Our 2014 Backyard Produce Garden

In early May, I decided to change our garden a bit by switching to a raised-bed, square-foot garden, even though we have little knowledge on the subject. We need to study more about the compatibility of plants, watering, planting times, etc. Based upon what grows this season, we'll make better plans and learn more during the winter.

Maybe this fall or next spring, we can try adding plastic over the garden to extend the growing season for some plants. Maybe we should stagger the planting time for each bed. Anyway, that's thoughts for the off-season.

On Sat, May 24, 2014, we shopped for plants at Bench's farm/greenhouse, located along Route 2, a little west of Metzger Marsh Wildlife Area. On Sun, May 25, we bought more plants and seeds at The Andersons on Talmadge Rd. On Mon, May 26, we planted everything in our raised-bed, square-foot garden.

• I built three framed beds. Each bed measures 9-feet by 4-feet.
• The boards that I used to build the frame are 1-inch by 8-inch untreated pine.
• I bought 6-foot boards from Home Depot. I connected the boards with straight and right-angle brackets and screws.The brackets are thin and small. It's not exactly sturdy construction, but I wanted to go cheap this first time out. This setup should last a few seasons.
• The soil within the framed beds consists of our own yard soil, along with bags of Holy Cow manure compost, mushroom compost, and peat moss. I bought these items from The Andersons and Titgemeier's. Maybe next year, I'll add a mix of equal parts peat moss, compost, and vermiculite.
• I did not bury in the beds the landscape cloth that prevents weed growth. We'll see how it goes this year without the cloth.
• I used twine to define the grids.
• I removed soil between the frames and added it to the beds. This caused the aisles to get muddy after a rain. I bought straw from Titgemeier's and placed it on the aisles. This helped a lot.

Plan

Frame Layout

Original plan to be replicated across all three beds.

northwest
	A	B	C	D
1	Peas (8)	Tomato (1)	Tomato (1)	Tomato (1)
2	Carrots (16)	Bush Beans (9)	Spinach (9)	Beets (16)
3	Radishes (16)	Cucumbers (2)	Egg Plant (1)	Broccoli (1)
4	Pepper (1)	Carrots (16)	Peas (8)	Bush Beans (9)
5	Pepper (1)	Cucumber (2)	Bush Beans (9)	Peas (8)
6	Pepper (1)	Celery (1)	Celery (1)	Celery (1)
7	Okra (1)	Egg Plant (1)	Okra (1)	Egg Plant (1)
8	Cucumber (2)	Lettuce (4)	Lettuce (4)	Pepper (1)
9	Tomato (1)	Carrots (16)	Red Onions (16)	Green Onions (32)
southeast

Plant Counts

Plant	Sqrs Per Frame	Plants per Sqr	Total Plants Per Frame	Grand Total Sqrs	Grand Total Num Plants
Tomato	4	1	4	12	12
Egg Plant	3	1	3	9	9
Pepper	4	1	4	12	12
Radish	1	16	16	3	48
Cucumber	3	2	6	9	18
Celery	3	1	3	9	9
Okra	2	1	2	6	6
Spinach	1	9	9	3	27
Beets	1	16	16	3	48
Lettuce	2	4	8	6	24
Beans	3	9	27	9	81
Peas	3	8	24	9	72
Carrot	3	16	48	9	144
Green Onion	1	32	32	3	96
Red Onion	1	16	16	3	48
Broccoli	1	1	1	3	3
Grand Total	36	-	219	108	657

Actual Layout

S = seed P = plant B = from Bench's A = from The Andersons

Since Bench's is greenhouse, the selection was bigger and the plants were healthier than at The Andersons. But The Anderons is located in West Toledo.

It's either white or yellow onions or both.

In my opinion, the carrot seeds were too small to use properly, so I don't expect much. I scattered way more than 16 seeds in the each of the three squares. In two of the carrot seed squares, I added 4 to 6 bush bean seeds that were leftovers seeds.

Two of the squares contain only a single bush bean plant. I should have added the leftover seeds to these squares.

We bought the plants at Bench's before we had a plan finalized. Oops.

Seeds:

• peas - organic - Ferry Morse - Oregon Sugar Pod
• beans - Burpee - Garden Bean - tenderette

West Bed

northwest
	A	B	C	D
1	Peas (8) S-A	Health Kick Tomato (1) P-B 6/9 replaced broken tomato	? Tomato (1) P-?	San Marzano Plum Tomato (1) P-B
2	Carrots (16) S-A plus 4-5 bean seeds	Bush Beans (9) S-A	Spinach (9) P-?	Beets (16) P-?
3	Radishes (16) P-?	Cucumbers (2) P-? removed 6/27	Egg Plant (1) P-?	Broccoli (1) P-?
4	Pepper (1) P-?	Carrots (16) P-?	Strawberries (2) P-A Pepper (1) P-B 6/9	Bush Beans (9) S-A
5	Pepper (1) P-?	Cucumber (2) P-?	Bush Beans (9) S-A	Broccoli (1) P-?
6	Cucumber (2) P-?	Celery (1) P-?	Celery (1) P-?	Celery (1) P-?
7	Okra (1) P-?	Egg Plant (1) P-?	Okra (1) P-?	New Egg Plant (1) P-B 6/9 replaced broken egg plant 6/9
8	Strawberries (2) P-A Pepper (1) P-B 6/9	Lettuce (4) P-?	Lettuce (3) P-?	Sorel (1) P-?
9	White Onions (32) P-?	Carrots (16) P-?	White Onions (32) P-?	White Onions ? (32) P-?
southeast

Middle Bed

northwest
	A	B	C	D
1	Peas (8) S-A	? Tomato (1) P-?	? Tomato (1) P-?	Amish Paste Plum Tomato (1) P-A
2	Carrots (16) S-A	Bush Beans (1) P-?	Spinach (9) P-?	Bush Beans (9) S-A
3	Radishes (16) P-?	Cucumbers (2) P-? removed 6/27	Egg Plant (1) P-?	Broccoli (1) P-?
4	Pepper (1) P-?	Carrots (16) P-?	Strawberries (2) P-A Pepper (1) P-B 6/9	Bush Beans (9) S-A
5	Pepper (1) P-?	Cucumber (2) P-? removed 6/27	Bush Beans (9) S-A	Broccoli (1) P-?
6	Pepper (1) P-?	Celery (1) P-?	Celery (1) P-?	Celery (1) P-?
7	Okra (1) P-?	Egg Plant (1) P-?	Okra (1) P-?	Egg Plant (1) P-?
8	Strawberries (2) P-A	Lettuce (3) P-?	Lettuce (3) P-?	Sorel (1) P-?
9	Cherry Tomato (1) P-?	Carrots (16) P-?	Onions ? (32) P-?	Onions ? (32) P-?
southeast

East Bed

northwest
	A	B	C	D
1	Peas (8) S-A	San Marzano Plum Tomato (1) P-B	Yellow Pair Health Kick Tomato(1) P-B 6/9	Amish Paste Plum Tomato (1) P-A
2	Carrots (16) S-A 4-5 bean seeds	Bush Beans (1) P-?	Spinach (9) P-?	Beets (16) P-?
3	Radishes (16) P-?	Cucumbers (2) P-? removed 6/27	Egg Plant (1) P-?	Broccoli Egg Plant (1) P-B 6/9
4	Pepper (1) P-?	Carrots (16) P-?	Strawberries (3) P-A Pepper (1) P-B 6/9	Bush Beans (9) S-A
5	Pepper (1) P-?	Cucumber (2) P-? removed 6/27	Bush Beans (9) S-A	Broccoli Egg Plant (1) P-B 6/9
6	Pepper (1) P-?	Celery (1) P-?	Celery (1) P-?	Celery (1) P-?
7	Okra (1) P-?	Egg Plant (1) P-?	Okra (1) P-?	Egg Plant (1) P-?
8	Red Onion (16) P-?	Lettuce (3) P-?	Lettuce (3) P-?	Sorel (1) P-?
9	Cherry Tomato (1) P-?	Carrots (16) P-?	Red Onions (16) P-?	Red Onion (16) P-?
southeast

Photos

May 26

After planting on Mon, May 26, 2014:

June 21

As of Sat eve, Jun 21, 2014:

east bed

middle bed

west bed

June 26

Backyard garden haul this evening includes four types of lettuce greens, spinach, and sorel with a few green beans and radishes mixed in. The salad spinner comes in handy. Over the past two weeks, I've been only picking enough greens needed for one or two salads. But I was not keeping up with harvesting because some greens went past peak. So tonight, I picked most of what existed to be stored in the refrigerator. We'll be eating salads every day for the next few days. Good stuff.

June 27

Additional Reads

• Square Foot Gardening
• Container Gardening Ideas - maybe build two "Earth Boxes"

2014 Notes

• Mon, Jun 2: I saw carrots had sprouted in all the squares that seeds were planted.
• Tue, Jun 3: I saw the beans and peas had sprouted.
• Wed, Jun 4: 0.40 inches of light rain fell, during the afternoon. First real rainfall since the garden was planted. I've been watering at least every other day.
• Thu, Jun 5: Last weekend, I spotted a small rabbit, hanging out among the tall coreopsis stalks, near the backdoor. Yesterday evening, we watched the little rabbit eat a large leaf from a weedy-type of plant, near the coreopsis. This morning, I saw that two broccoli plants and some of the newly-sprouted beans had been scalped. These three squares of plants grew along the east side of the east bed, next to the Oak Openings natives flower bed. So it's time to erect some kind of barrier or fence.
• Thu, Jun 5 cont - I built a fence around the garden, using:
  • 1-inch mesh poultry wire netting, 20 gauge galvanized steel, 2-foot tall. I bought two 25-foot rolls and one 10-foot roll from Home Depot. $12.98 per 25-foot roll.
  • 4 u-posts and 6 two-foot long rebar posts
  • wire to attach fencing to posts
• Thu, Jun 5, cont - I saw a male Eastern Black Swallowtail land in the garden.
• Fri, Jun 6 - I saw a female Widow Skimmer dragonfly land on one side of the middle bed in the garden.
• Sun, Jun 8 - 0.20 in of rain fell in the morning.
• Mon, Jun 9 - squares with "6/9" indicate new plants from Bench's that were planted to replace broken plants, struggling plants, or plants that were munched by the rabbit. I also added four more 'Health Kick' tomato plants that were planted in medium-sized, black, planter-type of buckets, filled with potting soil purchased at Bench's. These four additional tomato plants will grow on the driveway. I'll add a wooden stake within the cone-shaped tomato cage to support the bucket tomato plants. On June 9, I added the stake and cage setup to two tomato plants, growing in the front rows of the east and middle beds. I need more tomato cages.
• Wed, Jun 11 - 0.40 inches of rain fell, mostly before daybreak.
• Sat, Jun 14 - DD picked a radish from the west bed. Just one. Apparently, it peaked above ground a little, so she was curious. It was two inches long, and it tasted fine, so we'll have good radishes soon. The lettuce greens, the spinach, and the sorel are ready to be picked. We could have begun picking greens a few days ago.
• Sun, Jun 15 - We snipped some greens from two or three raised beds for an afternoon salad: a little lettuce, sorel, and spinach. And we plucked another small radish. From the middle oval flower bed, we cut tarragon and chives. We grilled chicken from Zavotsky's. And we're drinking some of our homemade beer: Belgian blonde and the grapefruit honey ale. Nice afternoon. Salad tasted fantastic. Garden to sink to be washed then salad spinner to dry then eaten. Fresh. Temps reached the upper 80s in the late afternoon/early evening.
• Mon, Jun 16 - temps reached 90 degrees in West Toledo today. First 90-degree of the year, I believe. It was a little cooler at the airport. Temps are forecast to be around 90 degrees the next two days with thunderstorms possible both days. Added three more tomato cages to the plants in thin, black containers.
• Tue morning, Jun 17 - I noticed flowers blooming in the garden: several cucumber plants with yellow flowers, at least one egg plant with a light purple flower, and some pepper plants with white flowers. Two of the pepper plants contain very small peppers. The other yellow pair tomato plant is failing too, so I will replace it. All six okra plants have not grown at all since planting three weeks ago. I may replace some of the okra plants with bean seeds and/or radishes. Today, I bought seven more tomato cages and installed them. I decided not to replace the failed yellow pair tomato plant, so we currently have 14 tomato plants, all caged. Today's Noon-time lunch included lettuce, sorel, and spinach from our garden, along with our home-brewed summer wheat beer, which at 5.5% ABV was a good drink for a no-AC house with outdoor temps already at 90 degrees at Noon. The fresh greens taste amazing.
• Wed, Jun 18 - 0.32 inches of rain fell between 3:30 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. 0.22 inches of rain fell between approximately 5:05 p.m. and 5:25 p.m.
• Thu, Jun 19 - another batch of rain moved into the Toledo area after dark yesterday. The light continued after Midnight. 0.56 inches of rain fell before daybreak. So 1.10 inches of rain fell in approx 12 hours.
• Fri, Jun 20 - 0.27 inches of rain fell in the afternoon and early evening. I picked some salad greens and sorel for dinner.
• Sat, Jun 21 - DD picked a few radishes. Plenty of greens left to eat.
• Sun, Jun 22 - DD fixed us tasty salads. The greens did not come from our garden. DD used locally-grown salad greens, bought last weekend at the Toledo farmers market, along with garlic scapes, purslane (Portulaca oleracea), and kale bought this weekend at the farmers market, plus radishes from our garden, and orange-ish Nasturtium flowers from the potted plant in our backyard that we bought at the farmers market this weekend. I love the taste that Nasturtium adds.
• Mon, Jun 23 - 0.17 inches of rain fell. Other nearby areas received much more rain, including a damaging thunderstorm, so I'm glad that it was boring for us.
• Tue, Jun 24 - 0.03 inches of rain fell before daybreak. Lunch consisted of a big salad with greens from the garden: diff types of lettuce, spinach, and sorel. 0.10 inches of rain fell in the evening. Total rainfall for the day: 0.13 inches. For dinner, another salad made from our garden greens. The chopped up firm, crunchy stalks of the sorel add great flavor.
• Wed, Jun 25 - 2.20 inches of rain fell in 90 minutes, between 4:05 p.m. and 5:35 p.m.
• Thu, Jun 26 - Made a major harvest of lettuce greens, spinach, and sorel this evening. Some of the greens needed picked earlier. I have not been picking the greens soon enough. So tonight, I picked most of the greens left, washed them, dried, and stored them in the frig. I also harvested a few radishes and the first green beans, but only a small amount. The radish plants are 15 to 20 inches tall, big-leafed, but the radish part is only about 3/4-inch long. Strange. I'll let them go for a while before picking anymore to see if the red radish part grows larger. The cucumbers are spreading into other squares and tangling onto other plants. These cucumbers are too viney. I don't remember our cucumbers last year doing this. Must be a different variety. I'm thinking the radishes and cucumbers are out for next year, but it's early yet. I'll definitely plant lettuce greens again, along with spinach and sorel.
• Fri, Jun 27 - Salad for lunch from the June 26 haul. This evening, I removed cucumber plants from 6 of the 7 squares. I left the cucumber plant in the west bed located at A-6 because it's growing up along the fencing. We should not have planted these bush pickle cucumber plants because their vines spread into other beds and around other plants, especially the pepper plants. Too messy. These cucumber plants grew well though, and they were all loaded with yellow flowers. Some vines were about 3.5 feet long. I'll leave the squares empty for now. The "well-behaved" plants that grow within their squares include: eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli, celery, sorel, spinach, and lettuce. All but the lettuce and spinach, however, are only one plant per square. The beans are a bit wild. Next year, I might try planting a section of beans in one bed, like two rows (8 squares total) beside each other, at one end of a bed followed by a row of eggplant. Another salad for dinner.
• Sat, Jun 28 - salad for lunch and salad for dinner, using greens from the Thu, Jun 26 "harvest." Today, I picked more greens that were ready: sorel, lettuce, and spinach. Saving these in the frig for later.
• Sun, Jun 29 - again, our garden salads for lunch and dinner. And I picked some more greens from our garden while they're looking good.
• Mon, Jun 30 - our garden salad for dinner.
• Tue, Jul 1 - 0.17 inches of rain fell before daybreak. Garden salad for dinner.
• Thu, Jul 3 - picked a good bunch of greens, basically the last of them.
• Sat, Jul 5 - salad for lunch that used the last of the Jun 26 harvest. DD and I had salads with our homemade pizza for dinner. These salads used greens from the Jul 3 harvest. Tasty salad. I added Nasturtium flowers to my salad. No salad for me on Wed, Thu, and Fri. I wish that I could keep greens growing all the time. These salads are excellent, especially with the sorel and Nasturtium additions. A purple pepper is ready to be picked now.
• Sun, Jul 6 - our garden salad for dinner with Nasturtium and some radish from our garden.
• Mon, Jul 7 - Picked a purple pepper from our garden this evening. First pepper of the season. DD and I had salads for dinner with Nasturtium and some of the purple pepper. We also added some pieces from a store-bought portabella mushroom. I made another pizza from the dough that I made a couple days ago that used some spent grains from our imperial stout beer. On the pizza, I used basil from our backyard, some of the purple pepper, and pieces of portabella mushroom. Westmalle Trappist Trippel beer. It was an amazingly delicious dinner. The salad greens were the last from the July 3 harvest. We used up all of the purple pepper this evening. It had a mild taste.
• Tue, Jul 8 - 0.20 inches of rain fell at mid-morning today. This evening, I sprayed the pepper plants with the Epsom salts and water mix. Added Espoma organic tomato plant food to the six health kick tomato plants, since they seem to be lagging and also to one tomato plant that has formed several yellow leaves recently. I removed yellow leaves from tomato plants. I prob need to make the mix to resolve tomato leaf blight.
• Wed, Jul 9 - The existing lettuce plants have produced some new, small leaves. Sorel is still producing. I think I'll use these greens on our burgers tonight. A pepper species that is producing a white-ish bell pepper with a hint of light yellow is ready with two peppers. Another one of these has also produced two peppers. Extremely faded color, whatever variety it is. I'll have find out the variety of the purple bell pepper. I would say the lettuce varieties to plant again would be, according to their tags, "Salad Mix Lettuce" and "Red Sails Lettus." And Sorel too. I'd leave out the Buttercrunch Lettuce and the spinach because they don't produce enough volume. I harvested some lettuce, spinach, and sorel that was used with our outdoor meal with the MN family. I also cut up one of the peppers.
• over the July 12 - 13 weekend, 0.10 inches of rain fell.
• Mon, Jul 14 - MN gang visited on their way back from eastern Ohio to MN. We ate pizza from the dough that K and I made last Wed. On one pizza, I used one of the peppers from last Wed, and I harvested the first eggplant of the season. It was a white eggplant variety from the middle bed, row 3 column C. K cut the eggplant into thin disks that we placed on the pizza.
• Wed, Jul 16 - A chipmunk nabbed a one-inch long, budding white eggplant from the west bed, row 3 column C. I saw it tugging on the nub earlier in the day, and this evening, I noticed that the baby eggplant was gone. I pulled all the radishes that grew in three squares. Only a handful of the radish plants produced something large enough to eat, and those were still small. The radishes consisted of mostly sprawling foliage with some stalks flowering and very little "meat." I'll replant some radishes around Labor Day. I pulled one carrot from a square along the driveway to test, and it turned out to be a small carrot, big enough to eat. Plenty of beans are ready to be picked. I'll do that tomorrow. I sprayed a few tomato plants with the mixture to slow or halt yellow leaf growth.
• Fri, Jul 18 - something ate the tops of one of our pepper plants. I saw a chipmunk rummaging around inside the garden. It must be sliding underneath the fencing. I don't think the wire mesh is big enough to allow a chipmunk through. This evening, DD and I picked: bush green beans, a few peas, a few short carrots, skinny celery, a good-sized bush pickle, buttercrunch lettuce, sorel, and a whiteish-green pepper. We'll eat most of this tonight. The celery and carrots need more time, but we wanted to try them now. I pulled a beet plant, but it had nothing but roots. We could use some rain.

tags: #home - #garden - #food - #blog_jr

#todo : list plant variety for each square