If It's Spring, It's Hip to Be Square

Based on the relative success of last year's square foot gardening experiment, I've been at work on this year's sequel.

The 2009 edition will be a beefed up version of last year. I added two more narrow boxes (our space is limited) primarily for salad greens, on either side of the two original boxes. I've also been planting thyme between the boxes as an edible groundcover.

So, what's new for this year?

More greens, as I noted above. I'm planning to devote four of the squares to salad greens: mesclun, a mix of Asian greens, arugula, and frisee. I've started these plants as seeds in trays and will be planting them shortly. In the interim, I thought I would try growing a bunch of spinach plants in their dedicated squares (it's supposed to mature quickly), and then plant out the salad seedlings once the spinach is harvested.

I'm also growing broccoli rabe, fennel, peas, and garlic chives (all of which I did not try last year) along with heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, and beets. The biggest question mark of all will be cantaloupe, which I am really doing mostly for fun -- after all, I'm only growing one plant. The vine will grow vertically on a trellis and apparently will require some kind of makeshift support crafted from pantyhose so the melons won't tear off and fall down off the vine. Should be interesting.

Here's the contents of the garden at week 4, box by box (left to right):

Box #1 (back to front): Peas, Spinach (mesclun later), Spinach (Asian greens to come later).

Box #2 (back to front, row by row): cucumber, cucumber, cantaloupe; broccoli rabe; broccoli rabe; garlic chives; radishes, radishes, beets.

Box #3 (back to front, row by row): Heirloom tomatoes -- "Old German," "Mr. Stripey," and "Cherokee Purple"; bush beans, swiss chard, fennel; basil, carrots, spinach.

Box #4 (back to front): Pole beans, arugula, frisee.

If you want to follow along, I'll be posting photos to flickr (here are photos from last year). And the flickr square foot gardening group is an excellent resource and source of inspiration.

Finally, a question for all of the experienced vegetable gardners out their: to grow "cut and come" lettuce like mesclun picked as baby leaves, do you simply scatter the seeds (with abandon, ignoring spacing rules)? How many seeds are too many?