My spring SFG is off and running !!!

I am lucky to have a great local farmers exchange. They import a wide variety of sturdy transplants from Bonnie but also raise their own seedlings and stagger them for local growers. I do grow from seed myself but it is also easy to buy those transplant trays, break out the trowel and VOILA !! Instant gratification.

Anyhow, here goes for my spring 2011 SFG here in upstate SC. No hard freezes in the 10 day forecast and 74 tomorrow !! Here is a pic of the first few lettuce squares of Simpson Elite, Red Sails, Romaine and Bibb.



The first 6 broccoli are in. Will plant 3-4 more every week until box is filled to stagger the harvest.



Arugula....first time doing these. I'm told to pick early to avoid hot leaves.



Temps creeping up nicely here. Hitting 60 most days with some unusual 70's. Hoops are at the ready though. Last frost is around mid-April so going in this early I know i'm in for a battle !!

Carrots showing lush regrowth from winter dormancy. Planted from seed too late last fall and left them in.

DUH ! posted this in Europe.....Ander or another mod.....please move to Middle South.

Hi Staf, you will need to contact Middlemamma to get the thread moved to the correct regional forum. By the by, your garden is looking fine! :!:

Thanks Camprn ! Will contact Midmam. Love your avatar BTW I need one .

I moved it already....

One sweet looking garden.....so jealous. Also, love the hoops anchored by rebar instead of bracketed inside the boxes. Great idea.

Thanks BBG !

I went for the rebar spaced outside the boxes (which was a real snug fit over the 3/4 PVC pipe and is going nowhere) to give me some more wiggle room. The plants, especially Broccoli and Kale, just got sooo big that having the hoop run down and inside the box meant they just got crushed by the plastic. Mel's method is fine with lettuce, spinach, chard etc but bigger plants on the outside squares will need a more space when "hooped" in my experience. That's no criticism BTW of the big fella, just an individual modification . More importantly though, the cold temps will create another problem of pretty bad freeze damage when foliage is in direct contact with frozen plastic.

You'll be ready to go in no time, your bed looks great! I really have no choice but to start early; we'll be hitting 80 come April and all the cool season crops will bolt.

Your garden is looking great, Staf.

My arugula usually tastes fine until the temps heat up, - even the large leaves. I tried planting a later planting, thinking the small leaves wouldn't develop the bitterness, but it didn't seem to make a difference for me. If they grow in the hot weather they get bitter - at least they do in my garden.

Carrots are biennial, and they will go to seed and the roots will get woody their second year, so you might want to harvest them as early as possible. I let a parsnip go to seed last year in my garden and I couldn't believe how big it got. It was pretty so I just left it, not thinking about the fact that it would self-sow. In late fall I had little parsnip plants sprouting all around my garden path.

Thanks for sharing your photos. Your lettuce plants are making me want a salad. (Good thing your garden isn't located next door.)

staf74 wrote:Thanks BBG !

I went for the rebar spaced outside the boxes (which was a real snug fit over the 3/4 PVC pipe and is going nowhere) to give me some more wiggle room. The plants, especially Broccoli and Kale, just got sooo big that having the hoop run down and inside the box meant they just got crushed by the plastic. Mel's method is fine with lettuce, spinach, chard etc but bigger plants on the outside squares will need a more space when "hooped" in my experience. That's no criticism BTW of the big fella, just an individual modification . More importantly though, the cold temps will create another problem of pretty bad freeze damage when foliage is in direct contact with frozen plastic.

You'll be ready to go in no time, your bed looks great! I really have no choice but to start early; we'll be hitting 80 come April and all the cool season crops will bolt.

All makes great sense. As you can see from my HH, my juggies are on outside squares. I don't need a ton of early spring space. Fall space? That may be a different story. But, for now, the jugs are serving as risers for my row cover, too. Only the inner squares are being used. However, I have no doubt things will change again....and again.....and.....

May I ask what lengths are your hoops and rebar?

staf74 wrote:I am lucky to have a great local farmers exchange. They import a wide variety of sturdy transplants from Bonnie but also raise their own seedlings and stagger them for local growers. I do grow from seed myself but it is also easy to buy those transplant trays, break out the trowel and VOILA !! Instant gratification.

Anyhow, here goes for my spring 2011 SFG here in upstate SC. No hard freezes in the 10 day forecast and 74 tomorrow !! Here is a pic of the first few lettuce squares of Simpson Elite, Red Sails, Romaine and Bibb.



The first 6 broccoli are in. Will plant 3-4 more every week until box is filled to stagger the harvest.



Arugula....first time doing these. I'm told to pick early to avoid hot leaves.



Temps creeping up nicely here. Hitting 60 most days with some unusual 70's. Hoops are at the ready though. Last frost is around mid-April so going in this early I know i'm in for a battle !!

Carrots showing lush regrowth from winter dormancy. Planted from seed too late last fall and left them in.

I've been playing the waiting game for mine also. We've had some big soaking rains for a couple of weeks now. The top re-growth is getting bigger by the day and quite impressive but the roots themselves however have not filled out as much as I would have expected with all that rain. So I know I'm taking a gamble by leaving them in but I've come this far.

Is there a certain point / temp / daylight length that will trigger this woody process?

Of course, I guess the best solution is to pick one every now and then and test. I'm down to about 60 in the box.

[quote="sharonrn"]May I ask what lengths are your hoops and rebar?

I hope he says 2' long rebar and 10' long hoops.... that's what I installed this past weekend. I sunk the rebar in pretty far though, leaving about 4" sticking up. A 3' length would have been perfect but the choices were 2 or 4 foot. I just didn't see pounding dozens of 4' rebar into the ground.

Clayton and Sharonrn

When Mel build's trellises he uses 18 to 24 inch rebar and pounds it about half way into the soil, assuming the soil is not loose, then you would need to go deeper. I would want at least 8-10 inches of rebar inside the PVC.

The 10 ft lengths of PVC are just right to cover your four foot wide beds. It will give you about a 4 ft rise (very approximate)

Hope this helps