Square Foot Garden: Big Update

It's been a while since I've posted about my square foot garden.

My radishes, the red and the icicle, have all been harvested. The icicles are really good, with a very tender root. They have a slow burn though, and are quite hot. Today I pulled the last red radish, as it was going to seed:

(All photos can be clicked to enlarge)


I have two square feet of spinach plantings, and may get a couple of meals out of them, but they really aren't liking the heat of July in Colorado. My green beans are also limping along with the heat and some persistent grasshoppers stunting their progress. I am hoping the early plantings will produce something worth eating.

Here are my square foot beds as they were first thing this morning:





My cabbages are coming along nicely and since spraying them for bugs, they are looking a lot better. My peppers are definitely behind where they should be at this time of year. They have grown quite a bit in the last couple weeks though, and have flowers now, so they will hopefully be producing soon.

I harvested my first few beets this morning as well, and will probably have them for lunch:



I have two square feet of beets planted, and am a little disappointed that the roots are not bigger. I'm not sure what I need to do to achieve that, and I'll need to do some research for next year. I had a similar problem with my icicle radishes. There were a few plants with huge leaves, but tiny little roots that were tough and inedible.

One benefit of the heat has been the rapid growth of my vine plants. Cucumbers, pumpkins and my watermelon vines have all exploded in the last two weeks, and I'm really looking forward to fresh cucumbers in the next month:



Last, but certainly not least, my tomatoes are starting to bear fruit. Fresh tomatoes are the reason I started gardening in the first place. In two weeks I will start harvesting tomatoes, and should be able to eat 2 or 3 fresh tomatoes every day until September or even early October.
Here is my first and biggest tomato:



He's pretty small right now, but I bet he's the first one I get to eat, and I really can't wait. The flavor of home grown tomatoes is so completely superior to anything you can buy at the grocery store that I rarely even buy tomatoes at the store anymore. I might get some in the dead of winter for sandwiches or something, but in general grocery store tomatoes are utterly flavorless and always disappointing.