Tips For a High Yield Garden

A Square Foot Garden For Beginners: Part TWO

Grow Food At Home and Connect With Nature.

Care and MAINTENANCE

In this post, I am sharing a few maintenance tips that I have learned and some of the mistakes I have made and how to avoid them when gardening your raised beds.

This June has been a garden month for me with the beginning of the growing season going full force here in CT. This year I am really enjoying my time in the community garden. I have been learning more and more from the master gardeners, and savoring my time in nature while I water, weed, and take in some bird watching too.

In my previous article, I shared with you all the planning and tips for starting my raised bed garden. If you missed it, you can read it here: A Beginners Square Foot Garden: Part One. Raised beds have become very popular lately. My goal is to encourage you to create a productive garden and help you to avoid some of the common mistakes that I’ve made this planting season.

I also mixed an edible garden into my flower beds at the front of my home. I wake up every morning and sit on the porch with my coffee and admire the growth and beauty. It’s all so exciting! To read more about an edible garden, click here: 10 Edible Plants With Texture and Color in My Garden.

4 week update

THIS IS A NEW ENGLAND GARDEN

Yes, my friends in Texas and the southern regions are laughing at me a little. They are pulling a bounty of fruits and vegetables from their garden this May/ June, but for me in CT, we just had our last frost a few weeks ago!

THE GARDEN: My JOURNAL (Part Two )

Step 1 - Fertilizing Plants

What kind of fertilizer? I recommend an organic material or compost. This is a huge help in the beginning when prepping your garden and creating rich soil. It’s also a good idea to add more once your plants bloom and begin bearing fruit. A fertilizer can be added - I recommend Espoma Bio Tone along with natural compost around the base of the plant to feed it monthly. Be sure not to over-fertilize. I talked in my previous article about a good compost being at least 1/3 of your soil mix and additional peat moss and natural soil added as well to keep your raised bed from becoming too compact. A rich soil mix is what is going to feed your plants through the growing season.

Step 2 - Trying to Be Patient with Your Plants

After all this planting, waiting is the hardest part and I can’t wait! I’ve been taking daily walks to the garden, checking in and looking for signs of growth and documenting with photos. Look at this time-lapsed view!

6/29/20 - This is 4 weeks! In just 25 days there has been such an explosion of growth.

How long until harvest?

I found this reference table at RareSeeds.com which gives approximate days between planting in the garden and harvest. Note that plants set out as seedlings (tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cabbage, broccoli, etc.) do not include the time spent growing indoors before setting out in the garden.

Step 3 - Pruning

Once the plant is 18" in height, encourage a strong main stem by removing all suckers below the first flower cluster, also removing lower leaves and branches at the bottom 12" of the plant. This will help the plant produce more fruit and improve airflow.

Also, remove flowers from newly forming veggies. Leaving the bloom may cause rot on the ends of vegetables if left in place.

Step 4 - Building Supports for Tall Plants with Stakes and Sticks

Check that you have sufficient support with cages, loops, or stakes to withstand winds and rainstorms when the plant is heavy with fruit.

Placing vegetables while considering their relationships with each other is a skill I am still learning since I am not an expert. I used this handy garden planner and abbreviated it a little, by placing my tomatoes in the center since they will be the tallest and the cucumbers on the ends, with summer squash and zucchini in the corners.

Step 5 - managing Pests and keeping Invasive Plants Under Control:

It’s well worth talking to experienced gardeners in your area about which plants perform well and which ones to avoid. The best part of a community garden is there are always a few young plants offered along with some relevant advice. For beginners, planting a vegetable garden can seem daunting, but the basics of growing plants are easy to learn. It’s managing those pesky pests that can cause some frustration.

The organic pest battle is a little bit of a learning curve for me and many of the gardeners, but that’s where the advice from the experienced gardeners or my nursery are always helpful.

Did you know there is a pest called the flea beetle? That is the one pest I’m battling this week. They are ruining my kale!

One of the experienced gardeners advised me that seeding and growing beets alongside the kale will divert the flea to the beet leaves and leave my kale alone. I’ll keep you posted on the results.

*All organic as the rules of the community garden dictate and personally my preference for peace of mind for the planet, animals, and my family.

Step 6 - Watering:

How do you keep your plants watered throughout the season? You can plan for irrigation with a drip system. Once in place, it is there to work for you. If you have hard water, then you may have to do a drip system. Overhead watering is my standard. It’s totally relaxing to water your garden in the morning with a coffee, so go ahead and soak the base of your plants every week, and water lightly each day. Use mulch or straw to deter weeds, helping to manage your garden and your topsoil.

Resources:

My hands-down favorite nursery and mail-order garden supplier is WhiteFlowerFarm.

White Flower Farm is a family-owned nursery based in Northwest Connecticut. Since 1950, they've been growing a wide range of ornamental plant varieties and delivering them to gardeners all over the country.  They also have one of the best catalogs for flower and perennial gardening (and great gifts too!) I devour their catalog every time it arrives, and have been using the advice of their master planters to cultivate my landscape a little more each year with delightful new plants.

If you are in CT, you must try and visit the farm. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting the nursery when I’m in that region, it’s a beautiful destination, full of inspiration at every corner.

Step 7 -Arranging plants:

This was one of my mistakes, and I am going to be honest with you, I should have placed my plants differently. It’s important to place your low growers on the south end of your bed, and the tall plants like tomatoes, beans, and cukes that climb, in the back. Beans and yellow squash should go in the middle allowing the lower plants sufficient sun. Next year!!

A garden offering of vegetables and herbs is so rewarding, providing the freshest and most delicious food for summer dinners.

LEARNING:

Just 4 weeks in and I’m already learning so much!

One of the books in our growing shed that was recommended to me by the experienced gardeners in my garden community is Growing Perfect Vegetables. This reference guide is there to help me through the year while tending my garden for the best results.

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Thanks for stopping by, I can’t wait to give you updates throughout the season and we can learn together. Do you have some tips for organic gardens? Please share in the comments below.

I hope this information has been helpful and perhaps I have answered some of those questions you have about raised beds. I really do feel that raised beds and using the square foot method are a fun and easy way to get started with growing. I hope you give it a try.

Thanks for reading my post. I hope to see you in the garden!

xoxoxo,

dvd

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