Post by Stacy on Dec 15, 2011 0:47:49 GMT -5
You know, I never did!
Lemme tell you what happened.
First, I LOVED the Sq. foot garden. The strawberry plants turned out awesome and since they will be on their second year next spring, they will do great, I'm SURE! I had just reg. organic soil for those, don't forget. So no expensive stuff to plant the extra spaces in the bricks.
The sq. foot garden did NOT grow my onions (green) or my carrots. I think it was the seeds. EVERYTHING else I planted did great. People all over the area complained of no tomatoes, I don't know what happened. I did get tomatoes, but not a ton. The plants grew well though. I don't know if I'd plant them in there again because they did take up so much room in the small garden. I think I'd put them in pots near the same area however.
As for Mike's garden... <sigh> Well, we had some beauties started in there. Then we got a freak storm (we believe it was a small tornado type thing) and it picked up BOTH of my neighbors metal sheds from next door, as well as a third metal shed from three houses down and my next door neighbor's trampoline and smashed across his garden in June. It pretty much took out all his tomatoes and a few other things. We replanted in a diff. area and did great on peppers and sweet potatoes and watermelons. Tomatoes... well, those just stunk! We had a lot of egg plants, but I definitely got more out of my sq. foot garden out front than he did in the replanted area out back. I think I did worse on peppers, but I had those in the more shallow garden (that I put the herbs in). I don't think their root systems were able to get deep enough for what they needed. Mike's peppers did so-so in the original garden area (since they weren't wiped out by the sheds) but in the replanted new area, they did great.
It's really hard for me to say who won. I can tell you this though... Mike's ready to build me a few more sq. foot gardens AND we built the chicken pen over his big garden area last weekend. ;D Soooo.... I'm going to say, I swung him over to MY side on this whole thing. I think with the little amount of weed pulling needed (which I did myself since really, NO help was needed!) and the small amount of watering (in comparison to his giant garden) is what convinced him. Add to that the bugs and me saying I think the big garden area needed a rest and chickens scratching up weeds and bugs and pooping in the area for a year would really, REALLY help it and he was convinced pretty easily.... and that's saying a LOT.
If we had to go plant for plant... my tomatoes won, his peppers won, my peas won, his greenbeans won, my eggplants won, his cukes won (that's about all the plants we planted that were the same!). My herbs kicked BUTT (he didn't plant any) in the smaller, more shallow sq. foot garden with regular organic soil.
Soo... I hope that answered it.
Lemme tell you what happened.
First, I LOVED the Sq. foot garden. The strawberry plants turned out awesome and since they will be on their second year next spring, they will do great, I'm SURE! I had just reg. organic soil for those, don't forget. So no expensive stuff to plant the extra spaces in the bricks.
The sq. foot garden did NOT grow my onions (green) or my carrots. I think it was the seeds. EVERYTHING else I planted did great. People all over the area complained of no tomatoes, I don't know what happened. I did get tomatoes, but not a ton. The plants grew well though. I don't know if I'd plant them in there again because they did take up so much room in the small garden. I think I'd put them in pots near the same area however.
As for Mike's garden... <sigh> Well, we had some beauties started in there. Then we got a freak storm (we believe it was a small tornado type thing) and it picked up BOTH of my neighbors metal sheds from next door, as well as a third metal shed from three houses down and my next door neighbor's trampoline and smashed across his garden in June. It pretty much took out all his tomatoes and a few other things. We replanted in a diff. area and did great on peppers and sweet potatoes and watermelons. Tomatoes... well, those just stunk! We had a lot of egg plants, but I definitely got more out of my sq. foot garden out front than he did in the replanted area out back. I think I did worse on peppers, but I had those in the more shallow garden (that I put the herbs in). I don't think their root systems were able to get deep enough for what they needed. Mike's peppers did so-so in the original garden area (since they weren't wiped out by the sheds) but in the replanted new area, they did great.
It's really hard for me to say who won. I can tell you this though... Mike's ready to build me a few more sq. foot gardens AND we built the chicken pen over his big garden area last weekend. ;D Soooo.... I'm going to say, I swung him over to MY side on this whole thing. I think with the little amount of weed pulling needed (which I did myself since really, NO help was needed!) and the small amount of watering (in comparison to his giant garden) is what convinced him. Add to that the bugs and me saying I think the big garden area needed a rest and chickens scratching up weeds and bugs and pooping in the area for a year would really, REALLY help it and he was convinced pretty easily.... and that's saying a LOT.
If we had to go plant for plant... my tomatoes won, his peppers won, my peas won, his greenbeans won, my eggplants won, his cukes won (that's about all the plants we planted that were the same!). My herbs kicked BUTT (he didn't plant any) in the smaller, more shallow sq. foot garden with regular organic soil.
Soo... I hope that answered it.
