soon as it got dark with flashlights and buckets of salt water for about two weeks. Either we decimated the population or the word got out that it wasn't worth it to get within 200 feet of the garden.

It is tough in the beginning keeping up with everything because I have to constantly pull weeds. Now there are very few weeds because the vegetables and flowers are taking up every available inch. I harvest the veggies and my son does the watering. My biggest maintenance chore now is dead heading the flowers.

Love the garden update with all of the pictures!

are you finding that your family of three can live off your garden all year round after you put up the harvest?  I understand you would have to purchase meat and dairy....flour, sugar and things like that   

happy gardening
rose

I love that you made the garden a beautiful area not just a bunch of squares. It reminds me of some of the kitchen gardens in the big manor houses in England.

Kay

Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow Wow !!!

Just GORGEOUS!!!  The Pacific North West is so lush and green.  The harvesting and preserving alone is a full time job!

I can't even fathom a garden that large as I do a lot of hand watering in mine.  We never got our drip system squared away this summer and it's been horrifically hot.  We spend 2-3 months at or over 100 and have had 3 spells over 106.

 Gorgeous!  My mother was just asking me the other day how this garden was going but I didn't know.  Now I can show her the pics!

Thanks for the fabulous update!

CC

FamilyGardening wrote:Love the garden update with all of the pictures!

are you finding that your family of three can live off your garden all year round after you put up the harvest?  I understand you would have to purchase meat and dairy....flour, sugar and things like that   

happy gardening
rose

I have already canned all the peas and now I am working on the beans, pickles and freezing squash and zucchini. When the tomatoes start coming in I will make up a lot of sauces, stews and soups.  I make a lot of meals as I put things up. Since I have to put all the veggies up anyway, it is as simple as mixing the veggies before I put them in the jar with some spices. It is a lot of work on the front end but it makes cooking a snap in the winter. When all the fruit starts coming in I make up what I call cobbler/pie packs. I go ahead and mix in the sugar, butter, etc. and put them in freezer bags. My version of making a pie is thaw out a bag, throw it in a pie shell and put it in the oven. So to answer your question, a lot the grocery expense occurs when I am putting up the harvest. During the winter it is basically meat, snacks, drinks and breads.

walshevak wrote:I love that you made the garden a beautiful area not just a bunch of squares. It reminds me of some of the kitchen gardens in the big manor houses in England.

Kay

I designed it as a landscape feature that doubles as a garden. English estate gardens are exactly what I used as inspiration for the layout. I have added a couple of statues this year and built an unusual picnic table to go beside the garden. As I find pieces that I like, I will add benches and some more statues.

audrey.jeanne.roberts wrote:
I can't even fathom a garden that large as I do a lot of hand watering in mine.  

To put in a watering system would run $6,000-$8,000. Since that is insane, we water by hand with a water hose with a long super soaker wand on it. The maze pattern was actually designed with this in mind to keep from having to drag long heavy hoses. It takes an hour to an hour and a half a day to water the whole garden. I am starting to back off the watering to every other day to stress the plants just a bit so they will go into that I have to produce a lot of fruit NOW mode.

CapeCoddess wrote:  Gorgeous!  My mother was just asking me the other day how this garden was going but I didn't know.  Now I can show her the pics!

Thanks for the fabulous update!

CC

  I am amazed that she remembers my garden from last year much less is asking about it this year. I am sure you have your hands full taking care of your gardens. Speaking of which I have been lazy this morning. I need to go get some of the things that are starting to go to seed pulled out. I have discovered if I keep up with this as I go, then the end of the year clean up is a breeze.

Incredible, SLake!  And what nice designs!

I am looking forward to getting close to that size & harvest...!  I'd love to be able to feed some of the neighbors and help out the local food bank.

Great idea to go ahead & get stuff ready for cooking.  That's what I like to do as well.  Just makes it so much easier...

Question - what are the tall, deep purple flowers in the right side of the 3rd photo down?  (To the right of the peacock statue?)  How do the bees & hummers like them?

AtlantaMarie wrote:
Question - what are the tall, deep purple flowers in the right side of the 3rd photo down?  (To the right of the peacock statue?)  How do the bees & hummers like them?

The flowers are Nicky tall phlox. The beds on both sides at the entrance are all a mixture of cut flowers so when you get through picking the veggies for supper you can grab some flowers for the table on the way out of the garden. The bees don't pay much attention to them because there is so much borage, bachelor buttons, sunflowers and dozens of other flowers spread all over the garden mixed in with the vegetables that they love. The humming birds have just recently decided to pretty much move in. They seem to have made a game out of startling me. I will be working along and then out of the blue there will be one hovering next to my ear over my shoulder.

WOW! That's amazingly beautiful!

SLake that is absolutely amazing and encouraging to just look at I would love to just walk throu and look at your setup just to look at it.

have you thought about a video walk throu before?

That's AMAZING! How on God's green earth do you find the time for all of that gardening? 

I know a couple that had such a bumper crop that they started donating it to a food pantry. That eventually lead to a charity that they started. This is Keith, a Master Gardener friend who got me into SFG-ing, and his wife, Trina. The organization is called The Need To Feed, Inc. 

Then, the owner/CEO where I work gives us two paid days a year to give back to the community, so I coordinate volunteer events with co-workers to help my the Master G. prepare beds and plant the spring and fall gardens. 

Here's a video that I edited in which Trina gives a quick orientation speech at our volunteer day last February. That's me in the white t-shirt and blue hat.    Keith is in the camouflage hat. He created a monster by lending me Mel Bartholomew's book! LOL

P.S. SLake2000, I also applied you for your generosity!