Thursday, June 10, 2010

How does my garden grow?

Once again this year have a plot int he Marshfield Community Gardens. They use a technique called square foot garden, where the box is divided into square feet and you plant a specific amount of plants in each square. For example, a tomato plants takes one full square foot, but you can plant four lettuce plants in one square foot, or nine snap pea plants. Last year, my first year ever having a garden, I had a bountiful harvest. I made over 12 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 17 jars of salsa. It was fun to learn to can and make food, but especially fun to eat things that I actually grew. It made me feel fully satiated, not only with food, but also in spirit.

I haven't been able to take photos of my garden this year, every time I go out there I forget my camera, but I did manage to snap a few last night.

Sugar snap peas
I have to create a trellis for them to climb up. Last year they all made it about a foot and then kind of collapsed on themselves. I tried to string them up, but it was too late. I only harvested about 9 actual peas, enough for 1.5 servings. Hopefully they will do a bit better this year.

More sugar snap peas
As you can tell the garden is divided with string into the square feet.

Peppers!
Last year I had problems with my peppers too. I don't know if it wasn't warm enough last year or I didn't water them enough, but most of my pepper plants died. This was unfortunate since we made so much salsa. I planted about six pepper plants of different varieties, so hopefully it won't be a waste. Last year I got one jalapeno pepper. It was a sad, lonely little guy. 


I will post more photos as I take them. I have also planted lettuce, tomatoes, basil, beans, and some other things that are unmarked. I guess I will remember when they start coming up!

1 comment:

  1. How can nine peas be 1.5 servings? Those must have been pretty meager portions!

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