anyone else in the Maritimes?

Hi,

I joined the site recently and wanted to say hello from the east coast. I'm in Saint John, NB and wondering if anyone else is from the Maritimes?

dstubbs wrote:Hi,

I joined the site recently and wanted to say hello from the east coast. I'm in Saint John, NB and wondering if anyone else is from the Maritimes?

I'm in Sussex

Cool, we're practically neighbours! How's your SFG going?

dstubbs wrote:Cool, we're practically neighbours! How's your SFG going?

Slow going, things are just starting to pick up now. I had my boxes down since mid April and my carrots are just starting to come out but my radishes are almost done.
Yours?

Hi Folks,
I live in Knightville so ayanefan we are REALLY close. My onions, carrots, and radish are all up. I am planning on planting my lettuce, peppers and tomatoes this weekend. Do you think I am too early? So excited to have some fellow NBers to chat with as it is sometimes difficult to know if I am on track or not.
-Joanne

Hey SassyScraps, you are so lucky to get your carrots! I put in the ball variety that only grow about 3 inches for my daughter but they are still just seedlings. Must be because they are a British seeds. I planted my Lettuce, Spinach and beets on Friday and the spinach and beets are coming up.

You are lucky you already got some crops to pull. I'll be building 2 more boxes this weekend and hopefully plant my tomatoes, I had nothing but bad luck with the seeds this year, out of 30 plants only 4 survived.

Got pictures? I have my blog and a post with some pics in the Garden Showcase section.

I am posting a pic. You can;t see anything in the beds...yet!
I have three 2 X 8s for a variety of veggies, one 4 X 4 for strawberries and two 18 inch by 8 for tomatoes. My hubby is going to build two more 4 X 4s in the middle. We also want to enclose all the beds within a frame and mulch the paths to make grass cutting easier.

Hi,

It's usually cooler here on the coast in the "big city".

I started planting things the first weekend in May, and a little over half of my crops have started to sprout but I think I'm a long way from harvesting anything. I have a different crop in each square, about 50 different vegetables and herbs between a deck railing planter (not strictly SFG, but containing "Mel's Mix) and my 4 raised SFG beds ( 2 2 x8's and 2 2x4's). My boxes are all on my roof deck (see my avatar photo).

I just started SFG'ing so I've probably made lots of mistakes -- I figure this year will be trial and error and I'll know better what I'm doing by next year....hopefully!

I am kind of concerned about my lettuce (planted 4 to a square in one square). No sign of life there yet even though my mesclun mix and arugula have been showing for a while). A few things were planted while we were still getting a bit of frost, so I may have killed those -- time will tell, I guess. I got some new crops beginning to sprout as recently as the day before yesterday (cucumber and basil).

I started to snip off the extra sprouts yesterday a la Mel's book (I had planted 2 or 3 seeds in each hole). That was a little scarey!

@dstubbs - I think you are doing fine considering there is about 5 to 7 degrees difference between Saint John and the Sussex area, no worries, my carrots are about 2 inches high only right now.
Looks like you are around the Armories in the South end, you may have a slow growing season.
I'm contemplating putting some 6mil plastic over my beds so I can get some greenhouse heat going on, things are very cool lately.

@Sassy - your beds look great! I suspect you will put up some critter guards to keep the deer and other little creatures away from the crunchy veg when it comes up? I will soon, my beans are getting taller so the shoots will be a nice target for the masked bandits (Racoons) and long eared rats (Rabbits).

SassyScraps wrote:

Do you find that things roll across the floor really fast when you drop them?!

I know it's an optical illusion, or lens distortion, or your focus was on your sfg, but your house sure is settling on one side!

Hehe, It is an optical illusion. The house is level, but the beds are on a slope.

I am lucky Ayanefan. We do not have any critters here. We live in the middle of farmfields and teh critters seem to stay on the putskirts next to the woods where there is lots for them to much on.

dstubbs wrote:Hi,

I joined the site recently and wanted to say hello from the east coast. I'm in Saint John, NB and wondering if anyone else is from the Maritimes?

Here in Bedford, NS growin' is slow. My Early Girls are pretty much toast. Peppers might produce. We also planted some marigolds which doid well last year, but his year- not so much??

Hi,

Nice to meet you. There are 3 of us in NB on the forum, I think, but I haven't met anyone from NS on here yet. My SFG is on my roof. It started out gangbusters, but now is struggling. I posted some photos a few days ago in the main forum. If you use the "advanced search" you can search for my post by the author's name (dstubbs).

Welcome to... this place

I have the opposite problem. My garden really struggled at the beginning but now things are really taking off.
I had to replant new lettuce from seed last weekend because only 1 of 8 plants actually sprouted. I know it's a bit late but of the 15 new seeds, all of them germinated within 6 days and are popped out now. I did 4 new squares of radish with 4 year old seeds and they all came up.

I've been reading that pretty much everyone has a problem this year with something, I personally do not believe it to be a co-incidence but a result of changing weather patterns.

Tomato plants are really growing but slow to produce.
My squash plant is now about 4 feet long and it just sprung out 3 weeks ago after a slow start.
Swiss chard took 2 months before it started growing
Strawberries are doing well now after a late transplant
Beans and peas have not produced at all and I yanked them out.
Marigolds were eaten by slugs.

Things learned:
- I need to till a 3 foot wide area all around my garden to keep slugs at bay
- Not everything is a guarantee in SFG but it is much easier.
- Too much variety in a 4x4 square is not always a good thing
- Mel's mix is fabulous with 6 different compost (especially Marine Compost)
- Sunlight, at least 10 hours a day on the plants.
- Crows work in teams of 6
- Trees are like weeds, don't be afraid to cut them down, they will grow back.
- A family of 4 needs at least 12 4x4 boxes if you plan to cut your grocery by half to 3/4.
- Get up early, get out with a large bowl, harvest EVERY MORNING.
- Learn how to can your harvest, if you do not want to can then you will lose most of your high yielding crops.
- A combination of SFG and traditional gardening is the shiznik.

I'm lucky I have a friend who has done this for 10 years (or more) already.

That's all for now.

-ayanefan

We are just moving onto the Shubenacadie however this summer I tried to plant a few yellow tomato plants and they are so dead. I’ve never had any issues with this species back in Ontario however I believe it was already stunted when I purchased them. Any suggestions on nurseries as we do not have any space to start from seed? We really hope the wildlife won’t be an issue as we are living literally in the middles of the bush where there have been several bear reports this summer as well as all the typical munchers running around all the time. Any suggestions on where to find supplies and seeds as well as species you would suggest would also help.

When I started SFG last year, I found Halifax Seed (5860 Kane St- between Robie & Agricola) to be useful. Its the best place (??) to get vermiculite in bulk, good seeds, haven't bought plants for transplant. Atlantic Gardens in Bedford could be useful as well. Good luck.

Thank you. I will check them out right away. We are planning on selling some of our excess veggies to our neighbors it will be a fun experience.

hi everyone,
this is my first year gardening...i am loving it so much..i think i did well for my first year...my garden is 600 sq feet...i have been eating some wonderful stuff out of it...yummy yummy...have a great day...

Welcome to the forum. Are you using the Squarefoot Gardening method outline in the book ALL NEW SQUAREFOOT GARDENING? That is the how to manual used by and supported by this forum. We all love it.

Wow 600 square feet of garden. You jumped in with both feet. What are you growing and what had done particularly well for you?

Kay

this is the first time i heard of square foot gardening...i will learn about it on here...i planted alot of nice veggies..potatoes,tomatoes,beets,summer savory,beans,peas,corn,cukes,green pepper,onions,head lettuce,leaf lettuce,radish,carotts,squash,swiss chard,spinach,celery...everything is doing great..not sure of the corn..the tassels are forming but i don't see any corn yet..i am keeping my fingers crossed...it is about 5 feet high.

Welcome! You hit upon a wonderful place with helpful folk who have lots of experience.

I think the weather in Nova Scotia is very similar to here on Cape Cod. Do you know what zone you are?

@ Angel - When did you plant your lettuces and spinach? How is it doing?

CC

WOW angel
SOunds like a huge garden. WELCOME TO SFG.
How are your tomatoes doing? Out here in the west ours are just now ripening.
Janet

i am still waiting for the tomatoes to ripen,i think they will be a little longer still..i have alot of them...my head lettuce was wonderful...i did lose one....the chard , beet greens and spinach i planted around the end of may...so delicious..

It has been a long wait for me too... for the ripe tomatoes.
Do you know what gardening zone you are in, likely 6 or greater...... living by the sea?
It is kind of interesting because it helps us to know who's climate is most similar to yours. Canada is such and "across the board" climate chart.