Hello from Northern California

I've been gardening most of my life, started when I was 10 or so, too old to remember.
We moved into town and don't have the room for a huge garden (and my back likes that) and I just ordered SFG. I have my tomatoes and peppers started in the house, hope to put them out in a couple weeks. Last frost is 4/20, but my dad told me to plant our Memorial week. We shall see what happens.

Trockyh,
Welcome to the forum from the other side of the country...Coastal NC!!

What do you mean when you say you "ordered SFG"? Did you order the All New Square Foot Gardening book or did you order a SFG bed kit? The All New book has significant changes from the original book, so be sure to use that one.

As for when to plant, listen to your father...we are always right
Seriously, I am sure there will be people from your area chiming in before long. But for now, keep in mind that with a SFG, you use very few seeds because you plant "post spacing." e.g. - for tomatoes, you will plant 2 seeds in the middle of 1 square. When they come up and get their first true leaves, you will keep only the best one. With that said, if you plant before Memorial week and they get hit with a frost or something and die, you are only out a couple of seeds.
Another benefit of SFG is that the beds are sized so you can cover them with hoop houses or cold frames and extend your season (not that I have done this...yet)

Enough rambling for now. Welcome again to the best SFG forum

 trockyh from another NorCal gardener. I'm in Redding, still waiting for spring.  I am an unorthodox old school SFGer, and back in the game after many years. This is my 2nd year, and my first was about a D- in the grading system, so I can't offer much but moral support, but I can definitely cheer you on.

ralitaco wrote:Trockyh,
Welcome to the forum from the other side of the country...Coastal NC!!

What do you mean when you say you "ordered SFG"? Did you order the All New Square Foot Gardening book or did you order a SFG bed kit? The All New book has significant changes from the original book, so be sure to use that one.

As for when to plant, listen to your father...we are always right
Seriously, I am sure there will be people from your area chiming in before long. But for now, keep in mind that with a SFG, you use very few seeds because you plant "post spacing." e.g. - for tomatoes, you will plant 2 seeds in the middle of 1 square. When they come up and get their first true leaves, you will keep only the best one. With that said, if you plant before Memorial week and they get hit with a frost or something and die, you are only out a couple of seeds.
Another benefit of SFG is that the beds are sized so you can cover them with hoop houses or cold frames and extend your season (not that I have done this...yet)

Enough rambling for now. Welcome again to the best SFG forum

Thanks for the welcome, I ordered the new book. I put up a 7x12x7 hoop house last week. The sun is out today so plan to put some seed in the ground today after church.

countrynaturals wrote: trockyh from another NorCal gardener. I'm in Redding, still waiting for spring.  I am an unorthodox old school SFGer, and back in the game after many years. This is my 2nd year, and my first was about a D- in the grading system, so I can't offer much but moral support, but I can definitely cheer you on.

I know Redding well, I call on the Home Depot and Lowes on a weekly basis. We had 3 inches of rain, lots of wind and woke to frost this morning. Bring on spring, we are all ready after a great winter of rain and snow.

Trockyh,  Welcome to the Forum from Fresno!    I also garden in a small back yard.  I'm guessing that your property has a slope, rain run off, and/or neighboring trees.  If any of these are true, I recommend that you raise the beds off the ground, even just a couple inches.  They can be leveled with bricks, pieces of slate, wafers of treated wood, etc.  The boxes will require 3/4-1" plywood bottoms and underneath supports, which increase the cost, but will prevent tree root invasion, soggy beds from run off and easy to level before filling.  My original beds had to be redone after 19 months because of root invasion.  They are now 2' tall and wonderful for tending to the plants and harvesting.  I recommend the beds be made of two rows of 2" x 4" or single 2" x 8" so you have a little room for mulch during the hot summer.  All of my beds have PVC frames for bridal tulle, 4 mil plastic or sun shade.  We have another member in the Sierra Foothills with a large green house.  She has tomatoes and peppers, etc., at least 10 months of the year.  She also has a lot of square feet in beds out doors but the green house is a wonderful bonus.  My little green house is 4' x 4' x 6'  but with old fashion Christmas lights and a bedroom lamp I can over winter tomatoes and peppers.

Hi Trockyh. Welcome from Atlanta, GA! Glad you've joined us!

AtlantaMarie wrote:Hi Trockyh.  Welcome from Atlanta, GA!  Glad you've joined us!

Thank you  AtlantaMarie,
Woke up to some rain this morning with much more coming. Spring is coming very slow this year.

trockyh wrote:I've been gardening most of my life, started when I was 10 or so, too old to remember.
We moved into town and don't have the room for a huge garden (and my back likes that) and I just ordered SFG. I have my tomatoes and peppers started in the house, hope to put them out in a couple weeks. Last frost is 4/20, but my dad told me to plant our Memorial week. We shall see what happens.

Welcome to the forum!
Memorial week appears to be the traditional garden planting date here in central Pennsylvania, too. Driving by people's yards there will be bare earth the week before, and over the weekend the gardens pop up.

The reason for waiting for so long after last frost for tomatoes is because they don't like cold feet. The extra time makes sure the MM or soil has warmed up enough. Also, I've learned that it's not all about freezing: below 40*F but above freezing won't kill the tomato plants, but it can injure them - it can cause them to be more likely to get sick, or stunt them. If dad was planting in the ground, and you are planting in a raised bed, you can probably get a little bit of a jump on dad's suggestion because raised beds typically warm up more quickly. Actually taking a few temperature measurements of your MM in the mornings, compared with the soil next to your beds will help inform your decision.

I use "air temperature expected to be above 50*F(10*C) at night going forward" for my guideline if I'm planting tomatoes without protection.

trockyh wrote:

countrynaturals wrote: trockyh from another NorCal gardener. I'm in Redding, still waiting for spring.  I am an unorthodox old school SFGer, and back in the game after many years. This is my 2nd year, and my first was about a D- in the grading system, so I can't offer much but moral support, but I can definitely cheer you on.

I know Redding well, I call on the Home Depot and Lowes on a weekly basis. 

So do we!

If we ever get our yard and gardens fixed up, maybe you can come by for a visit. Right now it's a disaster, with standing water in the back yard so we can't even mow the 3' weeds.