Fall Harvest

November 18, 2011

Fall Harvest

I am truly convinced that square foot gardening is the way to go for me. I cannot believe how healthy, beautiful and plentiful my fall garden is. I made a few mistakes along the way.

-First, two of my beds are now in the shade because of the movement of the sun in the fall season. Most of my plants are still flourishing despite the fact that they don't get any direct sunlight. Some of my bean plants didn't like it and I pulled them out. The lack of sunlight also caused the soil to stay moister than the bed that gets direct sunlight. That caused a bit of a gnat infestation. They apparently like the moist soil. The gnats aren't causing any problems, they are just bothersome. I've adjusted my watering of those beds and the plants seem to be doing just fine.

-Second, I put up a climbing net on two sides of a bed. I am having difficulty being able to get to the plants in that corner. I can still access them from behind, it just isn't as easy as it should be. I'll move one of the nets to one of the new beds we plant in the spring.

My beds looks more crowded than I am used to with my old garden. In fact, everything is doing just fine because of the mixture they are growing in is extremely rich.

I am currently growing more in this garden than I ever have before. It takes up less space and grows more. I use less water (but water more often) and there are no weeds. I am currently growing cucumber, sweet peas, green beans, cabbage, kale, tomato (4 varieties), green onions, parsley, celery, cilantro, oregano, lettuce (3 varieties), broccoli (2 varieties), cauliflower, and decorative mums and jeruselum cherry. Leftover from Spring and doing well are patio tomato, bellpepper, jalapeno and banana pepper. I've already picked cucumber, green beans and tomatoes.