Getting Ready for Planting

One of these days I'll get some info up on that whole eating wild plants thing. It's kind of cool, the number of ordinary things that grow everywhere that we don't even think of as food. In the event of a disaster, most of us would just stand on our driveways and starve!

But for now, we'll have to settle for planting things we know we can eat. And with spring coming up fast, it's time to take a quick look at things that can go in the garden (or your square-foot garden) nice and early.

Broccoli: This stuff hates hot weather, so you either want to plant it early in the spring or later towards the fall. It actually tastes better as a fall plant, but a spring crop is a nice way to kick off the gardening season. For a spring crop, plant seeds indoors six weeks before last frost, and bed out hardened seedlings when they're four weeks old.

Spinach and Swiss Chard: Plant it when you're able to work the soil. You can start it earlier indoors as well, and put sprouted plants out after frost (spinach doesn't really mind the frost that much though). This stuff doesn't like a lot of heat, but it will grow all summer. The trouble with heat is that the plants will actually grow too fast and can get a little tough, so spring leafy greens are always the way to go.

Lettuce: Pretty much the same as spinach. Very easy to grow, and very tasty when harvested in slightly chilly conditions. You can eat spinach or lettuce as soon as leaves appear. If you're square-foot gardening, wait until you have enough for a salad!

TIP: You don't have to harvest lettuce and spinach right out of the soil. Cut the leaves about an inch above the soil, and they'll re-sprout for you. Do this until the leaves get bitter, and you can have a crop for several months.

Cabbage: Basically the same as for broccoli.

Peas: There's a tradition of planting peas on St. Patrick's Day, but in Canada this is pretty early in the season. Throw them in a month later and you'll have a ton of peas throughout the early summer.

These are plants you can get started with early in the season. Check a few online resources for tips on summer crops that you'll need to get ready next, because once these plants run their course, your next bunch will have to be almost set for harvest.

Peas and broccoli, by the way, are great for freezing, so you can do entire patches of these and set yourself up for next winter. They do need to be parboiled before freezing though, so make sure you set aside enough time to do this (or do it a bit at a time). You could freeze spinach as well, but the boiling won't leave it as salad greens.

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Square Foot Garden Update: Tomatoes and Beans Galore!

So, that last update with the tomato plants was apparently only half the story. Those bloody things have reached the lilac branches above the box, and are still growing!

I'm told the trick is to keep new shoots trimmed back so the plant puts more effort into growing the fruit. At the moment though, it looks as though we're not going to have any trouble there at all:

In the first two pics, you can see there are lots of flowers already on the plants. In the third pic, though, are the first fruits coming in. They're pretty densely clustered, so I'm not sure whether these are the beefeater or cherry tomatoes, but for sure this is going to be a good crop if the weather holds up.

Again, I think that answers the question of whether or not there's enough sun in that part of the yard. Remember, this is without any added fertilizer...just a few bags of manure mixed in with the gardening compost. That manure has led to some mushroom growth around the edges (mostly where it stays a little cooler than the middle), but nothing that can't be handled with a little plucking.

We also enjoyed the first green and yellow beans of the season, which was also a surprise. I actually went back to get some lettuce, but it was my daughter who pointed out that there were beans already on the bushes. The bushes are quite short actually...maybe a foot high or so. But the beans are coming in thick!

In fact, the only thing I'm worried about right now is the pepper plant, which isn't growing very quickly (though it is growing). When it went in, it was about 3/4 the size of the tomato plants. But because of their rapid growth they've shaded it almost completely. My hope is that this will give it an incentive to fight for some sunlight:

Still, I'm pretty happy with the way things are turning out in this garden project. The spinach is done...it's too hot now. I think next year I may plant the tomatoes separately; although realistically, everything else is doing just fine. Even the morning glories have figured out what they're supposed to be doing. My thinking is that the tomatoes will do well along the side of the garage, though I'm not fond of the soil there. The sunflowers seem to like it. And if I'm still in this space next season, I may build up another box for herbs (the parsley is the only thing that hasn't survived).

All-in-all, not a bad crop for a first-time veggie gardener:

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