When we moved to Cotile from Baton Rouge, one of my first priorities was putting in a garden. And fruit trees. After two decades of nurturing, my BR garden had ascended to crowning achievements - loads of tomatos, bell peppers, cucumbers, okra, snap peas, chinese cabbage, broccolli, cauliflower, cantalope, and much more. All from a limited space thanks to the wisdom shown me by Mel Bartholomew, a.k.a., the Square Foot Gardener.
In March, I setup the Cotile garden. Two plots of 12-foot by 6-foot, framed by 2x6 weather-resistant boards screwed together. Each plot was dug 2 feet deep, surface vegetation removed, then mixed with a combination of composted cow manure, peat moss, and Miracle-Gro topsoil. The MG topsoil contained fertilizer with iron.
The plants included 5 cucumbers (Sweet Slice), 3 cherry tomatos (Sweet 100), 3 large tomatos (Better Boy, Sunmaster, Celebrity), and 6 bell peppers (California Wonder, Golden Bell, King Arthur, Aristotle). Thanks to SFG, all those plants were able to fit in Plot #1. So I left Plot #2 empty, with the idea of filling in with hot weather options like okra and beans at a later date.
Normally my Spring garden was planted in early March. Perhaps the change in latitude, or altitude, or the Polar Vortex of 2014 was to blame, but cold weather persisted and the plants didn't get in until the end of March.
The weather wasn't entirely to blame. For whatever reason, a few plants didn't survive. Others struggled. I watered them with Miracle-Gro solution a couple times and it still seemed like the garden might go wicked any day! Thoughts of despair ran thru my head - the soil is bad, it'll take years to rebuild what I had in The BR, should I have even planted a garden. Then within one week, the plants exploded. In fact, there's loads of tiny tomatos and small cucumbers and lots of flowers on the peppers. Can't wait for the results!
