Picking all the pretty lettuce

I love this pretty trout lettuce, see the little spots? They belong there! This type of lettuce also grew for me in the winter

Just a few of the kinds of lettuce I took from my salad box for dinner last night

Wonderful Garden Tours! Take a peek

Today was our monthly gardening meeting and we drove to 5 of our members houses to view their gardens.

I must say this was my favorite meeting. To see what everyone has done in such a short amount of time was such a joy! Here let me take you on a mini peek of the gardens we saw today.

This is Rebecca's box of hoped for strawberries. We are all sure next year the box will be full!

As you will see in the next two photo's Rebecca has really embraced the square foot idea of a lot of variety in your small space. It was amazing to see how many fun things are growing in her squares including corn.

It's funny once that thumb gets the green going it spreads all over, this lawn is what Rebecca is most proud of. Good going!

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Shelley used her space very wisely by putting in a long square foot garden. Not only does it look great it uses space really great. Her garden is in a good spot, it has a wooden fence behind it which protects it from the North and the Southern warmth has a clear path.
Her garden was growing so great!
Nice job Shelley.

Look a ripe strawberry! wow

The spacing on this garden is the way French intensive gardening should go but if you find yourself with too many carrots, beets, etc. Take your scissors and reach in and snip out as many as it takes to space the carrots. I have some tiny Fiskars for this, works perfect and then the carrots will have space to become carrots. I leave the healthiest plants.
You did a wonderful job on your garden Shelley!

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Welcome to Hyde Park...Yes Jana has named her garden beds what a delightful idea. As you look at her garden you should know how much work she and her husband have gone to. When you live deep in a forest it's not easy to claim some of that property for yourself. They have worked so hard and the gardens are amazing. I can't wait to see them full of plants.

Go for it Jana!

These are the pop bottle slug traps that we put on the blog earlier. While we talked about this other ideas came out. Right now our abundant amount of rain has us weary with the number of slugs in our gardens. Here are some of the ideas that were offered.

Put out orange peels the slugs gather to the peels and in the morning you remove the bundle (better do this early slug head for cool hidden places when it begins to warm)

Fill little jar lids with a mixture or water and yeast. It doesn't take much yeast and this will attract the slugs right to this tasty mixture instead of your plants. If your garden isn't covered you might fill your lids with rain pretty fast but this isn't normal weather right now.

Some bugs, earwigs and slugs hide inside the PVC pipes. It's wise to fill the end with the spray plastic foam. That way you eliminate another place for bugs to hide!

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Now we are off to Jamie's garden.
She is an adventurous gardener and has put in Asparagus and even placed a deep pot for her parsnips. We were SHOCKED as the neighbor dog plowed through her plants
while we stood there. What a helpless feeling!

I suggest these tiny fences. just to make sure fast moving dogs go around. This won't keep out rabbits and deer but it might make kids and dogs go around.

As you can see they fold up very easy to store and you can add as many links as you need they come in boxes back in the gardening areas.

Jamie's garden is bordered by stone, it looks very decorative right along her driveway.
She hope the warm driveway will help the plants along. Good plan!

Here is the famous parsnips pot. Have you had parsnip fries? Yummy

It is amazing how much space this garden has for planting.
It's not always easy to tell until you start growing things

This clever frame lifts to let you get into your plants. Jamie will be covering it to keep
the wild rabbits out.

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The last garden on our route was Laura's.
I am happy to have been a part of the beginnings of this garden as I gave the work for a square foot garden in a holiday gift exchange and Laura got it!

Laura's family loves flavor in their food and so she has such tasty herbs and plants growing.
I'd eat at her table! Yes good cooks know the magic in their gardens!

This is Laura's first year on this property and look what nice surprises are appearing!
It is also her first year to have a baby
and how neat they got that garden all planted amidst having their son!

With these two big garden boxes there will be some wonderful veggies I'm sure.

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While we were holding our weekly "Get Started" meeting several of our Internet viewers started their gardens so enjoy an additional walk through my sisters garden. She is in the Southern area of California and so are several of our readers.
I don't think too much rain is their issue but I welcome their comments and photos.

I love that square foot gardening brings family all together. This is Georgia's grand daughter and grandpa making the box. I didn't even know they were following us along!

It's cooler in the evening there and it looks like they have finished mixing their soil
and are very happy to be done!

Wow it's a beauty.

My sister has knee problems and this nice high garden will be perfect for her!

We suggested she rotate off the brick wall to cool things down for the plants growing on the vertical and we had her raise her vertical up higher so her beans would have plenty of space.

She moved her squash into a tub, it looks like it's getting too much sun.
Can you believe any one could get too much sun? Not us!

They had a big surprise arrive during the garden building. One day in sweeps all these honey bees! what do you do with an instant hive?

After a bunch of phone calls Georgia found out NO ONE wants your bees. Maybe they are worried about the African bees coming up from South America, they have arrived in parts of Southern California. Let's hope they left as fast as they appeared!

Her tomatoes are ready for eating but it's not her doing it.
I remember paying Clint and Shannon when they were kids to pick these
monsters off the plants.

Wow these peppers look great!

I sent my sister some bean seeds I hope they do well for her.

Yes I've always thought warm climates just had too many bugs!
This is what happens after you see those darting white butterflies! This is why I put floating covers on my broccoli and cabbages and Choi's.

WELL THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR SHARING
YOUR LOVELY FIRST SQUARE FOOT GARDENS!

We'd love to see more on our next trip around.

Rain Rain Go Away

Yes it seems to be dumping on us! We don't get this wet usually but is gardening ever a clear cut path? No I fear it is not. Don't give up. My plants are struggling also. I've replanted some things twice. Wet and warm can be a problem for a lot of plant badness. But soon it will pass and maybe we will have time to grow and ripen something good to eat. I'm enjoying a nightly salad!

When my youngest was in school she did an art project and presented it to me. In a swirl of pastels is painted "Rain Rain go away" It hangs here by my computer and reminds me there are days we ask for rain and days we ask for sun. What fickle creatures we are.

Friday will be a mixed bag on the weather so come dressed for weather

June meeting Friday June 11th

I do hope this rain slows down but I will be bringing my raincoat.

It's time for some garden visits. We have several places to go check out the square foot gardens of our group. I'll have space for 7 people in my car but if you have children along you will have to plan on driving. Everyone lives in a nice square block area mostly so this will be fun. I hope you can RSVP us so we can plan for parking at the homes. Let Mary Ellen know.

See you at 10:00 am at Rebbecca's.

I will bring the left over plants and we'll see if they do OK for you, it's been a while.

Is this your first real garden?

The reason I like to help people get started in gardening veggies
is that they are so excited.

When those first plants come up it's hopeful, but when you see a broccoli crown forming, or tiny tomatoes well then it is just MAGIC! I like to be around people who have their first gardens, can you see why?

As hopeful as a tiny plant can seem it is common for new gardeners to over plant their squares. Let's face it, it is just as easy for the experienced gardener to over plant after a long wet winter. We all do it, the difference is the experienced garden knows they will be in space trouble at some point and a beginner doesn't. Bliss is wonderful so don't worry ok? Enjoy that first garden, be amazed that nature can do so much. Go on those nightly slug walks, don't miss a night cuz they have big parties and eat tons when you don't go out. Enjoy that beautiful growing space you worked so hard to have.

AND

When you get into trouble space wise, get a hold of me. Don't panic, don't rip out any of those plants..................call me, e-mail me, leave me a comment and I'll tell you what to do next. Remember when the garden runs out of space but the plants haven't run out of grow......Call me.


So until then enjoy this blissful summer day....I see we are nearly at 70 degrees F. and my plants are loving it and so am I.

Happy Gardening!