Third Year SFG in Canada

I have better root luck with fall daikon. I use the spring daikon for the pods only.
Nice potato plants. It'll be interesting to see what's under there.

Here are some of my "babies" in the SFG.

First up is Acorn Squash in the new U-bed.




The Sakatas(?) Melon is in the U-bed as well.




My first Canada Crookneck Squash has broken through in the U-bed.




Sakatas Sweet Melon in a 4x4 next close to a trellis.




And finally, my one and only (so far) Cucamelon also in that same 4x4.

NOT SFG:

We are widening the regular soil bed in front of Mrs TD's raspberry bushes. To do so I decided we should remove the turf rather than just cover it with cardboard. The reason is that it has a lot of clover which spreads by rhizomes and can be invasive. So we remove the top layer and sift it to get out the soil. The soil is excellent and full of worms.

I post this photo with permission from Mrs TD.  Here she is using the compost sifter to separate the soil from the grass and clover. She does not mind at all working in the garden and getting her hands dirty. She does not like to pick up worms but this morning she did pick some out of the dirt and offer them to the robin which is nesting in the cedar hedge behind the raspberries. Notice as well the amazing and all important SFG beds to the left and the raspberry bushes behind Mrs TD.



And here is the beautiful soil that we are getting from the sifting process. I will amend this soil with mushroom compost and some of the home made but semi-composted material. We will then use it in the new soil bed.

Had to look up what a cucamelon was. I might have to try those next year!

Photo update ...

The Daikon Radish volunteers are flowering. There will soon be some delicious seed pods to eat.




Tom Thumb Peas in the Table Top.




Butter King Lettuce in the Table Top.




My first Snow Pea pod in one of the 4x4 beds.




Another new veggie bed.  This one is more Old Style SFG with sifted soil amended with peat moss and mushroom compost. It is topped off with chunky unfinished compost.




Didn't take long for our garden robin to get into the new bed and pull a big juicy worm out of the unfinished compost layer.




Overview of the area where the new bed and the U-bed are located. Mrs TD's raspberry bushes are behind and run parallel with the new bed.




What follows are photos from other (non-SFG) parts of the garden.


The pond with the yellow Irises behind it. 




Mrs TD's poppies.




Mrs TD's Lupins.




Our Ant Guardian in an area of Mrs TDs garden that has her Ground Cherry plants plus some Chives, Tomatillos, and there is even a Yukon Gold Potato nearby.

TD any chance I can get you to send me some of those poppy seeds once they've gone to seed?

Those look identical to the ones that used to grow in my grandmother's garden and as she's the one who helped me fall in love with gardening, I'd like some here.


Also I've finally FINISHED getting my SFGish garden planted.  I say SFGish for two reasons 1. I couldn't afford to do a grid this year and 2. It's 4x7.5.  I thought I had done my math so I'd have two perfect 4x4 growing areas.  This is what I get for listening to my Father in Law.

Still they are DONE!!!

I'll take pictures tomorrow to share.

SwampTroll wrote:TD any chance I can get you to send me some of those poppy seeds once they've gone to seed?
...

I'll see what we can do ST.  It's a matter of remembering to save the seeds. At my age it's easy to forget.

I didn't realize you were making yet ANOTHER box.

TD, are the poppies and the lupines in the same garden?  I need to plant my lupine starts soon and they don't like where they were last year as they didn't come back.

CapeCoddess wrote:I didn't realize you were making yet ANOTHER box.  

TD, are the poppies and the lupines in the same garden?  I need to plant my lupine starts soon and they don't like where they were last year as they didn't come back.

CC ... the poppies and lupines are in different beds. I think lupines like a soil that has a PH that leans toward the acid side. Having said that we have done nothing to our soil. It should be the same as where the poppies are growing. We were on Prince Edward Island a few years ago and there were fields full of lupines. It was quite beautiful.

Five days away from home and this is what we came home to.


Tomatoes and some really pathetic (sad) looking peppers in an "old style" SFG bed. I think I may have to use some organic fertilizer.




My only broccoli.




My only eggplant. To the right of it is an okra plant and another one in front of that one.




Tomatoes, okra, peppers, tomatillos in the most recent amended soil bed.




The other end of the new amended soil bed with tomatillos in the back and onions poking through on the front right.




ANSFG bed doing well with garlic (scapes have appeared), lettuce, beats, onions, and kohlrabi.




Another ANSFG bed with tomatoes, peppers, daikon radishes, leeks, onions, etc.




Another ANSFG bed with snow peas and snap peas in back and in the squares between the peas there are tiny cucamelon and sakatas sweet melon plants. In front of the peas are garlic and in front of the garlic swiss chard and kale.




The same bed as above but from the side.




Mrs TD's sunflowers protected by solo cups and one of the two blueberry bushes in front.




The new U-shaped ANSFG bed with Canada Crookneck Squash in the 3x6 area.




The U-shaped ANSFG bed from the other side with white scallop squash in the 2x2 section, and from left to right in the 2x6 section there are white scallop squash, golden zucchini and acorn squash. I expect these squash plants do not have anywhere near enough room.  




ANSFG everbearing strawberry bed.

TD, It sure is nice to come home and find the garden still alive and, in some areas, thriving. I think the spacing in the 2' x 2' and 2' x 6' is good. Are you going to replant that one square in the 3' x 6'?

sanderson wrote:TD,  It sure is nice to come home and find the garden still alive and, in some areas, thriving.    I think the spacing in the 2' x 2' and 2' x 6' is good.  Are you going to replant that one square in the 3' x 6'?

sanderson, I've now planted cucamelons in that 3x6 square.  I started them on wet paper towel in a plastic bag while we were away. They sprouted during that period. Do you think I should try to contain the white scallop, acorn squash and zucchini or just let them spread out over the edges of the beds and into the paths? Thanks as always for the encouragement you provide to me and others on the forum. 

You could try staking them. Idk about the acorn, but I'd imagine the scallop squash would work similar to a zucchini. I built two 1.5×1.5 for a zucchini and a pattypan. I plan on trying to stake them, but if it doesn't work out very well, they have the room to sprawl.

Robbomb116 wrote:You could try staking them.  Idk about the acorn, but I'd imagine the scallop squash would work similar to a zucchini.  I built two 1.5×1.5 for a zucchini and a pattypan.   I plan on trying to stake them, but if it doesn't work out very well, they have the room to sprawl.

Thanks Rob. I saw on YouTube that some people use a large tomato cage to contain the plant and a stake to hold up the cage.

This is the method/end result I'm trying to achieve with mine. https://youtu.be/vNsq4V7Oaw8

I grew the bush varieties of squash and zucchini and used tomatoes cages. Glad I did with the wind we had this spring. Even with them I had to turn the pots 180 degrees a couple of times. Home Depot has nice heavy gauge wire in theirs. Tried Lowes first because it was closer but theirs were flimsy.

RC3291 wrote:I grew the bush varieties of squash and zucchini and used tomatoes cages. Glad I did with the wind we had this spring. Even with them I had to turn the pots 180 degrees a couple of times. Home Depot has nice heavy gauge wire in theirs. Tried Lowes first because it was closer but theirs were flimsy.

Do you have Orchard Supply near you? I think it's a Sears company. I just went in there for the first time and their garden dept is awesome. Maybe it's just that a gardener runs our local store, but it was like visiting a botanical gardens. Birds, fountains, so many plants it put Lowe's and Home Depot to shame. They even have a "rescue plant" dept with deep discounts.

'Rescue plant department' drugs for a plant junky
It is a great resource to try things out with.

I too have a U shaped bed made of three 2x6 beds. It has a 3 varieties of zucchini, and 3 varieties of winter squash and 3 tomatillas. Each plant getting a 2x2 area. I know the winter squash will run so they are on the side best to allow that. I suspect the zucchini will fall over to the path, but that is a wide path there and maybe 2x2 will be enough. I have planted them in a 1x6 bed before and they did fine but did use a lot of path space.

Who knows what the future will tell us?

CN ... no Orchard Supply in these parts.

Turan ... Agreed ... who knows what the future will tell us.

TD, I use a tomato plant cage to try to hold my summer squash and zucchini upright.  Here are a few pictures.  The black vertical fence in the background is the fence around the pool and it is not really supporting any of the plants.  I planted two squash/zucchini in each pot.




The next two pictures show the plants escaping the tomato cages.  Which they will do if you do not spend some effort trying to keep them contained.

Yolos, why doesn't the SVB get your beautiful plants???

CapeCoddess wrote:Yolos, why doesn't the SVB get your beautiful plants???

Those are really nice yolos,  And what CC says ... 

trolleydriver wrote:

CapeCoddess wrote:Yolos, why doesn't the SVB get your beautiful plants???

Those are really nice yolos,  And what CC says ... 

Ok, sorry guys, clarification time now.  I have 4 more summer squash/Zucchini in my SFG under tulle.  I had extras that I grew from seed indoors but could not find anyone who wanted them.  I grew extras because I heard that they do not like to be transplanted and these were my back ups.  Every one of mine that I transplanted survived.   I was going to throw them away but decided to plant them in my empty pots and when they get hit with the SVB then I can experiment with ways to save them (cutting the stems open, injecting BT etc).  Yes, the SVB will kill any squash not planted under tulle.  Last year they hit me on 6/8 but this year they have not arrived yet.  My squash in the SFG under tulle.