2015 SFG in Brooks, Ga

Back in late May, I planted a 4 x 4 and 6 half whisky barrels of Beauregard Sweet Potatoes.   I found out that a critter has been taking bites out of the sweet potatoes in the 4 x 4 bed.  I decided to harvest them today rather than let the critter keep eating them.  This year I trellised the vines up nylon trellises rather than letting any of vines take root.  It seemed to work.  I got less potatoes but bigger potatoes and that was my goal.  These are the sweet potatoes I harvested today.


This one wins the prize for the funkiest potato.

I still have sweet potatoes growing in my 6 whiskey barrels and I will let them continue to grow until they begin to yellow or before the first frost.

Wow, those are beautiful!  Nice job.

LOL what a weird-looking sweet potato! I'd eat it, though. Looks like you got a nice crop. Love them things.

You're all set for Thanksgiving dinner, even a centerpiece that will be talked about for years to come! Mine are only an inch thick and don't know how long.

Just got through planting 120 spinach transplants into a 4 x 8 bed.  Wish it had been a TT.  9 different varieties (experimenting again).  I started them from seeds in flats so I had to first separate the tiny little things, then plant them.  I sure hope they survive.  This will be my third fall trying to grow spinach.  In the past I was not successful getting them to germinate.  This year, I started them inside in paper towels.  When they sprouted, I then transplanted them to a 72 cell flat with about 3 or four seeds in each tiny cells.  Then transplanted them to the garden when the majority started getting their first true leaves.

I'm having real problems getting spinach to germinate and survive after transplanting.  I have some but want a full bed at 4 per square.  Instead I've got about 12 plants living and some new sproutlings.  Was at the Extension Office today and they said "good luck"

Kay

Dang, yolos, those are some nice sweet potatoes. And that funky one looks like a swami is charming it out of a basket!! lol

Fall Update 09/27/15
Here is a picture of the 120 spinach transplants I planted on 9/25 in a 4 x 8 bed.  I sure hope they don't die off after the transplanting.


Alaska Sweet Shell Peas planted outside my SFG on 9/14.  A double row 20 feet long.


And my Buckwheat Cover Crop/Green Manure Crop planted 9/2 and the bees are loving it.  And you can see my 2 x 8 bed behind the Buckwheat all ready to plant my Fava Beans as soon as it is cool enough. 


I also planted three 3x8 beds with miscellaneous veggies on 8/31.  Here is a picture of just one of the beds.


We have had cloudy misty rainy weather for the last week and it is predicted to be cloudy all day each day until Friday.  Where is the sun.  Nothing is growing like it should be except the Buckwheat and Broccoli.  Poor peas are not going to be ready before it gets too cold.

Nice, yolos! What is in that bed down the middle? The big greener things?

Scorpio Rising wrote:Nice, yolos!  What is in that bed down the middle?  The big greener things?

If you mean the tall green plants down the middle of the following picture, those are broccoli transplants I purchased from the local nursery and planted about 8/31.  (Premium Crop and Arcadia).  Unfortunately, they are growing much faster than the peas to the left of them and are blocking the sun from the peas.

Yolos, As usual, your garden looks so nice..

Wow, your garden looks great.  I have a couple questions. First - the buckwheat - did you plant it just to add to compost? I know row farmers sometimes plant cover crops but I never thought about doing it in my box. Second - the spinach - I just direct sowed some a week ago. I never thought about growing transplants first. It may have been a little late, but I had to wait on something else to finish and cleaning the box out. The first year I had a box, I had bought some transplants from the local feed and seed and they grew great. Not knowing better, I did not write down the variety. I would like to grow some with large leaves for cooking. This time I planted Giant Noble. Since the kid working on my lunch break knew nothing about spinach - I went with "Giant". It made sense at the time.

Looks really nice, Yolos!!!

VJ72584 wrote: I have a couple questions. First - the buckwheat - did you plant it just to add to compost? I know row farmers sometimes plant cover crops but I never thought about doing it in my box. Second - the spinach - I just direct sowed some a week ago. I never thought about growing transplants first. I would like to grow some with large leaves for cooking. This time I planted Giant Noble.

To answer your question about Buckwheat. 
I originally had a 32 feet by 32 feet row garden.  Then I just gave up trying to amend the hard as a rock red Georgia clay, I scrapped the top inch or two of good topsoil off the garden and pulled it over to the side of the garden and made a 4 foot by 32 foot raised bed.  Then I constructed more raised beds and used the Square Foot Gardening method for the new beds.  Over the years, I added amendments, (including my own compost, purchased bagged compost, and a little vermiculite and peat) to the 4 x 32 raised bed.  It takes a lot of compost for that bed.  Also, I was not satisfied with the tilth of the bed and wanted more substance to attract earthworms and to retain moisture.  So I decided to grow cover or green manure crops in that bed whenever there are no veggies planted.  I have been experimenting with different types of crops.  Last year I used winter rye, winter peas and Buckwheat.  What I found out was there is so much vegetative mass produced that I now cut about 1/2 of the crop down and add to the compost pile and 1/2 I incorporate into the soil. Buckwheat cannot survive a frost so I use it when the weather is warmer.  Also it grows real fast and attracts bees. This year I am also going to try the Daikon Radish to try to get it to penetrate the hard soil underneath the bed and winter peas again. 

To answer your question about the Spinach.
I don't know anything about growing Spinach except direct sowing it in the garden did not work for me the first two times I tried it.  So reading on the internet, I found that it needed cool weather to sprout so I tried planting the seeds indoors and transplanting to the garden after the weather cooled off.  It was a lot of work pre-sprouting those little seeds in paper towels and then transplanting them to cell packs but it worked so far (hoping the transplants survive).  I am trying about 10 varieties to see which works best.  The packages all said to plant them 6 inches apart except for one pack said plant 12 inches apart.  So I assume that the variety Monstrueux de Viroflay is a large growing variety.  The package says - "monster" spinach... a gourmet delight... deep green tender leaves... the plant can get 24" wide and 10" long tender leaves...extremely vigorous...thin to 1 every 12"-18"...If mulched, spinach can be overwinter in sub-zero temperatures.  From Botanical Interests seed company.

Yolos, You may have mentioned before, but what are the varieties of peas and buckwheat you plant? Where do you buy them?

sanderson wrote:Yolos,  You may have mentioned before, but what are the varieties of peas and buckwheat you plant?  Where do you buy them?

Buckwheat
Here is the product I purchased the last two years to experiment with this cover crop idea.  It could probably be purchased much cheaper at a feed and seed store.  I purchased these at the local nursery but I am sure you could get them online at www.botanicalinterests.com.



For some unknown reason, the back of the package would not scan in correctly, so here is what the back says.

Buckwheat not only improves your garden's soil, this fast-growing plant is great as a "smother" crop to inhibit growth of common garden weeds such as lambsquarter, pigweed, thistle, purslane, and even tough quackgrass.  Buckwheat grows in soils with poor fertility, and after germination requires little water: avoid wet soil and shady sites.  Seeds sprout within days of sowing; plants grow quickly and are ready to till into the garden a month later.  Unlike some other cover crops, the succulent buckwheat plants and fibrous roots are easy to mix into the soil with a shovel or rototiller.  You can also leave cut plants on the soil surface as mulch.  The white flowers attract many beneficial insects to the garden, especially bees that feed on the nectar to make delicious honey.  A late summer sowing provides a wonderful food source for honeybees, since other nectar sources become more limited at this time of year.  Flowers can also be cut and added to a fresh bouquet.  This packet plants approximately 125 square feet.  Sow outside spring through fall.  Easy to grow from seed.  Days to maturity - 30-40 days.  Scatter at the rate of about 1 seed every 4".

So it is real easy to grow and you can quickly get green growth and small flowers in empty beds in between seasons (summer, spring or early fall).  I have heard that if you don't cut it down before it forms seed heads, it will keep coming back.  I am thinking about trying to save some seeds if I can figure it out.  It will die in the cold weather.

Peas
I bought the peas at the feed and seed store.  I wrote on the package "Winter Peas".  I did not record the variety if there even was one.  A long time ago in my old row garden I would try planting some Austrian Winter Peas over the winter so this might be what they are.  You plant them in the fall and they will grow a little depending on the weather and pretty much just sit there over the winter and then take off with a lot of growth in very early spring.

I realize that with SFG you do not need cover/green manure crops but it sure can't hurt to grow these when nothing else is growing.  I have too many square feet to pay attention to every square foot all through out the year so I decided to just plant something whenever I felt like it.  Also, having some green growing during the winter sure is nice.

Yolos, Thank you. Do we have a topic on Green Manure - cover crops? If not, could you make one and cut and paste your write up and photos? Maybe in Everything Else?

And having these as cover crops may avoid having grass, etc move in to the beds.  Like what I've got now...  

Marie, Having cardboard and wood chip walk ways around beds really helps keep grass seeds out of the beds. A good point to make with hubby. I have 2 small beds with weeds because I didn't manage the weeds around them. They are elevated off the ground but only by 2". I may have to dump the Mel's Mix and add new.

Fall Update 10/15/15

Some pictures of my fall garden.

Leeks planted 10/14/15.  This is a 2 ft by 4 ft area of my old row garden.  I planted half of the leeks inside toilet paper rolls to see how that works.



Basil I planted last April still growing strong.  I originally planted it throughout my tomato beds but transplanted it all to one small bed when I refurbished my tomato beds for fall crops.  The Basil is overgrown but I have plenty harvested so I think I will let these go to seed if the frosts will hold off.


A worm bin my grandson and I started this last weekend.  My daughter got the worms free from the science teacher at school so I am finally joining the worm club.



Buckwheat before harvest and after cut down in my non SFG bed.  I put some of the foliage in my compost pile and turned the rest into the soil.  I will plant winter peas tomorrow in the same bed.  I did not cut down a 4 ft X 4 ft area because I think I will try to harvest some seeds to plant next time I have an open bed.



Cosmos that self seeded from plants I planted back in April.  The daughters are doing nicely.



Sweet potatoes I planted in whiskey barrel size pots back in May.  The vines are growing up a trellis.  I already harvested my sweet potatoes I planted in the ground because critters were eating the vines and the sweet potatoes.  The vines on these are over 8 feet tall and coming back down.



Spinach I grew from seed and transplanted to the garden.  Unfortunately because of cloudy weather for two weeks they haven't grown much but they are still hanging in there.



The next picture is lettuce from purchased transplants and the second picture is lettuce that I seeded in trays and transplanted to the garden.  Because of the overcast skies we had for a couple weeks, they haven't grown too much.



Fava Beans planted in whiskey barrels about 10/1



I planted three 3x8 beds with fall veggies about 9/1.  This is a picture of one of the beds.  Peas on the left, broccoli in the center, and an assortment of test veggies on the right.  The peas are pretty spottily planted because the birds got to about 1/3 of the planted seeds and some critter ate another 1/3 of the plants.


This is my big fall failure.  I planted Alaska Sweet Peas in a 20 foot row outside my SFG.  I learned my lesson and covered the seeds with bird netting.  The seeds all sprouted and I had a good stand of peas growing. When the peas were established and the birds were no longer interested, I took off the bird netting and put up the trellis in between the double row of peas.  Then some critter ate all except one pea vine.  The first picture is of the healthy pea vines, the second picture is what it looks like now.


Oh well, you win some and loose some.  This spring I will definitely protect these from the critters.  I guess I will have to start dreaming up some critter cages for the spring planting.

Fantastic garden! Thank you for sharing.

WOW, Yolos!  That basil...& yellow cosmos?  I've never seen that.  Did you send me some?  Everything is beautiful!  How nice to have such a long season.

Sorry about your peas.  I had the same thing happen with my sugar snap peas, with the same timing, and thought it was slugs since no critter could get to them. Two vines left in that box.  Another box that is easily accessible had no pea vine damage and they are growing fine now.  So weird.

Let us know how the leeks in TP rolls turn out.  My leeks are clean with just the MM.  I was very happy & surprised at that since I know they can be gritty when grown in the ground.

Are any of those lettuces the Four Seasons lettuce, not the Marvel?

CC

CC - Yes I sent you some yellow/orange cosmos.  I just went out to the garden to see which lettuces I planted.  The answer is no, none of the lettuce that was planted is Four Seasons.  I looked on the porch at the seed trays of lettuce that were left over from transplanting and also looked at my notes.  All cells of the Four Seasons that I planted have bunches of seedlings.  My notes say they were the best in germination.  I think what happened is they germinated faster and better than any other lettuce.  By the time the weather cooled off enough to plant out, the Four Seasons were extremely leggy, and all the roots and leaves were all tangled together so I just skipped planting them.  I still have one 2x2 empty and I think I will just pop out the group of seedlings from each cell and just plant them as a bunch and then come back later and thin them out.


The lesson I learned this year is don't try to stuff too many seedlings in individual cells because it is too hard and time consuming untangling them for transplant and they do not grow well in the cell trays if  they are that bunched together.  Or it will just take time for me to learn the best way to grow them in the cell trays.  I did swish them around in water to help untangle them, but some, like the Four Seasons were just too tangled.  Also, maybe some lights (since we had two weeks of dreary weather) and a little fertilizer would have helped since I couldn't plant them out when I wanted to because of the heat.

Nice garden, yolos! We are getting frost here this weekend, so end game for me, will keep an eye on y'all though!

Even with some chewed up items, it looks great, Yolos!