Our new square foot garden, originally uploaded by saintb.

The original square foot garden didn't drain well enough (even though I followed instructions!) and the plants never thrived. We poked holes in the cardboard, added some potting soil, and now have some thriving herbs.

The birdhouse!, originally uploaded by saintb.

Mark made this ceramic birdhouse for the garden. We have no idea if birds will come to it, but it's pretty to look at.

iris.JPG, originally uploaded by saintb.

Here is a walking iris. It just bloomed today. I planted it last year and it was thoroughly unimpressive all season. Suddenly, it's twice the size and covered in lovely blooms!

squashy.JPG, originally uploaded by saintb.

Here we have some more methods -- pots, and the plastic bottles are again for watering. You can also see what I think are potatoes (they sprung up out of the compost) and the mint, which is demanding we make mojitos and stat.

squash.JPG, originally uploaded by saintb.

I went a bit seed happy when spring arrived, and so I have about a jillion squash and cucumber plants, so many that if they are all successful, I will really regret it. However, giving my horticultural history, I can't imagine this will be the case, so instead we'll see how different methods do. Here we have them planted in ground (as enriched as I could make the sandy clay soil here). The inground bucket is for watering them all at once -- I poked holes in it.

squarefootgarden.JPG, originally uploaded by saintb.

I also have a square foot garden, four by four, using the famous Mel Bartholomew method. So far every plant seems happy, though not excessively fast in growing. These are all started from seed, and it's been a bit cool, so I think as summer gets going (and they get more sun) they'll really take off. That pole is from a tomato support. More about that in a bit.

tomatoes.JPG, originally uploaded by saintb.

well, really, it was to some extent. My last garden was sad and pathetic, and became badly neglected as I studied for prelims. But so far, this one is going quite well! It's much more ambitious. Let me take you on a tour....


Here are the hanging tomatoes. Yes, you've seen them on the tv infomercials, but I love a gimmick, and so far it's working quite well. The only drawback is that they are incredibly heavy. Mark's father built the stand, a very sturdy structure. He used what we thought were nigh unbendable metal brackets to hang the tomatoes from the stand...but one is bending.

tomato pots, originally uploaded by saintb.

They are growing so fast! I have been touching the leaves a lot, since that is supposed to encourage a bushy, rather than spindly plant, and trying to keep an eye out for "suckers" -- non-essential plant growth that detracts from tomato output. The tall one there already has little buds.

japanese eggplant, originally uploaded by saintb.

I think this is as big as it's going to get...

sweet potatoes?, originally uploaded by saintb.

These are, we believe, some potatoes we had that we let get to old and started to grow -- Mark buried them around the edge of the garden a while back. We can't remember if they are sweet potato or just regular potatoes.

something likes to eat green peppers..., originally uploaded by saintb.

CHOMP.

something likes to eat mint, originally uploaded by saintb.

Munch munch munch.

scarletmilkweedbuds, originally uploaded by saintb.

Although some of its leaves turned yellow after it was put in the ground (it was very very potbound), the scarlet milkweed seems to be doing well -- it's made some little buds!

new garden, originally uploaded by saintb.

Here is my second attempt at a garden.

But I should explain why the first one failed. I'm a bad gardener. It's not that I do foolish things like overwater (though in the heat we've been having, some underwatering has happened, I confess). It's that I have not been sufficiently vicious to my plants. Like, weeding. There hasn't been much of that on my part. I've had a very live-and-let-live policy. Turns out, that means weeds live and my plants don't. Same problems with pruning, or weeding out stronger seedlings from weaker. Ultimately, what I got was a lot of plants, too crowded, none of which did too well. But no more. Now I am a crueller me, a me who does not fear to pinch, to uproot, to pluck out for the greater good.

The planter is a repurposed trunk I found on the side of the road. It's filled with Tall. Nursery's potting soil, plus a little of the garden soil. Both plants are hibiscus, one's a Cajun Hibiscus and the other one is Peppermint Schnapps.

In containers, I used some fairly inexpensive Canadian (?) potting soil from Home Depot -- couldn't afford the organic soil this time, but this soil at least isn't fertilized, so I can add my own fertilizer (which i bought -- worm poop juice -- just need to figure out when to do it.

Container plants:

Kentucky Colonal Spearmint
Chocolate Mint
Scented Lemon Thyme
California Wonder green pepper
Tomatos --
Husky Gold
Sunleaper
Sweet Baby Girl

In the ground, using soil from previous attempt (which seems good):

Upright Rosemary (prob. should have containered, but out of them)
three more California wonder green peppers (containering them is supposed to help their fruit production, but again, just not enough containers, so, an experiment)
Better Bush tomato
Husky Red tomato

Florida Plants -- Scarlett Milkweed, Persian Shield, and alas, the last one, also a purple one, is missing its tag not. Drat.

Put Eucalyptus mulch around all plants and spread over soil in general to the extent that I could, but ran out.

There! Now we'll see what happens. I now have all the parts to the irrigation system -- I'm just hoping it's ok to use a hose to "extend" it to my area of garden -- the system won't actually screw onto the main faucet b/c of it's angle to the house...I think I am going to go to home depot to get an extender (which would also split it, so that the hose and the irrigation system could both be used).