Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Garden Plan

I thought it might be fun to share the layout plans for my Square Foot Garden. Everything you see below is already in the garden (most of them as tiny plants, a few still as seeds), except for the tomato plants. Those are, however, sitting out on the garden since they're pretty successfully hardened off. I only bring them in for bad weather and very cold nights, now.

Note that North is to the left side of the picture. This means that most of the sun will be coming from the right side. There will be a trellis on the east (top) side.

If you consider subsequent plantings, you can see that this mere 4x4 garden can produce a lot.

The only thing I'm skeptical about is keeping the tomatoes under control. I'm using 5 foot tall cages that I'll tie together for a little extra support (the cages will be really crammed together in the first place) and I'm going to have to train them to stay in the cages as best as I can. We plan on having another box next year, so I'll probably put them along the outside like I have the peas and cucumbers. This way, they can grow outward all they want. Alternatively, I might do a long, narrow SFG box just for the tomatoes.

In addition to the above garden layout, I'm also growing baskets and pots full of strawberries and already have two full-grown Red Robin Tomato plants hanging on the front porch. I will also most likely grow the spare cherry tomato seedling I have in a large pot on the front porch. These babies are Super Sweet 100s, so I'm really hoping to be overwhelmed by bowls a bowls of cherry tomatoes! Especially since Brandywines take a while to fruit and aren't known for being especially prolific.

5 comments:

Mick said...

Hey, nice setup Elizabeth.
You seem to have used your available space well and achieved a good balanced mixture.
In the past I've been terrible about keeping track of what I've planted, where and when but I'm REALLY trying to be good this year and get organised. If I can keep a record of the blunders I make perhaps I'll not fall into the same traps again. Successes need to be logged and worked on too. Well, that's the plan.

Elizabeth said...

Yeah, I think that's important, Mick. Especially since we aren't farmers with generations of experience handed down to us, gardening is sometimes a lot of trial and error...

Jill of All Trades said...

Don't forget to plant dill in between your tomato plants. The tomato worms will eat the dill before they eat the tomatoes.

Elizabeth said...

Ohhh, thanks for the tomato worm tip! I've not had any problems here in previous years, but I'd like to keep it that way.

Creepy crawlies are definitely my least favorite part of gardening. :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing your layout. You're right -- that's a lot to get out of so little space! I'll look forward to seeing how it works out for you.