Monday, June 15, 2009

How's it Growin'?

I took these pictures of the garden this past weekend. I'm going to try to get a film in tomorrow. I know I'm going on and on about it, but I'm just shocked at how much a square foot garden can produce. I was worried to a fault earlier this season about only getting 4.5-5 hours of sun a day, but I think with the GA heat, this has worked to my benefit. Today I picked five cucumbers, a yellow squash, six jalapenos, two eggplants, and a bell pepper. Yesterday I picked three cucumbers, an eggplant, four jalapenos, two yellow squash, three huge zucchini and a mess of beans. John from John's Journal has said in the past that his traditional row garden surpassed his SFG in terms of production, but I also know he and I are fairly happy with this method.

My cucumbers on the left part of the trellis are doing great, but the beans look rather scrawny. I planted Fortex for the poles and whereas they are not producing well, when I picked the mess of different beans and steamed them all together, you could truly tell which ones were the Fortex. They may not be fully suited to my climate, but they were certainly worth it, even if I don't get much out of them.

First to the cucumbers. They're surpassing the trellis in height. I keep winding them through the trellis to the side, but they have a mind of their own and don't care for it. They want to go up, up up!
Can you count the number of cucumbers on these two vines? I picked two of them and three off the bush plants and took them with me to my mother's today. BTW, we made short work of those pickles today as well. They didn't even complain about eating things that don't come from a grocery...well almost. Mom said she wouldn't eat anything with bugs. I hope she didn't read that last post! Regardless, the boy told his grandfather that they were supposed to be a father's day gift for him, but since we ate them all we'll have to figure out something else.


Speaking about cucumbers, I'm convinced the term 'bush' is a misnomer.
The cantaloupe is far exceeding its box. I understand now why they say to grow any vining product up, up, up! Any trellis I'd put on the side of boxes to catch some sun without shading others would only be three foot wide...is it worth it, do you think?
Here's a view from the front. On the far left you can see one zucchini, to the side of it some sweet potatoes that are getting crowded out and behind those another zucchini bush. I had the kids out there yesterday and I lost the girl in between the two beds, the zucchini was too tall.

Here is a picture of the new sweet potatoes in the other corner yard. The UGA extension says to plat sweet potatoes in June, so I'm hoping these will be okay. It's my goal to serve my own sweet potatoes at Thanksgiving.

Here's a close up of the front zucchini. There is a squash in front of it, planted at the same time, that has just never made it. There's another squash in the garden that has also not matched the production of the zucchini bushes.
Here's one of those zucchinis on Sunday that I picked today. It was fat and beautiful.

All of my tomatoes seem to be maturing at the same time. They're all getting that sick yellow/orange color. Usually I take pictures of the ones in pots in the front yard, but these are in the SFG.

By far, the most productive thing has been the banana peppers. These are in pots in the front walk. I'm not sure if it's the full sun or what, but if you count product and not ounces, of course, they've far out produced anything out there.


The jalapeno peppers are doing just as well, but these are in the SFG and have just started producing.

We picked a bell pepper today and more seem to be on the way.

Okra. MMMMM.

In the other corner yard, you can see the bush beans growing.

Here are those same beans in the SFG already established.

The corn in the containers seems to be growing. I moved these up to the porch for a storm with 45 mph winds that never fruitioned.


The eggplants are not liking the Georgia, June humidity. They're not growing as long and are loosing their glossy appearance and getting squishy. These are in containers and full sun, so I can only imagine they're baking in the heat. Not only that, but wasps keep building nests under the leaves. Next year, I think these will go in the back of the new corner yard along with the peppers and corn. This way, they'll get good sun and then go into shade during the hottest parts of the day. If it's the humidity, there's not much I can do about that, but I can give them a bit of a reprieve from the sun.

So that, my friends is that.

The morning comes early. Sweet gardening dreams.

9 comments:

  1. Dadgum, girl! Your garden is kickin'! I bet the family is impressed with your newly found green thumb...Yay!

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  2. OMGosh! Is this the same girl that couldn't grow a garden last year? Amazing!!! I'm so proud of ya, Ribbit. You've outdone old Granny ;-)

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  3. OMG- your garden is amazing this year- congratulations!

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  4. PS- have you read The Omnivores Dilemma yet?

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  5. Thanks, guys! It's not too bad for my first summer with a SFG. Proves that anyone can do it, that's for sure.

    Atrox_, no, I haven't read it. What's it all about?

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  6. The cucumbers were delicious, and the pickles divine. Haven't tried the eggplant, zucchini and squash yet, but we'll be happy to help you out with you cucumber surplus.
    The Gardener's Mom

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  7. You may be interested in reading it (The Omnivores Dilemma)- my entire family and bf did- all loved it- changed us a bit. Talks about the ethical and environmental implication of the food choices we make (made several top ten of 2007 looks lists). I am reading his second book now: In Defense of Food. It goes into more of what we should be eating (real food like the kind you are growing) and how flawed all the nutrition research is and has been. I have both on mp3- let me know if you want them for listening.

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  8. I've heard of that second book, but not the first. I'd love the MP3's, but I think I'm the only person in the world that doesn't own an MP3 player. :(

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