In the Garden with Pat Rubin

Bee garden writer Pat Rubin writes about everything that grows, from flowers and trees to vegetables and lawns. Pat volunteered for several years as a Placer County Master Gardener and has written about gardening for many national and regional publications. In addition to gardening, she spends time raising and showing miniature horses and miniature donkeys.

In the Garden will include news, events, advice and other gardening tidbits. Pat will also answer reader questions.

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April 24, 2008

Growing great guns

The Bee garden is just a few weeks old, and already it’s changed
considerably. It doesn’t look anything like its early pictures. The
cucumber seeds have sprouted. The arugula has grown six inches. The
romaine seedlings are now a few inches high. The radishes are ready to
pick. Ditto the red and green lettuce. In fact, the lettuce has filled its
square.

Amazing.

Also, there have been a few minor problems. The recent cold weather
damaged the cucumber seedlings just a bit. It looks like only the seedling
leaves were damaged and the plants will grow out of it and be fine. The
tomatoes, eggplant and pepper plants made it through the cold unscathed,
but haven’t grown much yet. I suspect the chilly weather is to blame.

Still, I’m ready to harvest the radishes and plant something else. I’m
thinking of either red romaine lettuce or peppers. I have several heirloom
varieties of peppers still to put someplace in the garden.

So far the square foot gardening method has been easy. It’s been fun. The
checkerboard of plants looks beautiful.

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