Yesterday I re-seeded some cantaloupe, old cucumber, and butternut squash seeds. I also tried planting some quinoa & alfalfa in the middle (back) of the celery bed.

I noticed that my peas by the driveway have a lot of flowers on them. There are some pods on the pea plants on the SE edge of the Lasagna Garden. Most of the others aren’t doing much. So I’m thinking that even though they’re cold weather crops, they still like sun. I’m hoping they’ll all be ready to pick within the next couple of weeks.

I noticed that my spinach by the drivway and my Chinese cabbage is bolting. I’ll pick the leaves, and let them go to seed. My old broccoli from last year is also bolting, and in flower. But I’ll cut it back, because I know it will grow normal broccoli once the weather cools off again. It’s been so hot this week, that I was afraid I’d kill the plants if I cut them back right now.

I also noticed that some things are overshadowed in the south half of the big bed, and even the baby celeries are overshadowed by the tomatoes. So I may have to move them. And my catnip and some tomatoes are overshadowed in my “pet garden”. So I may have to transplant them, too.

I took pictures today, to have a record of what’s going on in the areas where things are going on:

Here’s a view of my Square Foot Garden. On the left side, you can see how the ants have taken up residence. On the front right, you can see all the baby cayenne plants. Most of those will need to be transplanted other places. The squares behind them aren’t doing much. I suspect there are still a few reseeded amaranth seedlings in random squares. Even though the fava beans were planted earlier than the rest, the top crop beans in the left front square are already forming beans. They are the first of all my bean plants to have beans dangling. They should be big enough to pick in a couple of days. I’m kind of happy that all the bean plants are relatively short. It seems early, but I probably planted most of them around May 1st. Oh, I think I also have some corn. But not enough. I really think there has to be a critical mass for it to cross-pollinate. So whatever grows will probably get donated to the squirrels again this year. (I re-seeded my corn when it didn’t seem to be coming up the first time. I’m afraid it’s too late now, since it’s supposed to be “knee high by the Fourth of July”. I don’t know what would happen if it would be knee high a few weeks later in July.)

These are my pea plants that have the most flowers. Some have pods. But when the sun shines through them, I can see that the peas in the pods are still too small. Behind them are the spinach plants that are bolting.

There’s a lot of stuff growing in the left half of this bed, including random but edible weeds. The modified Square Foot Garden was a good idea in theory, and still might be, if I’d choose to transplant some tomatoes in the center of the bean squares (as long as the tomatoes would be taller than the beans). But the beans are overshadowing what I planted inside the squares. So I’m not expecting much there, except for beans.

The right side is “mostly” rows of celery. In the bare area toward the back is where I planted some quinoa & alfalfa. The area generally only gets morning sun. So I don’t know if they’ll grow. (And the quinoa was from a health food store, not a seed supplier. So who knows if it was treated in some way that would prevent it from growing?)

The 25 extraneous tomato plants by the street (not pictured) are in various stages of growth. The ones that get the least sun are definitely smaller. I told the lady at the gas station that I’d bring her more, because hers died. I’ll give her the ones that are in the most shade, since I don’t want to keep moving plants around.

I picked over 20 strawberries this morning. This is the first year I had more than about a dozen the whole season, and definitely more than the usual one or two that ripened at the same time. I don’t know if it’s just that I have more plants, or that they’re more mature, if the dirt is more fertilized, or that the nylon window screening really helps keep the critters out. But I’m really surprised that the red ones are still there when I want to pick them.

What I have going on in the strawberry bed should cover my strawberry needs for the next couple of weeks. But I wouldn’t mind having more plants, so that I might actually be able to freeze some for smoothies, etc.

As for my “100 Foot Challenge” locovore pledge to eat at least one homegrown meal per week, if I really wanted to eat lightly (can’t do it all day/night), my strawberries would be my breakfast, and my salad would be my lunch. So that’s two meals out of the day. Not bad, considering that’s all that’s ready to pick so far. (And when I think about what organic strawberries and organic salad mixes cost, I’m probably saving $16.00 on grocery money per week as long as I can pick my own. That $16.00 would cover a few vegan meat substitutes & a loaf of good quality whole grain bread.)

See the comment area on how my alfalfa germinated in less than two days, and comment about growing sprouts.

Tags: Square Foot Gardening, veganic gardening, Victory Garden

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