Jeanne de Bont Henk Lamers
Square Foot Gardening 2023
Since we wanted to know exactly what our harvest of vegetables and herbs was, we had to weigh them. We wrote down that data by hand.
The results (on the left page) covered: the date, the amount of grams, the product and the square foot gardening box it came from.
After that we filled in spread sheets with the data and via the Processing programming language, we designed and generated the graphics.
Spring 2023 was very wet and cold but after the long winter we couldn't wait to start pre-seeding on March 1. But the newsletters from Jelle (Makkelijke Moestuin) also helped a bit to trigger the sowing fever. Peas, winter pea and sugar snaps are the first to be pre-sown. Then come the tomatoes which have a long run-in before finally being planted outside in a section of the Square Foot Box. Those pots of seeds need to be in a warm place so the whole floor by the kitchen was full of growing pots. The pods, winter pea and sugar snap peas can be planted out after some time. But it is wise not to move the rest until after May 15th. Then there is hardly any chance of night frost and you can safely plant the young planting outside.
Because the Square Foot Boxes are standing high above the ground on a metal grid we don‘t have to bother with slugs and snails. But the cabbage whites flew off and on, placing their eggs on the new young vegetables. That‘s something you have to learn to deal with. Not everything works out, even when you sow a crop. Radishes can be hollow or inedible. Sometimes you forget to harvest crops and leave it in the box far too long and the flavour is no longer good or it has become very tough like endive, for example. It was quite difficult to keep a momentum going because a seriously ill family member was claiming a lot of attention. Taking care of the Square Foot Box was not always possible and some compartments were left empty for a long time. Despite everything, we had a good harvest of about 27 kilograms.
At the end of June the greenhouse was built and that was very exiting. This would allow us to grow other vegetables such as chili peppers or paprika. But also this extension has its learning process to work with. We only had a few months to get used to it but the first results were very promising. Next winter we can read a lot about growing in a greenhouse which will help us to choose the right vegetables for the following year.
Jeanne de Bont | Henk Lamers
0.026 kg
There were only a few herbs available during winter such as rosemary, sage and thyme.
This might change in 2024 when the greenhouse is available.
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We started preseeding on March 1. But then it takes quite a while before you can harvest the first vegetables or herbs. Hence the graphs do not show yields.
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Spinach turned out to be one of our favorite vegetables and the good thing is that you can sow it twice a year. In the spring and in the fall.
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We used to think it was just nonsense those yellow beans but now that we have sown our own butter beans for the first time we found them to be quite tasty. July 2023 4.849 kg
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August is the month you can start harvesting tomatoes. We had a lot of sweet and very tasty cherry tomatoes. Also the yellowmato’s were fantastic in taste.
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This year, it was the month of September with the highest yield. In future years we will look at what was the reason for this. It could be due to many things such as the quality of the seed, how much time we spent on care or simply the weather.
With the arrival of the greenhouse we bought three new Square Foot Boxes. That‘s why the numbers of the graphs have been adjusted from now onwards.
The greenhouse now contains boxes: SFG 4, SFG 5 and SFG 6. And each MM mini bag has its own number: SFG 7, SFG 8, SFG 9, SFG 10 and SFG 11.
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