Post by solargeek on Oct 8, 2019 4:51:34 GMT
Yikes! Pulling the garden with raised beds is not all that much easier. We also had a very interesting year for things that did well versus things that didn't (but used to in the past be abundant).
For those interested square foot vegetable gardening (no flowers) in raised beds, here goes:
2016, 2017 and 2018 had fantastic (!!!) crops of RED CABBAGE so much so that I planted a green cabbage this year also. All grown from seed. In our deep freeze we had almost an entire shelf of stacked roasted red cabbage steaks each year. The cabbages were the size of soccer balls.
This year NONE of the red cabbages are bigger than my fist. No reason. Same sort of spring weather last year and the year before. And I pulled them all and we won't even have more than 1/10th of last year.
Luckily the GREEN CABBAGE that I grew from seed, did a little better.
PEAPODS!! Best year ever. I put in one bed with peas on the perimeter of the bed with only two rows and the whole center taken up by other crops. We ate from those Pea plants for the entire summer! Despite the super hot weather, they never bolted. I think they died from old age.
ARUGULA LETTUCE BASIL! Fantastic! Wonderful! Even did a new fall garden with more lettuce and arugula. Love it! All summer Long even with the heat everything continue to grow and did not bolted until just now. They certainly loved the square foot garden!
BROCCOLI 🥦this year even with the late start, pretty fantastic.
BEANS abundant! Enough to roast and save in the freezer for many meals.
Happily, best year ever for both.
CARROTS 🥕: first time ever growing them successfully (😬)and I believe it's because we put them in the 22 inch deep bed. I've only pulled a quarter of them and yet they fill two trays. I will have to roast them to reduce them in size so they will fit in the freezer. Extremely happy and blessed!
TOMATOES, 🍅well we were hit with late blight and yet I still did pretty well. But nothing like you would expect was 225 plants in the ground!! Seeds grew well, they were strong at planting, but cold June with the super wet weather really slowed everything down. And by the time The tomatoes caught up it was almost too late.
I was able to make about 1/4 of the tomato pesto I usually make and freeze it. I also made about the same numbers of sun-dried tomatoes that I then froze between pieces of parchment paper to use on pizzas and bruschetta.
But THIS is why I can every year. It takes 2 quart jars to make one lasagna. It takes about 1 1/2 quarts to make any type of tomato sauce for another type of pasta dish. I expected to get at least 30- 40 quarts this year. I was blessed to get 11. Again, luckily, I have some left over from last year.
KALE -🥗🥬 Great! OK I still can't eat it raw, and I can't eat it unless I can't taste it in a dish. But we go through buckets of crushed up frozen kale that I add to soups, chili, lasagna, any pasta sauce where I can hide it and on. And we were blessed with an abundant harvest.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS:😬. I don't know what to say. This is the second year in a row With complete crop failure. In 3 different beds! 2015-2018, The crop was so fantastic each year that I had enough to make it through to the next year. Probably 15–20 quart bags in the freezer each year. We probably eat brussels sprouts three times a week roasted and caramelized.
This year- Can't blame it on the soil as we got all new soil and mixed it with all kinds of compost and vermiculite so it was nice, drained well, happy, good soil. The plants were all planted in beds in which they had never been before because of course it's all new beds. We had lots of nice, cool, wet weather that it should've LOVED.
I bought some plants from my favorite tried and true Plant nursery to compare with the ones I grew from seed. None of them worked.
I won't even have a bowl full out of 42 brussels sprout plants. I'm considering giving up that next year for one year. Luckily, Trader Joe's has delicious frozen organic brussels sprouts for $.99 most of the year!
POTATOES 🥔 FROM MY OWN SEED; Wow! Wow! Wow! Huge crop We planted in 3 of the 22 inch deep beds. Fabulous growth, started eating them late July and considering I put them in the first week of June that's pretty quick.
We probably have 8 shelves lined in the cold room (pitch dark)!with those racks you get to carry all your plants home from the nurseries filled with size-sorted potatoes. I will start roasting them and freezing them in a week or so. True success and we feel very blessed as Pat loves potatoes and will eat them at every meal😬👏😀
SWEET POTATOES: After a fantastic crop in small 2 Cubic feet containers LAST year I was expecting these raised beds to work. They don't. Terrible crop, all twisted and strange looking and hard to wash and get clean. I will go back to my containers that worked last year.
There's also something to be said for being able to dump the container and get a huge crop by just pushing the dirt around instead of digging digging digging.
CORN: grew fabulously 😀 with no problems until the wind knocked ALL of it over even with my new fence that I put into hold it up. The problem is the corn was so tall when the wind hit, that it fell over the top of the 3 foot fence.
I have leftover seed, so next year I will put in a 6 foot fence since we have cattle panel that size to just surround temporarily and grow it again. The years we had were tasty, really delicious.
Herbs of every kind. Loved the raise beds.
OK that's my square foot gardening report for the first year with the raised beds
For those interested square foot vegetable gardening (no flowers) in raised beds, here goes:
2016, 2017 and 2018 had fantastic (!!!) crops of RED CABBAGE so much so that I planted a green cabbage this year also. All grown from seed. In our deep freeze we had almost an entire shelf of stacked roasted red cabbage steaks each year. The cabbages were the size of soccer balls.
This year NONE of the red cabbages are bigger than my fist. No reason. Same sort of spring weather last year and the year before. And I pulled them all and we won't even have more than 1/10th of last year.
Luckily the GREEN CABBAGE that I grew from seed, did a little better.
PEAPODS!! Best year ever. I put in one bed with peas on the perimeter of the bed with only two rows and the whole center taken up by other crops. We ate from those Pea plants for the entire summer! Despite the super hot weather, they never bolted. I think they died from old age.
ARUGULA LETTUCE BASIL! Fantastic! Wonderful! Even did a new fall garden with more lettuce and arugula. Love it! All summer Long even with the heat everything continue to grow and did not bolted until just now. They certainly loved the square foot garden!
BROCCOLI 🥦this year even with the late start, pretty fantastic.
BEANS abundant! Enough to roast and save in the freezer for many meals.
Happily, best year ever for both.
CARROTS 🥕: first time ever growing them successfully (😬)and I believe it's because we put them in the 22 inch deep bed. I've only pulled a quarter of them and yet they fill two trays. I will have to roast them to reduce them in size so they will fit in the freezer. Extremely happy and blessed!
TOMATOES, 🍅well we were hit with late blight and yet I still did pretty well. But nothing like you would expect was 225 plants in the ground!! Seeds grew well, they were strong at planting, but cold June with the super wet weather really slowed everything down. And by the time The tomatoes caught up it was almost too late.
I was able to make about 1/4 of the tomato pesto I usually make and freeze it. I also made about the same numbers of sun-dried tomatoes that I then froze between pieces of parchment paper to use on pizzas and bruschetta.
But THIS is why I can every year. It takes 2 quart jars to make one lasagna. It takes about 1 1/2 quarts to make any type of tomato sauce for another type of pasta dish. I expected to get at least 30- 40 quarts this year. I was blessed to get 11. Again, luckily, I have some left over from last year.
KALE -🥗🥬 Great! OK I still can't eat it raw, and I can't eat it unless I can't taste it in a dish. But we go through buckets of crushed up frozen kale that I add to soups, chili, lasagna, any pasta sauce where I can hide it and on. And we were blessed with an abundant harvest.
BRUSSELS SPROUTS:😬. I don't know what to say. This is the second year in a row With complete crop failure. In 3 different beds! 2015-2018, The crop was so fantastic each year that I had enough to make it through to the next year. Probably 15–20 quart bags in the freezer each year. We probably eat brussels sprouts three times a week roasted and caramelized.
This year- Can't blame it on the soil as we got all new soil and mixed it with all kinds of compost and vermiculite so it was nice, drained well, happy, good soil. The plants were all planted in beds in which they had never been before because of course it's all new beds. We had lots of nice, cool, wet weather that it should've LOVED.
I bought some plants from my favorite tried and true Plant nursery to compare with the ones I grew from seed. None of them worked.
I won't even have a bowl full out of 42 brussels sprout plants. I'm considering giving up that next year for one year. Luckily, Trader Joe's has delicious frozen organic brussels sprouts for $.99 most of the year!
POTATOES 🥔 FROM MY OWN SEED; Wow! Wow! Wow! Huge crop We planted in 3 of the 22 inch deep beds. Fabulous growth, started eating them late July and considering I put them in the first week of June that's pretty quick.
We probably have 8 shelves lined in the cold room (pitch dark)!with those racks you get to carry all your plants home from the nurseries filled with size-sorted potatoes. I will start roasting them and freezing them in a week or so. True success and we feel very blessed as Pat loves potatoes and will eat them at every meal😬👏😀
SWEET POTATOES: After a fantastic crop in small 2 Cubic feet containers LAST year I was expecting these raised beds to work. They don't. Terrible crop, all twisted and strange looking and hard to wash and get clean. I will go back to my containers that worked last year.
There's also something to be said for being able to dump the container and get a huge crop by just pushing the dirt around instead of digging digging digging.
CORN: grew fabulously 😀 with no problems until the wind knocked ALL of it over even with my new fence that I put into hold it up. The problem is the corn was so tall when the wind hit, that it fell over the top of the 3 foot fence.
I have leftover seed, so next year I will put in a 6 foot fence since we have cattle panel that size to just surround temporarily and grow it again. The years we had were tasty, really delicious.
Herbs of every kind. Loved the raise beds.
OK that's my square foot gardening report for the first year with the raised beds
They taste mild like broccoli.