Here is most of the garden as of today, right after being watered. You aren't seeing the herb bed, the blueberries, the grape, the watermelon plants which are vining around, and the renegade herbs and tomatoes that ended up in the bed we'd originally built for flowers.
We are finally picking strawberries that the birds don't see, as the plants themselves have matured considerably. The cabbages are getting close to needing to be picked, as is the one cauliflower that developed, and most of the first batch of carrots. The marigolds are blooming but they will stay put - they are for the bugs to eat, in hopes they will stay away from the other plants. I've had to trim them back quite a bit, which isn't really a reflection of Square Foot Gardening gone astray, rather the seeds were tiny and I dumped a bunch more than four into my squares!
We are still having a bit of a pest problem. I've done a lot of reading on Japanese beetles in the last few weeks. I know that I want to try Diatomaceous earth, because it will address the beetles, ants, and anything else without being harmful to us or to our dog, but it is hard to find on its own. I found pesticide with it as an ingredient, but I'm not looking to use pesticide on this garden. I've read that putting out traps attracts even more beetles (and not many of them actually go IN, they just find their way to the scent and then munch on your garden), and we've used Organicide since I heard it was made from sesame but even that makes me nervous. Couldn't they include the ingredients on the bottle if that were really the case? All that really did was deter them to other plants in the garden, so it is a frustrating cycle. I've also been removing them by hand and dunking them into soapy water, and shaking the plants in the early hours (I saw that on a blog, but felt silly doing it). I'm hoping the Diatomaceous earth also helps with termites and ants that I see around, since our raised beds are untreated wood, the bugs seem to be happy to move in. It isn't like a swarm or anything, and surely the outdoors should contain bugs, but I want to see as much yield as possible from all of our hard work.
Our tomatoes are definitely starting to come in - most of the plants we put in from transplants that we purchased have growing tomatoes on them (some close to being ready to eat!), and the plants I have nurtured from seeds under lamps inside are growing healthy and strong. For the plants I grew from seed, I went ahead and mashed up calcium supplements to add to the soil when transplanting (since I didn't plant them in straight manure like I really should have), and they seem very hardy. I could still add calcium to the others if I start seeing signs of the blossom rot we had last year in our plants we tried growing in pots. So far, so good. Ahem. *KNOCK ON UNTREATED WOOD*
This is the first squash baby to make an appearance. I have pumpkin seeds to start sometime soon, but need to pick a place to put them in the garden. I'm thinking of starting them in a square and guiding them toward spilling over into a free spot - maybe where the peas were planted, since they are mostly gone to seed at this point. In a Square Foot Garden, Mel says you just add a scoop of compost and plant something new. It is worth a try for sure.
