My Square Foot Garden all planted

Collaflower and Brocolli planted

Cabbage and Cucumbers

All boxes planted except the one closest saving it for tomatoes


Onions

Three Sisters Corn, Beans and Squash

Watermellon and okra wife with camera I hate pictures of myself

Plantin peppers

Carrots anyone did the whole box may have over did it

Old buck has always helped me when I work outside he is 12 year old

I started all this at 7 this morning and finished around 3 this afternoon now I am going to wash my hair to get my fingernails clean.

Beautiful!

Can you see my eyes green with envy?
Great job.

One piece of advice... if you are going to trellis anything, get the trellises up quickly. This happened to me last year. You think, "Oh, I only just planted the seeds!" Then today turns into tomorrow, tomorrow turns into next week, next week becomes next month....and next thing you know you are trying to put up a trellis around something that's already growing big. It's much easier to train the plant up a trellis from the get-go, rather than push it aside to place the trellis and then try to attach the plant to it.

Wonderful job. It really looks good. Do follow Megan's advice regarding the trellis. You will be glad you did.

Nice variety you have. Did you plant all of your carrots at once or will you have succession plantings to fill the whole box? That is a lot of square of carrots, but carrots are so good. Enjoy!

I have plenty of seeds left if I want to do another crop of carrots, depending own how the first one does I doubt if I will plant another this year. As for trelles I think I will make them out of PVC. I think I read that you can grow watermellon up instead of running on the ground, is that true? I think it would be neat to try. Back to carrots, those seeds are small planted them with a pair of tweasers, took more patients than fishing when they ain't bite'in.

Wow!

You are planting awful early for NC. I'm so jealous.

I used to live in the Piedmont area. Now I'm in the mountains and my last frost date isn't until May 15! We are supposed to get frost next week!

I'm still hoping to get something in the ground today. Maybe peas and spinach....

There is a chance for frost here next Friday night lows in the mid 3O's

Looks great. Love the dog, too!

Your garden looks nice. I have just the one but would eventually like to have one more sixteen square foot garden. All those boxes mean more work and more work detracts from time spent at my other hobbies.

Very impressive!

What I have learn about SFG so far is starting it is a chore ie mixing dirt for boxes building the boxes was pretty easy. I hope that now that everything is fill that the work is over, no weeding etc. Besides I do my hobby/work 5 days a week as a Firefighter/EMT so aside form the occasional fishing trip all I have is the garden.

Mtman1849 wrote:I have plenty of seeds left if I want to do another crop of carrots, depending own how the first one does I doubt if I will plant another this year. As for trelles I think I will make them out of PVC. I think I read that you can grow watermellon up instead of running on the ground, is that true? I think it would be neat to try. Back to carrots, those seeds are small planted them with a pair of tweasers, took more patients than fishing when they ain't bite'in.

Next year, you might want to consider planting your carrots in just a couple of squares, wait a couple of weeks then plant another square or two. Because those carrot seeds are so very small, consider making seed tapes out of foot square (or about that size) single layer paper towels and glue the seeds to the towels at the correct spacing. This is something that could be done inside, without the breeze or wind blowing the seeds around as you are trying to plant. You can make as many squares of seed as you think you will need for the whole year, make sure the glue is completely dry, and store them in labeled zip type plastic bags until each sheet is needed. I am using this idea with the little kids at our community garden, but I also made some for myself. We just have too much wind all the time to try to place some of those tiny seeds directly in the Mel's Mix.

As for trellising watermelon, not sure if you need to grow smaller baby watermelons, or if you can go with the big watermelons.
Here are several threads with discussion of growing watermelon on trellises and arbors.

Watemelon on Trellis

Cantelope and Watermelon on Trellis (sp?)

Mini Watermelons

Arbors

Looks wonderful! Best of luck to you.

Gwynn (still shoulder deep in snow)

Mtman1849 wrote:What I have learn about SFG so far is starting it is a chore ie mixing dirt for boxes building the boxes was pretty easy. I hope that now that everything is fill that the work is over, no weeding etc. Besides I do my hobby/work 5 days a week as a Firefighter/EMT so aside form the occasional fishing trip all I have is the garden.

Hi there MtMan, welcome to the forum and to SFG....and bless you for your role as a first responder!

I grew up with traditional gardening. I disagree with the previous poster (not you) that SFG is work. Yes, starting up SFG--building the boxes, trellises, and mixing up the MM--can be a huge chore, but one all that is done, it is easy-peasy after that! You will still need to pay attention, regarding trellising, watching for insect damage, watering and so forth, but that is definitely in the "hobby" zone of enjoyment level. Come fall, canning (should you chose to go there) and/or freezing can become intense, but the end result is SOOOO worth it!

What I have found is that SFG is a joy. Sure, there can be problems...not all my crops survived to harvest last year, etc., but it was completely painless compared to what I remember of the back-breaking work of row gardening when I was growing up. If you have the space, you might want to consider adding a bench or some lawn chairs near your garden so you can relax there, and maybe add some flowers and herbs that attract butterflies, birds and bees. I am crossing my fingers that I can incorporate a (v. small) pond into my backyard this year.

Happy gardening!

Mtman, beautiful beds! Yes, I am jealous too. I am a first-timer and will getting my beds set up over the next week, but not nearly so many. One question for you though. How do you plan to water all of these beds? :?:

wow!!!! looks great...good looking dog too

Super job !!!! your gonna be feeding the whole town..... I'm sure you could have a little stand to sell your extra and recoup some of your investment with all those beds.

As far as watering I am using a hose it only takes a few minutes. I may have made too many beds I don't know this is my first year, I have normally straight row gardened, and am afraid that this will not produce enough. Time will tell

Mtman1849 wrote:As far as watering I am using a hose it only takes a few minutes. I may have made too many beds I don't know this is my first year, I have normally straight row gardened, and am afraid that this will not produce enough. Time will tell

Hehe...... if all goes well (and I sincerely hope it does), you might be overwhelmed with just how much yield you'll get from the SFG approach with that many beds. Like Mel says, looking at an 80% increase in yield over same space row gardening.

Mountain man might just turn into "Veggieman" !

Mtman1849 wrote:As far as watering I am using a hose it only takes a few minutes. I may have made too many beds I don't know this is my first year, I have normally straight row gardened, and am afraid that this will not produce enough. Time will tell

You will be surprised how much a SFG can produce, especially if you will be utilizing succession planting. I had just two beds last year -- 4x8 and 9x3--and had more produce than I knew what to do with. Had plenty to share. With any luck, I will have more to share this year! I wish you the very best of wishes with yours.

Succession planting is what I need to get a grasp on, the problem that I have just figured out is I planted boxes like I was row gardening with the exception of corn bean and squash, so when I harvest first time I will replant the right way

Here's a thought on succession planting from Mel himself when I was watching his DVDs.

When a cool-weather crop comes to maturity in the early summer, pull the whole plant so you can add compost to the square and get another crop in that space right away.

If it was a crop started later in the season that can grow and produce right into fall, let it linger and get all you can from the plant since you don't need the space for another plant.

Today I'm going to go thru my garden books to find which plants I can successfully plant in the newly emptied squares, ones that don't take too many days to maturity and can take some summer warmth in the beginning. I'm looking forward to getting more crops from the same space.

YEAH!! Onions are sprouting

luckly the night the weather was calling for snow the temp here was 37 we did get just a little sleet but it didn't hurt nothing and the next night I covered everthing with tarps and my wife uncovered the next day when the sun came out. Surprisingly after uncovering there was beets coming and as well as peppers and a few watermellons. I think everthing is ok