Square Foot Garden 2011

I’m giving the Square Foot Garden another try this year, after so-so results last year.

For 2011, I’m doing a few things differently.

First, I’ve doubled the depth of the box. Even though the Square Foot Garden guru says you can get by with a depth of only six inches (and I built my original box with 2X6 lumber), I don’t think that depth was enough for the harsh Houston heat, so I doubled the depth for this year, and repainted in a nice semi-gloss brown (the stain didn’t look so great by the end of last year).

Second, I’m only planting tomatoes (in the photo) and green beans this time around. Last year, I experimented with tomatoes, green beans, onions, peppers, lettuce, and herbs. The tomatoes were so-so (I think they needed more depth), the green beans were so-so (didn’t plant enough, but the plants I had did well), the lettuce was meh (took up lots of space, didn’t produce much, quality didn’t beat what I could grab at Central Market anytime), the onions and peppers sucked, and the herbs did fine but the soil was WAY too friendly for them and didn’t stress them enough for the best pungency (they are going all-container this year, and are on display in the photo).

For the tomato varieties, I’m going with Celebrity (3), Big Boy (2), and Bush Goliath (1). All are supposed to be well-suited for Houston, with the Bush Goliath being more of a container garden hybrid. We’ll see how each variety does.

For the green beans, I’ll go with Contender again. My dad has raised them for years, they produce a great bean, and they seem to grow fine in Houston. I’ll plant half the remaining squares with them tomorrow, and then plant the other half in a few weeks, to stagger the yields a bit (hopefully!).