Garden Notes

With the first frost, I'm starting to close my garden down for the year. It has been a learning experience this year and I've really enjoyed gardening. One thing for certain, Square Foot Gardening is here to stay at our house. I can't imagine ever going back to the long rows of weeding and wasting water (and space). Throughout the summer I've been keeping notes of things I have learned and things I'll keep the same next year. I'm going to post it here so I don't lose the info. I'm so excited for Spring 2009!!
Successes:
2 decent sized pumpkins (possibly 2 more small ones, if they ripen before it gets too cold).
Basil - 5 batches of frozen pesto to enjoy all winter.
Zucchini - several quarts of grated zuc in the freezer waiting to be made into bread this winter.
Marigolds - Beautiful and attracted lots of bees.
Butternut squash - 5 squash
Tomatoes - Just enough to satisfy my need for homegrown tomatoes on my salad but not so many I felt any need to can them.
Spinach - mostly successful, great taste but not as prolific as I wanted.

General: Add more Mel's mix to the existing boxes. Fill them up. I think part of the problem with the squash and the cucumbers was the soil wasn't quite 6 inches deep. Look into how grapes and raspberries do in SFG.
Location: Plant pumpkins next to pumpkins, squash next to squash, zucchini next to zucchini. Move the squash and cucumbers down to the lawn boxes. I think the patio pavers reflect too much heat up into the roots. Put another box next to the current pumpkin box. Make that all pumpkins and squash. Try broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and spinach in the shady spot next to the swing. The squash didn't do well there, but maybe the leafies will like the cooler spot.
Timing: Start seeds indoors in March. Put them outside (in WOWs) before they get too big. Remember to acclimate.

Specific what to plant next year:
Tomatoes - Don't do 3 varieties of medium sized reds. Boring. Only do one sunflower and use the other spot to plant 5 varieties of tomatoes. Loved the yellow pears and the Stupis. Try a Beef Steak, Early Girl, and some cherries or grapes. Pruning worked well, but don't prune Celebrities. I only ended up with about 7 tomatoes from that plant. Get better cages for all of the indeterminate (non-bushy) plants. The tomato food seemed to be a good investment, especially since the tomatoes are in non-SFG soil.
Cucumber - Try the Armenian again. It really was a little trooper. Maybe it was just too hot on the patio? Check with the extension service on what could have caused it's issues (anemic looking plant, fruit dropping off dead when only a couple of inches long).
Scallop Squash - Ditto from the cucumbers. Though, the plant had a lot of blossoms, just no fruit.
Zucchini - Ditto from the squash.Though it perked up at the end of August.
Spinach - Should do better if planted earlier. Plant more at a time rather than spacing out plantings. We use a lot of spinach.
Lettuce - Ditto from the spinach.
Broccoli - Find out what causes the leaves to just disappear overnight: insect?
Peppers - I have no idea what this little guy's problem was. The plant just never got very big. Could have been a soil depth issue. Could have been heat from the patio pavers? Check with the extension service.
Pumpkin and butternut squash - Go vertical. Add more soil to the box. Prune the plant a bit to encourage more fruit and fewer leaves.
Herbs - Plant earlier, protect with WOWs until maturity or warmer weather. Parsley, oregano, chives, cilantro. Basil Rocks! Plant lots of it next to the tomatoes just like this year and make it into pesto to freeze.
Marigolds - Did great, though now they are dropping their seeds into the Mel's mix. I don't want to be picking marigold weeds out of my lettuce next spring. Consider building a couple of 1x1's or 2x1's to put next to the larger boxes, for the flowers.
Daisies - Never even got big enough to blossom. Try starting seeds earlier.
Sunflowers - Fun, but not much use, especially after that hail storm. Just plant one next year to thrill the kiddies and attract the bees.
Poppies - Ugly, ugly variety. No wonder they were free. They also dropped a whole bunch of teeny, tiny seeds into that square so now I'll be picking poppy weeds forever. Unless I empty that square and start fresh. Good thing it was only one square. Throw the packet away.

To purchase: Get more walls of water. They are awesome! Check with Jenny where to get all the supplies for a vertical SFG. Make 1 4x2 box for pumpkins/squash. Make a couple of 1x2 or 1x3 for grapes and raspberries. Buy a flat trellis to put on the fence behind the grapes and raspberries.