The Kitchen Gardens in March

Spring Lettuces!

Lettuces with snow peas in the square foot garden bed

Orange Emperor Tulips with Sage

Square Foot Garden Emperor Tulips

Orange and white Emperor tulips with snow peas, lettuce, and arugula

Tulips and Trellises

Emperor tulips and snow pea trellis in the square foot bed

Orange and white Emperor tulips

Tulips, snow peas, lettuces, arugula, lavender, columbine, poppies, and herbs

A view from the deck

Emperor Tulips!

Orange Emperor tulip
(Emperor tulips are the common name for tulips in the Fosteriana tulip group.)

Orange Emperor tulips in the square foot garden with sorrel, snow peas, and beets

Orange Emperor tulips with snow peas, arugula, poppies, and lavender 
  As you can see, my definition of square foot gardening has evolved over the years!

Emperor tulips, snow peas, sorrel, lettuce, radishes, arugula, poppies, beets, and lavender

Yellow Emperor tulip (aka Yellow Purissima)

Yellow Emperor tulips in the front Japanese maple bed

The first of the white Emperor tulips in the front Hollywood plum tree bed

Yellow Emperor tulips in the front Hollywood plum tree bed

March Vegetable Gardens

Lots of new seedlings this month along with overwintered flowers, herbs, and vegetables

Growing in these beds right now:

Spinach, kale, chives, chervil, rosemary, sorrel, rhubarb, snow peas, snap peas, shelling peas, radishes, onions, rudbeckia, violas, forget-me-nots, poppies, hyacinths, daffodils, and four kinds of tulips

Square foot garden bed with a large trellis ready for Schweizer Riesen snow peas

Growing in this bed right now:

Snow peas, lettuce, beets, radishes, arugula, chives, sorrel, strawberries, oregano, sage, poppies, lavender, primroses, sedum, grape hyacinths, and two kinds of tulips

Summer Vegetable Beds

"Bolting Lettuce with Herbs and Delicata"

Main vegetable beds with a tall tipi of scarlet runner beans on the right, climbing pole beans and shade-cloth covered cabbages on the left, and a central bamboo trellis for nasturtiums and fall snap peas

Summer and fall veggies in the square foot bed with tomatoes, spinach, radishes, carrots, beets, and alyssum

Strawberry plants in the foreground, lettuce in the middle, and lots of radish, carrot, and beet seedlings all around

Seasonal Renovation

It was time to give this square foot garden bed a little renovation for fall plantings. Last week, it was full of poppies, onions, and flowering kale as seen in the photo below.  I harvested the onions and composted the poppies and kale.  Now you can actually see the tomatoes and herbs that have been growing here since early June. In the newly open spaces, I've planted Giant Winter spinach, Cylindra beets, Yaya Hybrid carrots, and Pink Punch radishes.  It's a couple weeks later than would be ideal for planting the root crops, but if all goes well, they'll be ready to harvest before the average first autumn frost. 

Wildly colorful spring garden bed before renovation...

Summer Square Foot Garden Bed

Summertime square foot garden bed in July

Everything has grown a tremendous amount in this square foot bed during the past couple months.  This is our original vegetable bed that we keep expanding each year.  It's big enough now that we need stepping stones to walk through the middle of it.  We've got lots of other garden beds now, so this one has become a good kitchen potager full of herbs, flowers, and vegetables.  Here's a list of what's growing here this summer:

Snapdragons

Poppies

Sweet peas

Alyssum

Kale flowers

Lavender

Calendula

Strawberries

Oregano

Sage

Chervil

Italian Parsley

Garden sorrel

Chinese chives

Basil

Thyme

Bronze fennel

Walla Walla sweet onions

Lettuce

Sungold cherry tomatoes

 

Just to give a comparison, here's a photo of the same garden bed in spring.

Springtime square foot garden bed in April

In this spring photo, it's easier to see the onions (many of which have been thinned out by now), as well as the stepping stones!  You can also see a good amount of spinach, a small row of shelling peas, some mustard greens, and the very beginnings of the kale plants. 

A Riot of Color!

It's a riot of color in this expanding square foot garden bed right now.  I'm not sure this is what Mel Bartholomew had in mind, but it's beautiful and bountiful!