Now what we’ve been waiting for, the planting of what’s hopefully going to be a garden full of delicious vegetables in a few months! After some research, we decided to build a garden based on square foot gardening, it’s the concept of building a small but compact garden. Depending on the size of what you’re growing, that decides how many plants can be in each square foot. Broccoli is a big vegetable, so only one plant per square foot, while you can get a whopping 16 carrot plants in one square foot. Here’s a chart to help illustrate.
We had some ideas of the vegetables we wanted so we started out with those in mind and used a few compatibility charts to figure out what grows best together, and what vegetables aren’t very friendly. One night we got so into it we used a Excel spreadsheet to find the best matches and then plotted it all out on the iPad with diagrams. I’m telling you, this is serious business. This was our plan:
So off we went to the Home Depot nursery. Sadness set in quick, we were too late, no broccoli or cauliflower plants to be found (we were months too late for the seeds, so we were going straight for the plant). Also, no celery seeds could be found. So with some rearranging of our garden, we checked out with our seeds and plants.
Square foot gardening: Planting per foot, so to separate all the vegetables, we used twine to make our 16 squares. We also marked A-D, 1-4 on the boxes.
Our blueprint.
Rearranging and making sure everyone likes one another.
Let’s go peas! Work your magic!
Probably the most exciting!! I grew a pumpkin in elementary school and it overtook our very small backyard. It’s one of my fondest childhood memories.
I put labels on everything for identification. Also I’m really dirty. Also check out my NYC tree workshop apron, I look like I work at Home Depot.
Here we are! Everything is planted and we’re hoping for the best. )
Box to the right:
A1-Patio Cherry Tomatoes, A2-Husky Cherry Tomatoes, A3-Early Girl Tomatoes, A4-Beefmaster Tomatoes
B1/B2-Green Peppers, B3-Big Boy Tomatoes, B4- Beefmaster Tomatoes
C1- Petite Carrots, C2-Tall Carrots, C3-Green Beans, C4- Yellow Beans
D1- Catnip, D2- Peas, D3- Green Beans, D4 – Yellow Beans
Box to the left:
A1-Pumpkin, A2-A4 – Corn
B1 -Pumpkin, B2-B4 – Corn
C2-C4 – Corn
Small Box: Strawberries
Growing seedlings inside: broccoli, cauliflower (eventually be transplanted to the D row)
Also planted in pot: catgrass
The sky even put on a happy face for us.
Then we watered them.
Have a nice day sweet babies.