Square Foot Gardening Experiment

Above is my first effort at the square foot gardening trend that I've been seeing all over the internet. My box is 4'x6'. The boards I used are untreated wood (balsam, I think) and are 8"wide and 1"thick. I stapled on some landscaping material onto the back to retain the topsoil/compost/peat mixture that I filled it with and to keep weeds at bay. The four plants in front are cabbages. The row behind it contains three boxes of golden beets and one box of marigolds to hopefully discourage little rodents. The next row was left empty so that I have room to thin out the other boxes later if needed. The fourth row contains two types of lettuces. You can't tell in the photo but they are just starting to grow - there was no sign of them just two days ago. The fifth row contains two boxes of radishes and two boxes of mini gladiola bulbs, along with some peas that run just along the boarder. The back row consists of two boxes of garlic plants that I transplanted from a pot that they overwintered in. They were pretty much the reason that I finally decided to do the garden box this year as I didn't want to forget where in the garden that I planted them. (They won't be harvested until next year.) The final two boxes in that same row contain more mini gladiolas and peas. I used three branches and some sisal twine that I already had to form a trellis of sorts. Hopefully I'll be able to train the pea vines to climb it. Anyone else do this type of gardening and have tips or ideas?

While I was out taking a photo in the garden this morning I also cut asparagus. It's been four days since we last harvested and we had rain yesterday. Obviously that bit of rain gave it a giant push to grow, since I harvested twice as much as last time. I blanched it and froze it in four quart bags. We now have 9 meals of asparagus put away for winter. Yay! My parents have enjoyed it a couple of times already and I included some (raw) in a giant chunky veggie-filled salad a few days ago. It tastes nearly the same as fresh peas do in a salad.

Also, this morning, I made another batch of low-carb ice cream. This time I used canned coconut milk in place of heavy whipping cream. I also added cocoa. Otherwise it was made the same as the scoopable vanilla recipe that I have posted on this blog. I would like to note that I have noticed something that may or may not be coincidence or a fluke as far as the scoop-ability of homemade ice creams. Of the several times I have made it, the one time that it ended up being harder and more "crystal-like" in texture, was the time that I stored the finished ice cream in a glass Pyrex bowl with a plastic lid. All other times I have stored it in a plastic Tupperware container, which happens to fit it all clear up to the top. While other factors may be contributing to an unwanted consistency, if you have trouble with the texture of your ice creams, try storing it in a different container. Now, if only I'd had some roasted almonds on hand when I made it this morning.... Aside from the almonds missing, it ended up tasting like an Almond Joy. Yummy.