I’m terribly sorry to report that our garden has seen its first casualties. Mike was so consumed with fear for his over-large beans, it never occurred to us that the peppers would expire shortly after they made it out into the great wide world. But perhaps I should start back at the planting. And I should point out that the beans seem to be doing quite well. We have FIVE beans!!! FIVE!!!
We have BEANAGE!
As you know, Mike started some seedlings very early on (the aforementioned beans), some at just the right time, and some plants got to begin their sprouting days in the actual outdoors. The big day was last weekend, and Mike followed some careful dictates in terms of how he planted.
First of all: Square Foot Gardening is meant to maximize your gardening space so that you have no unused portions of garden. Instead of spacing your plants according to the row they are in and the row they are next to (so: 2 directions) they are, rather, spaced according to their position within their square foot. As you can see, the garden is actually divided (in our case, with twine) so that it is easy to visualize where, exactly, the squares are.
Divvied up into squares
If, for example, your plant should be spaced 6″ from its nearest neighbour, you may plant 2 of them within one 12″ sqare. If they need only 3″, you may plant 4 of them. And so on. If you are so Canadian (or other metric country) that you MUST insist on having all measurements in metric…knock yourself out! Did you know that if you type convert 2in to cm (for example) into Google, it’ll convert it for you? Or convert 11c to f*? Google is grand.
But back to the point at hand! This method is so cool because there is no wasted space, and no need to have to teach your kids where to walk (and not to walk) in the garden…because NO ONE walks in the garden! According to Mr. Bartholomew, 4′ is just the right size garden (4′ Square, that is) so that you need never enter the garden, you simply lean over it.
Alas, though, all the Mel’s Mix and careful planning aside, our Peppers have gone to the great Pepper plot in the sky (or something like that). We don’t really know why, but we’ve been assured that Peppers are no great friend to our particularly capricious climate. They are, apparently, notoriously difficult to grow here. Perhaps next year, once Mike reads obsessively about Pepper particulars, we may try again. Please take a moment to remember our lovely wee pepper plants.
Where they used to be: Mike wouldn't let me photograph the dead seedlings.
*5.08cm and 51.8f, if you’re wondering…and lazy.
I hope they at least got to go to the compost heap so they can be useful in another way, another day!
Hmm, I think Mike just turfed them. I’m sure they’ll fertilize something… :o(
RIP dear peppers. (I am not ready to set any of my plants out yet…. another couple of weeks and I think they will survive…. they do live in the garage now instead of the house at night.)
So sorry for your loss…. is Mike taking it okay? Loss is part of gardening; gives you determination for next time.