Garden Log - Seed to Maturity

As I started to grow more vegetables in the 30x30 cm squares, it became a little difficult to remember what I was putting where and when it would be time to harvest. So I created a little spreadsheet to manage this.

It is a simple tool to keep track of what is growing where and when will it be ready. I also kept additional information regarding where I bought the seeds or transplants and what was mentioned on the seed packet so as to know which seeds are growing best.
When you open the file, it calculates based on today´s date how much time is remaining for harvesting.

You can use this spreadsheet here.

Here is the picture showing these sqaures and the plants. Square 1 starting from top left.

Testing the soil pH, Nitrogen, Potassium and Phosphorous

There was an area in the garden where I had concerns that the soil is deficient in some nutrients because of the slow growth. This pepper plant for example was growing quite slowly compared to the one I had in the pot (with different soil) and had only one pepper till now.

Based on observation and reading the books, it could be following of two things:

1. The soil was acidic and therefore nutrients could not be easily absorbed.
2. There was nitrogen deficieny, as indicated by slow growth and yellowing of the older leaves at the bottom.

I used the following kit to test the soil. It provides pH, and NPK tests in a easy way. I sampled the soil as written in the instructions. The soil needs to be mixed with water and the solution is transferred to these test and reference chambers. The test was quite fast and following were the results. The pH indication was neutral, P and K were adequate where as N was deficient.

You can see it from the colour of the solution after the powder in the capsule was mixed.

Based on these results I decided to move the pepper plant to a different area.

I will check in few days if the plant recovers or not.

Building Sqare Foot Garden in Switzerland

Here I would like to share some tips on finding material to build the Square Foot Garden in Switzerland with locally available material from different shops (Migros Do it, Coop Bau Hobby, Jumbo, Landi etc)




Click on the rectangle beside the slide number to see in larger window.

Some pictures - First experiences in container gardening

Here are some pictures of the pots.

I did not expect the tomato plant to grow so big. Now I know it is of indeterminate type and will not stop after reaching a certain height. The good thing is it gives continuous yield once it fruits.

Now the container looks a bit small for this. The roots are coming out of the holes at the bottom.

The one below is white radish. I planted them 7 cm apart according to the guidelines given in this book, but it seems these are bigger radishes. Probably the spacing is meant for the smaller round red radishes which are more common.

Wait and see what happens when they mature.