I shared a few weeks ago that we are attempting to grow our own produce in the backyard. Although we have no grand ideas about growing all the veggies we eat, we do have high hopes for tomatoes and a few other things. My husband and kids planted a few things about 1 1/2 weeks ago and they are coming up now.
This is how the potatoes looked when they arrived from Burpee. We cut them in half and planted 20 plants in 5 squares. They haven’t sprouted yet. We’ve never grown potatoes, so I hope we did that right.
In this plastic bag are 25 of the 50 strawberry plants we ordered. I’ve always heard people say that the plants are very small when they come. They weren’t kidding! These things just looked like a bunch of dirty twigs. But in the ground they went and you can see from the first picture, they are coming up healthy.
We also planted lettuce and carrot seeds. The lettuce has started to sprout. You have to look very close to see the tiny leaves.
We had some trouble finding something to divide the garden into squares and finally settled on string. Here, you can see how my husband used nails to secure the string. Dividing the garden like this makes spacing the plants very easy.
I’m happy that things are starting to grow and anxious to plant the tomatoes and other warm weather veggies, but that is still a few weeks away.
Do you have a garden? What are you planting now? Does anyone know if we planted the potatoes right? Let me know in the comments how your garden grows.
It looks like your garden is off to a great start! I noticed my carrots were coming up but I don’t see any sign of my beans, zucchini or watermelon as of yet! I am crossing my fingers that I will see something soon!
We’re doing a square foot garden too. It’ll be fun to see how everyone progresses this summer!
Good luck.
I love your garden!
Next year I’m hoping to have raised beds but this year I planted my veggies in containers. I’m not sure if I did everything right but am starting to see some sprouts. I planted cucumbers, beans, and various lettuces. I also planted basil, parsley, oregano, and fennel.
Next year I want to try potatoes, watermelon, and tomatoes.
I’ve heard with potatoes you cut them in half or quarters and stick them in the ground. That’s what I plan on doing unless I find out differently before then.
I’m so excited for you! eating produce straight out of your garden is an experience I’ve never had, but it seems sooo lovely!
I hope you see the potatoes growing soon. I tried them a couple of years back and failed miserably. Mine got too hot and they also had too much nitrogen, I think. Sweet potatoes grow better here in Kansas I’ve been told.
I’ve read that you should cut the potatoes up and let the pieces dry off for a few days before planting so if yours don’t come up that could be why.
I put watermelon seeds in on Friday. I hope to see them growing soon. I write about my garden every week at My Garden Corner. It’s really fun to look back and see how long things took to grow.
Good luck with your garden 🙂
Hi there,
Everything dynamic and very positively! 🙂
Elcoj
Your garden looks great! Mine is much more haphazard (in the ground, not exactly spaced nicely) but it’s also doing really well. We have our first tomato already, about the size of a marble. And I’ve never planted bulbs before but my lilies are sprouting out front.
No idea about the potatoes – hope they come out for you!
Wow, your garden looks beautiful! I’ve always wanted to try to have a garden, but I live in Florida and right now, the water restrictions are so strict, you can barely even water your lawn, so I guess the timing isn’t quite right for me. Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, too, I always love visitors.
I square foot gardened last year – 6 4 x 4 beds. We used string too- though actually it was multicolored yarn ! lol. It is WAY to early to plant here yet. It’s supposed to freeze again tonight – so no planting til late May. The strawberry plants are interesting!
It looks great! I haven’t attempted strawberries yet, but would love to. I love your blog and the food looks awesome! Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Eat at home: The true test is a reader’s interest in returning, right? Well, I’m coming back!! I liked your background color; it blended well with all the photos which made me hungry, I MUST say! I ran off to make a peanut butter sandwich! Now that could be taken as a slam, but I made it with homemade whole wheat bread and organic butter! Yummmmmm!!! I’m not so hungry right now, but still coming back to your site!!
I found you on ProBlogger and want you to know that I’ll be back. You are now in my bookmarks!!
Cokids
We’re going to try the square foot gardening without raised beds. Our landlord has given us full reign but I’m like you, I don’t think we’ll grow ALL our own food but it would be nice to not buy tomatoes and peppers for a month or so.
Hi! I’m visiting through FindingJoyInYourKitchen’s blog. You have lots of yummy looking recipes that I’ll soon be trying! My husband and I did square foot gardening last year for the first time. It was a success! I would love to give potatoes a try in them. What kind of luck did you have with yours?
Linda, we do pretty well with potatoes. I wish our tomatoes would do better. Maybe this year.
This looks like my garden! We use 4’x8′ beds & also used string for the grid. We haven’t been able to plant yet, here in Montana we are still having frosty nights. Its been a loooong winter! I want to try the strawberries too, maybe next year. Did you plant your potato bed in deeper soil? They will need to have a deeper bed, you can try adding more of the soil to hill them after they start coming up so you build your bed up more. I know my beds are only 6″ – 8″ deep so I put my spuds in a bed 10″ deep. Trial & error is the best teacher for me. Good luck, I love the square foot method, works great & the no weeds deal is terrific!!
Kathy, the potatoes actually did pretty well in the shallow soil. I was surprised. This year they’re going in a different bed that’s a little deeper. Maybe they’ll do even better.
Tiffany, that is interesting that you were able to do the potatoes in shallow soil, maybe I am making it more work than it needs to be! I really hope you do more posts on your SF garden, I would love to see more pictures & see what other do with theirs. Do you grow your tomatoes on a trellis? Cucs?
Kathy, here’s a picture of the trellis we have for the tomatoes. We’ve had no luck at all with cucumbers or bell peppers. We’re trying again this year in a new sunnier spot with deeper soil. I hope it works. We just got tomatoes in the ground last night because it’s been raining constantly.
My hubby built my trellis out of 1″x1″s & I bought a netting from Burpee I believe it was. I wasn’t sure it would hold up but it has been up for 2 years now & doing fine. I have had good luck with tomatoes & cucs altho didn’t get as many cucs as I would have liked. One year I did a 4’x8′ bed of corn, that was a bust so won’t try that again. Our growing season is just too short. I haven’t had luck with peppers either but am trying again. Still waiting to plant tho, it is pouring rain & still in the low 30s at night here. I started everything from seed this year so am excited to see how thing do. Sun, we need sun!
After living in Arizona for 10 years (where my garden fried every year!) we moved back to Utah 2 years ago and planted a garden last year for the first time in a long time! Our house came with strawberries already planted- we added raspberries from which we got a few last year but they have tripled in size this year so I have high hopes for them! We also got peas, beans, carrots, peppers and tomatoes in our little square foot (10×6) bed. I added another bed this year along the back fence which is 20x 3 1/2. As far as potatoes- I haven’t grown them since I was a kid but it seems like that you have to make sure there is an “eye” in each part you plant and that is what grows. Good luck with your garden!