Square Foot Gardening In Low Sun Vegetable Beds

Lately I’ve been researching Square Foot Gardening In Low Sun Vegetable Beds. I know what you are thinking. You’re thinking, why am I doing that when it keeps looking like this outside….

It’s true! There may be snow on the ground and freezing temperatures outside, but this year I want to grow my own starter plants, and that means I need to get them started very soon! February is a great month to get those starters going if you are going to do them yourself. I’m so serious about this that I even got a grow light this year!

Before I continue I want to let you know about my latest video on my Youtube channel;

One of the 1st things I did as I was getting started with planning our backyard vegetable beds was a little research on “square foot gardening in low sun vegetable beds”. It might not sound like a complicated task to some, but it’s trickier than it would seem at first glance! You see, square foot gardening is one thing when gardening, but when you add the low sun feature that creates another factor to work with. Add the 4×8 vegetable bed factor and you are working with three separate issues in gardening!

Last Year’s Square Foot Gardening In Low Sun Vegetable Beds

Last year we decided to make a backyard garden last minute, in April, and I pretty much skipped the in depth planning because honestly we were doing good just to get the beds together and get somethings planted in time! We ended up with a sweet but small harvest, and this year I want to maximize every inch of space that we have to the fullest potential in hopes of a bigger harvest!

Last year’s small harvest wasn’t too disappointing over all because I guess you could say we learned our backyard’s gardening capabilities and of course it was a lovely plant biology experiment for our kids in their home education journey!

It was last year that I discovered our backyard doesn’t get that much sun. It only gets around 5 hours max of sunshine a day. I was able to discover the area’s that get the MOST sun, however. But less sun means I need to look for vegetable varieties that do alright with a bit less sunshine.

Another thing I ended up remembering partway through the season last year was how much more fertilizer plants in vegetable gardens need. Last year I ended up purchasing fertilizer at a higher price simply because by the time I remembered it the plants were past the point of needing it!

So things grew, but they got a slow start. I aim to change that this year!

What to Grow, Square Foot Gardening In Low Sun Vegetable Beds

After adding up the above 3 factors and doing my research here is what I have decided to plant this year.

• spinach
• radishes
• nasturtiums
• scallions
• lettuce
• zucchini
• broccoli
• cabbage
• cherry tomatoes
• 2 heirloom tomato plants
• herbs
• potato’s (hopefully)

The Plan and Varieties I’m Going With

I intend to start one of the beds with spinach, lettuce, radishes and scallions as soon as possible-no later than March. I’ll probably dedicate half a bed to spinach. It has a relatively short growing season, so after it’s finished producing I will probably use it’s space for a zucchini plant or else use the space for a second crop of radishes and scallions.

Of all the tomatoes the cherry ones did the best last year so I will definitely do a half bed of them. Last year I planted them in the wrong bed though and discovered they would get a bit more sunshine if I put them in alternative bed so that’s what I am going to do this year.

I’m only doing 4 heirloom tomato plants because I am not sure the backyard is going to get enough sun to grow them very well. I’ve been researching the best tomato plants that do well with less sun and I read Siberian, Cherokee Purple, Black Krim, Gold Medal, and Zarnita heirloom tomato’s are supposed to do well in northern regions with less sun. I decided to go with Cherokee Purple and Black Krim.

Radishes are definitely on the list since they did well last year and because they are one of my husband’s favorite treats from the garden.

I will probably do a 1/2 a bed of lettuce since we get such a long growing season for it and because we eat so much of it. I’ll plant some romaine and buttercrunch but I have read that Oakfield is one of the best to grow in our area because it’s hardy and slower to bolt once the heat does arrive.

Broccoli did fairly well in our backyard last year but this year I’m going with De Cicco seeds to start indoors so that we’ll hopefully get more from the plants than we did last year (it’s supposed to produce lot’s of side shoots).

Cabbage is another vegetable that does well in partial shade and we absolutely love making our own homemade fermented sauerkraut so I intend to dedicate about half in bed to cabbage. I decided I’ll grow an heirloom Early Jersey Wakefield or else a red variety since they are early and our growing season is shorter.

I am very excited to see which herbs pop up from last year in our rock garden space! Theoretically all of them should. This year I intend to add more herbs, especially lavender to the herb garden area since the herbs did so well last year. Of course volunteer herbs are always a delighted welcome in this herbalist’s gardens too!

I’m super excited to grow zucchini again, it did splendidly last year and we enjoyed plenty of zoodles and zucchini bread as a result! Funny story; one of my boys HATES vegetables. One day I made zucchini muffins and told all the kids not to say ONE word about there being zucchini in it to their veggie loathing bro. Once they were done we gave him one and asked him if he liked liked it, to which he emphatically said he did. All the kids started laughing at him and told him their was zucchini in it and he argued, “Nah-ugh!” We all got a good laugh out of that!

I’ve ordered as many seeds as I could through Azure Standard (affiliate link) as I’ve had great luck with them in years past. I’ll probably get my fertilizer from them as well since it’s super affordable.

What are your garden plans for this coming summer?? I’d love to hear them below! If you enjoyed this post be sure to read all my URBAN HOMESTEAD RELATED POSTS HERE. Also, you can watch the homestead videos I did on YouTube HERE.

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