Hello from Ossining, NY

I'd like to introduce myself, I'm Bonnie an herbalist in Ossining NY. For many years I 've had a garden in my backyard and over the past few years I've had less and less sun, so this year I decided to create a square foot garden in my front yard and I'm been just blown away. It looks like my plants are on steroids. I've never seen yellow squash with so many buds on it at one time. The beans are taller than me now and it's only June 25th in NY. wow. Here's a pic of it that I took today

Welcome!
I am fairly new myself here. LOVE your garden... WOW...

I'm having a blast with it. My husband says this is the most expensive vegetables we'll ever eat, what with buying the wood, vermiculite, fabulous compost from an organic farm (didn't have enough of my own this year) the verticals that i built........ but I told him that next year it won't cost anything because i have a ton of seeds and this will all be done, the only thing I want to do this summer is build a cold frame to go over part of it for the fall and winter A friend of mine who also does sq ft gardening built one and said she harvested greens all winter, I'll keep you posted.

Your garden looks fabulous!!!

Love that garden of yours! I'm jealous of your squash plants, they look so healthy. The squash borer destroyed all of mine. Next year, I'll find some kind of net to cover them.

Pretty soon, I hope to see discussion topics for winter veg selections.

What kind of herbs do you grow?
I started thyme in self-watering containers and it's coming along slowly.
The mint seeds never sprouted. Also, I have rosemary, lavender, oregano,parsley, & basil.

hmmm, what herbs does an herbalist grow???? the one's you would know , parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, oregano.... medicinal herbs you may or may not know echinacea, yarrow, anise hyssop, scullcap, blue vervain, ladies mantle, lemon balm, calendula, comfrey, marshmallow, red clover and lots of weeds that you might pull as weeds that are medicine to me, like plantain, dandelion, oh, the best weeds to cook are lambs quarters, let them grow in your garden till around 2 feet take the leaves and stir fry them with a little olive oil ymmmmm (the stalks are a little tough),

does that answer it for you - I'm sure there are ones that I'm forgetting????

oh, holy basil, lavendar, mugwort, bee balm, the list keeps on going

I love working with the plants, they are magical.

Your front-yard garden looks healthy and terrific. Good luck to you.

If you can't build a coldframe, you can easily build an A-frame. Being older and a not-too strong woman, I built one myself with four 1x2s 6 feet long and another 1x2 four feet long. I shaped the four long ones like a tent and drove them deep into my 12" soil and wired the other 1x2 across the top tightly. With some clear plastic vinyl tacked to the sides and across the top, its perfect.


I can lift the sides to work in the A-frame (I clip them in place with extra large binder clips) and I can plant things directly in the A-frame because I built this right over one of by 4 x 4 raised beds. I started things really early under this A-frame this year, like radishes, lettuce, spinach, scallions, carrots and chives.


Here's a later view of the A-frame with lettuces in the front and at both sides I planted a Matt's Wild Cherry tomato right inside the A-frame. I was able to lower the plastic sides when we got some cold nights but I keep them raised now that good weather is here. I plan to make use of this right up till possibly December this year. If I'm lucky the cherry tomatoes will keep on producing.
In the back is where I put aside several squares for lettuce, spinach and the other crops mentioned. In the forefront I start new lettuce seeds to transplant beneath leaves of cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli in the main beds later. The cherry tomatoes are growing very well and have many blossoms on them right now.

So if you aren't able to build a coldframe to your liking, try this simpler version. It really works.

thanks for the advice. I'm going to take a ride to a friends in a few weeks and check out what she did. She has a sfg and made one last year. She harvested greens all winter. sounds good to me

bonniesherbals wrote:hmmm, what herbs does an herbalist grow???? the one's you would know , parsley, basil, rosemary, thyme, sage, mint, oregano.... medicinal herbs you may or may not know echinacea, yarrow, anise hyssop, scullcap, blue vervain, ladies mantle, lemon balm, calendula, comfrey, marshmallow, red clover and lots of weeds that you might pull as weeds that are medicine to me, like plantain, dandelion, oh, the best weeds to cook are lambs quarters, let them grow in your garden till around 2 feet take the leaves and stir fry them with a little olive oil ymmmmm (the stalks are a little tough),

does that answer it for you - I'm sure there are ones that I'm forgetting????

oh, holy basil, lavendar, mugwort, bee balm, the list keeps on going

I love working with the plants, they are magical.

Oh wow, that's a nice collection. I'll be looking out for lambs quarters. I have plenty of weeds, so it may very well be in my yard.

Do you put anything extra in your soil, like sand? My oregano survived the winter in a ceramic pot, but it quickly bolted when the weather warmed up. I want revive it a bit, by improving the soil.

i'll take a pic of lambs quarters tomorrow and post it for you. At least around here in NY it's all over