Square foot gardening in the raised beds

Now it's time to divulge my plan for world garden domination!  It is a mish-mash of instinct and internet research.

Square foot gardening principles that I'm using, based on internet research
- 1 plant per square:  tomato, pepper, cucumber
- 4 per square:  basil, chard, kale
- 9 per square:  bean
- 16 per square:  carrots, radishes
- Do it in a raised bed

Companion planting principles for the bed
- Plant basil & carrots near tomatoes
- Keep peppers away from tomatoes since too much tomato fertilizer will keep peppers from making lots o' fruit
- Keep cucumbers away from tomatoes

This rough chart shows the raised bed plan... #1 is left of #2, and there will be a trellis (and/or arch) connecting the cukes and beans.  Click to enlarge 

My own principles
- Grow up, not out
- Only grow things my husband and I like to eat raw
- Mix & match sizes of plants so they crowd less
- Harvest very frequently so that I can squeeze in a few extra plants
- Plant a row of radishes (cherry belle, which grows in 4 weeks) along two of the square-foot lines every week for a continuous harvest
- Grow oddly and strongly-colored items for an extra vitamin punch (most are dark reds & purples or orange-yellow)
- Grow something known to be pretty failsafe even for newbie gardeners (Sungold tomatoes & chard)
- Keep chard in the middle to separate non-compatible plants, since chard is the only one of my veggies that will be there year-round
- Keep copious notes so I can improve on the beds next year
- Don't be sad if there's too little sun for an abundant harvest

So... I've already planted the lettuce, kale, chard, carrots, radishes, and basil.  I have to wait until it's a little warmer to transplant the tomatoes, cukes, and peppers.  It's starting to feel like a real garden!

Raised Bed Gardening, part 3

Since I'm loosely following the Square Foot Gardening principles, I divided my beds up into 20 square-foot squares.  Since I'm cheap, I just used sticks and leftover garden twine.  Some people like the look of wood slats for dividers, but I am planning on growing radishes along the division lines so I don't want to block their sunlight.

Easiest drip system pattern:  like a U

And since I'm neglectful at times (er, I mean, when I go on vacation) and summers are hot here, a drip system is a must.  Luckily the original owners of the house have a vast network of drip system under their thick layer of mulch, so it was a simple thing to find the tubing near the raised beds and run it along my soil.  I used a 50-foot roll of 1/4" tubing (lots was left over), 10 stakes to hold the tubing down, 15 corner pieces, 4 T-shaped pieces, 20 in-line 1gallon/hour drips, and 3 larger tube segments for stopping the flow (bend the 1/4" tube, insert into larger tube piece to pinch it closed, and ta-da!).

Easiest way to stop the flow in a drip system... bend the hose.

Afterward, I shimmied the exposed drip system an inch or so down into the soil.

Now everything is ready for the funnest stuff... planting!


Raised Bed Gardening:  Part 1, Building the bed
Raised Bed Gardening:  Part 2, Choosing your soil amendments
Raised Bed Gardening:  Part 4, Square Foot Gardening plan

Farming Plans

My husband had a surprise waiting when I came home... pre-cut untreated 2"x6" redwood boards, redwood mulch, copper tape, tomato cages, and a giant bag of organic compost containing worm castings.  What more could a girl ask for?!  These are the materials needed for the two 2'x5' raised beds I'm going to make in the side yard (using a few principles of square foot gardening but mostly just going on instinct, and with hopes that there will be enough sun), and it's so hard not to go out there and start it now!

So empty... so sad

However, this cast on my foot means I need to take a wee bit of a break, so I shall instead regale you with a list of edibles I'm putting in the garden.  Each asterisk represents how many square feet I'm planning to devote to each plant in the raised beds... the rest are for pots or random places in the ground.

Veggies:
- Beans, pole, blue lake
- *Carrot, purple dragon
- ***Cucumber, lemon
- Garlic
- Onion, pearl, red/yellow/white
- Pea, snap, mammoth melting
- Pepper, sweet, baby belle
- *Pepper, sweet, gypsy
- **Pepper, hot, habanero
- *Radish, cherry belle
- *Tomato, black krim
- *Tomato, bloody butcher
- *Tomato, mr. stripey
- Tomato, sun gold
- *Tomato, yellow pear
- Zucchini, raven

Greens:
- *Beet, bull's blood
- Chickweed
- Dandelion
- *Lettuce:  black-seeded simpson
- *Lettuce:  "gourmet blend" from Burpee
- *Mustard, tendergreen
- Nasturtium, empress of india
- Nasturtium, spitfire
- ***Swiss Chard, bright lights 

Herbs:
- *Basil
- Chives, garlic
- Cilantro/Coriander
- Marjoram
- Oregano
- Passionflower, official
- Peppermint
- Rosemary
- Sage
- Spearmint
- Thyme
- Wormwood

It looks like we'll be having flavorful homegrown salads and salsa in a few months!  What are you growing this year?