Our square foot garden was not quite as successful as we had hoped. One of our boxes is about 80% dead. But we are not going to give up — we’ve already decided on a few changes for next year.
One of the biggest problems we faced was lack of sun light, so we’re going to move the whole operation to our front yard — against the advice of our neighbor. Our front yard gets significantly more sunlight than the back yard, but we will have problems getting the hose to the garden. We only have one water outlet on the exterior of our home, and it is towards the back yard. Lesson learned: full sun, really does mean full sun.
Another big problem was the construction of our trellises. We opted to use bamboo stuck in the ground instead of the pvc pipe and rebar construction method suggested in the book. About midway through July our tomato plants got too heavy and pretty much took the trellises down. What was left was taken down by rain and wind. Lesson learned: tomato plants really do get that heavy, so strong and sturdy trellises are called for.
We still have tons of tomatoes to look forward to, and have harvested quite a few already. The beets never took off, and what carrots that are left never got too big either. The sweet potato plants have kind of taken over, so I can only hope that under neath those broad green leaves there are some large potatoes waiting.
Hello! I’m in Cleveland Heights and we had trouble with carrots and beets, too. Our tomatoes were out of this world this summer, though! We started these from seed inside in the winter and transplanted after danger of frost. We also had a lot of success with green beans, lettuce, tons of herbs, and chard… and our leeks look wonderful!
Those are nice looking carrots! And the season isn’t over yet! The frost date isn’t until October 28th according to my almanac.
The fall (i.e. now) is the best time to plant garlic. It grows a little now. Then bury it in 6 inches of straw to keep it safe in winter. Then pick it next July.
I’m starting some kale, swiss chard, and lettuce now too. Those plants like the cold.
I need to try carrots next year! I’m praying our sweet potatoes are thriving under the ground, too. *fingers crossed*
I hope you have better luck than us, there were nothing but spindly roots under our sweet potato plants
We’re also in Cleveland Heights, and we’ve had our vegetables growing in the front yard for several years now. I don’t know if your neighbor cautioned you against it for aesthetic or municipal reasons, but we haven’t had any problems with ours in terms of the latter; we like the wild look of the former, and our neighbors, if they don’t, at least have kept their opinions to themselves. That’s where the sun is, that’s where stuff will grow. Even the side of our house didn’t really work well. We got like 14 lbs of potatoes this year, I think, and well over a hundred bulbs of garlic, I think. My sweetie is in charge of the garden; I just cheer him on.
Our neighbor cautioned us against teen vandals. I am glad to hear that you’ve had success with your front yard garden, we’re looking forward to giving it a try next spring.
Last year my Garden was kick ass and I actually had to give lots of my yield to my neighbors because I had so much. This year was a totally different story. I really think it was a combination of the sun being out like 99% of the time and the overall lack of rain. Then when I did water I might have over done it a little. My peppers were sunburned and my cucumbers died out sooner than expected with a lower than average yield. Moral of the story. Better luck for us next year!
http://clevelandfoodandbrews.blogspot.com/
Last year my Garden was kick ass and I actually had to give lots of my yield to my neighbors because I had so much. This year was a totally different story. I really think it was a combination of the sun being out like 99% of the time and the overall lack of rain. Then when I did water I might have over done it a little. My peppers were sunburned and my cucumbers died out sooner than expected with a lower than average yield. Moral of the story. Better luck for us next year! http://clevelandfoodandbrews.blogspot.com/
Our neighbor said our garden would surely be vandalized because he said the community garden had experienced similar problems. We actually had a snowman we built knocked down a couple times during the winter. But when I talked to someone who was actually working at the nearby community garden (at Canterbury school) she said they hadn’t had any problems at all in the decades it’s been up.
Brad, that’s weird that you had a worse yield this year than last. I’ve heard a lot of people say there wasn’t enough sun last year. Does your garden get a lot of direct sun? Maybe last year was perfect and this year was too much. I drenched everything whenever I watered this year as well.
I have what’s known as a Mobile Ghetto Garden. It’s essentially a collection of five gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage. I fill them with soil and then place the tomato, basil, bean plant inside. I have no fear of vandals because my pug and french bulldog strike fear into anyone who approaches the MGG.
Absolutely love this site/topic. I’ve been in CH for ~2 yrs, and gardening for a few more… as for the vandals, I’ve had my share but It’s the groundhog variety. Bugger just lops off potatoes at the ground and almost always foils my early attempts at keeping him out… I usually have to barricade myself OUT to keep it out… made weeding tougher than usual last year, but I do seem to recall quite a bumper tomato crop…even after my wife and I came back from our week long July vacation and everything was pretty scorched.