Square Foot Garden Part Deux

So we figured that we needed to do an update on our Square Foot Garden.

After about a month or so the garden was looking very good and healthy. The snails really seemed to like it and wouldn't stay out of it. So I had to purchase some snail killer which really slowed them down.

In this picture you can see that everything has sprouted and is doing well. You can barely see the 8 (of 18) spinach plants that the snails or grasshoppers have not completely clipped off yet. The lettuce never sprouted.

The bell pepper (front left) is looking healthy and strong. A little after this photo was taken, the top half of it got nearly cut off by some stupid bug that just chewed half way through the stem. It even had 2 tiny little peppers starting to form.



BEHOLD!!! The FRUIT of our labors. This was the first harvest from the garden.





Shortly after we got our first crop (yes the single cherry tomato) the Bakersfield summer decided to arrive. And arrive it did with 108-112 °F temperatures for more than a week straight. It pretty much finished off the peas. The tomatoes were doing ok and had a few more tomatoes on them. The pumpkin and zucchini both looked sick, and the carrots never got more than an inch tall, but the corn seemed to like it. It would put on as much as an inch or more of growth a day. The weather cooled down (100-105 °F) and things looked like they may still have a chance. The zucchini was looking good finally. Then we left to Utah for a baby shower and the temps jumped back up.


The peas all died. The zucchini killed over. The pumpkin gave up the ghost. The bell pepper never came out of its coma. The poblano pepper produced 1 tiny little pepper the size of a silver dollar (if that). The corn has some tiny miniature ears on it (about the size of those little salad sized ones). The cucumbers keep making little cucumber buds that then shrivel up. The cantaloupe is about the same (the ants seem to like farming aphids on it though). All in all we collected about a dozen cherry tomatoes, 4 Park Whopper tomatoes, and 4 snap peas; but boy howdy were they tasty (which they should be at close to $10 a piece). So as you can see from the photo, we can't be held down, and are re-planting peas and zucchini to see if fall gardening works better. We will triumph over nature!!!