The harvest of spring crops is winding down.
'Detroit Dark Red' beets, 'Scarlet Nantes' carrots, 'Over the Rainbow' carrots, 'Golden Grex' beets and one tiny 'Golden Detroit' beet. Not shown, two heads of 'Gonzales' cabbage.
Lettuce- planted four per square foot is much to close together. For the first time I had problems with slugs and ear wigs. I usually harvest just the outer leaves until they start to bolt, it is much more work to harvest whole heads and I don't think the usable harvest was much more.
Conclusion- next year it's back to spacing of one per square foot.
Peas- what a jungle! I'm sure that the potential harvest was seriously affected by the thick tangle in the center. Also, while waiting for the seed to ripen, I could have replanted most of the area if there wasn't such a tangle.
Conclusion- next year they get their own bed and it's back to wide rows.
Beets- these did fine at nine per square foot. It was the varieties I had fault with.
Carrots- see beets above.
Spinach, arugula and broccoli rabe all did well at their recommended spacing.
The only other caveat was block placement. I will not leave space between carrots and beets for early bush beans. The area was much too shady and the beans got leggy, then flopped on top of the carrots.
As far as succession goes, next year will be beds for spring/fall crops and the summer crops will get their own beds. Interplanting tomatoes in the lettuce set them back way too much.
In conclusion- next year I'll be using a modified method of square foot gardening... of course I'll need to see what the summer brings...
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