This page will include my ideas for growing various fruits and vegetables at our house in Seattle. I'd like to brainstorm various vegetables, fruits, and herbs that we would enjoy. And I'd like to plan out a crop rotation that takes into account soil improvements, best growing seasons, and maximizing production from our small raised beds.

Square Foot Garden book

2008 Garden

So far what is done in my square foot garden in 2008....

February 27

• Broccoli - Sowed seeds in 8 sq ft (2 seeds per square).
• Snap peas - Sowed in 5 sq ft (8 seeds per square, 2 rows, spaced at 3")
• Covered area with floating row cover.

March 2

• Lettuce - Sowed seeds saved from 2007 flowers in 4 sq ft (not careful about seed quantity since we have so many)
• Carrots - Sowed seeds in 4 sq ft, actually 8ft x 6in - two rows spaced at 1.5" (not careful about seed quantity). NONE SPROUTED.

March 15

• Floating row cover torn by animals. Probably cats digging in the freshly turned soil.
• Covered with bird netting to deter cats.

March 17

• Basil - Started 4 pots from 2005 seed packet (2 seeds per pot 1" mini greenhouse pot). Seeds presoaked overnight.
• Cherry Tomatoes - Started 4 pots from 2006 store bought tomatoes (2 seeds per pot 1" mini greenhouse pot). Seeds presoaked overnight.
• "Pomodoro Cigieli" tomatoes - Started 3 pots from seed packet purchased in Italy (2 seeds per pot 1" mini greenhouse pot). Seeds presoaked overnight.

March 18 -

• Lettuce - Sowed to fill in spots in existing lettuce and broccoli plantings (from seed collected in 2007).
• Broccoli sown February 27 survived at a rate of 4 of 16 mostly due to sprouts being eaten. Likely eaten by slugs or snails as all that was left were the sticks. Square foot garden book suggests starting indoors. My thought is this would also help get a harvest before the aphids. Also could look into nasturtiums or other plants to attract aphids away from broccoli. Would clear plastic cups stuck in the ground keep away slugs until the sprouts are big enough to fend for themselves?

March 19 -

• Bought 800' of nylon twine with a Lowe's gift card. It turns out this twine is hard to tie as it's so slick. Also the ends must be melted to keep from unraveling.

March 24

• All March 17 tomatoes have sprouted while only some basil has sprouted.
• Bell Pepper - Started three 3" square pots. Trying 3ea of red and green seeds in each pot. Seeds saved from 2007 store bought peppers.
• Pomodoro tomatoes - Started two 3" square pots for Sandy to use.

March 27

• Cantaloupe - Started seeds (5ea) in wet paper towel to see if they will germinate. Seeds from 2007 store bought cantaloupe. Plan to shove them in dirt as soon as they start to sprout. Otherwise will soak more and place in dirt as a last try.

April 3 -

• Cantaloupe - after about a week the paper towels got moldy and the seeds never sprouted. Should try again.

April 5 -

• Covered future tomato area with plastic to warm the soil.
• Potted the last 2 basil sprouts in 3" pots (from mini greenhouse 1" pots). The last one just sprouted a couple days before.
• Potted the last 2 cherry tomatoes in 8oz yogurt cups (from mini greenhouse 1" pot).

April 6 -

• Zucchini - Sowed seeds in center of a 9 sq ft area (last 5 seeds from packet). Covered with plastic pre-washed lettuce container.
• Carrots - Sowed more in middle garden bed (4ft x 0.5ft). None of the carrots sprouted from March 2. Or perhaps they were eaten by slugs.
• Lettuce - Sowed more in 5 square feet (from seed collected in 2007). Also sowed lettuce to fill in spots in existing lettuce and broccoli plantings
• Snap Peas - Sowed more in existing snap pea planting to fill in spots where the slugs ate the seedlings. Carefully picked off very tiny slugs from existing peas.

April 7 -

• Peppers sprouted. Seems like only seeds from store bough red peppers are sprouting, still waiting to see if green pepper seeds work. Moved these sprouts to window with CFL on a timer in the laundry room.

April 13 -

• Tomatoes planted out (9 ea)

April 19 -

• Snowed on the 18th and 19th but nothing stuck. Still very cold for the plants.
• Sunflower - Sowed seeds on south side of house, west end over about 5 feet. Also transplanted some volunteers from the previous year to the same area by the house.
• Mint - mint clippings from MacPherson^?'s produce were partially buried in a 2x1 foot wooden planter with potting soil.

April 26 -

• Frost was visible on roofs of houses. Ouch.
• Zucchini has sprouted. They may have sprouted a bit earlier but I didn't record the precise date.
• Pumpkin - one seedling has emerged

April 29 -

• Carrots - no seedlings to date.
• Invasive vines are coming up through the raised beds.
• Evergreen needled volunteer has shown up in the western most raised bed.
• Mint - new grown has appeared and most of the original leaves have dried up and fallen off.

Date??

• Pumpkin - started seeds indoors, 2 paper cups with 3 seeds in each using potting soil.

May 25? -

• Green beans - planted out 5 sq ft (40 seeds) after starting in moist paper towel. One seed got moldy instead of sprouting.

May 21? -

• Lettuce - seeded 1 sq ft (4 ea)
• Parsley - seeded 1 sq ft (4 ea) - kept moist under plastic cover,
• Cilantro - seeded 1 sq ft (4 ea) - kept moist under plastic cover, sprouted well
• Carrots - seeded 1 sq ft (16 ea) - kept moist under plastic cover, sprouted well

June 8 -

• Snap peas - over 5 ft tall, many flowers, four pods already formed
• Lettuce - full heads of lettuce available from first plantings
• Zucchini - half dozen leaves
• Broccoli - most had their central new leaves ?eaten? so growth abruptly stopped. New growth slowly coming out from a lower lobe. Broccoli is probably too crowded by lettuce allowing slugs & snails to migrate from leaf to leaf and hide in the lettuce.

What is next? Pumpkin starts by the peas. Green beans, peppers, and cantaloupe by the zucchini. Tomatoes by the strawberries and when it's hot some basil too (to go where there is now lettuce seeds (4/6)... just going to eat these as sprouts.

Could try cilantro and rosemary again. Parsley does well but gets big the next year. I guess that doesn't matter. I should grow it in some of the extra pumpkin space I will have due to trellising and just plan to pull out parsley next spring.

Also could do sunflowers on the side of the house. They seemed to big in the beds last year.

Would like to do mint. Maybe I will make a 2x1 foot container from some boards I have to make the mint moveable but give it room to grow. In the past little 5" pots seemed too small and for the mint. It could have also been that they did not like the intense sun on our deck so putting them on the north side of the house could help... Or in the summer behind the trellised crops for shade.

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Vegetables

Fruits

• Strawberries

Herbs

• Cilantro
• Basil
• Italian Parsley
• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Mint

-- JamesHarris - 26 Dec 2006