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Dear Square Foot Garden Diary, I apologize for not keeping you up to date. It’s been 10 weeks since my last entry. There’s been relatively little to report, which is a good thing. No fertilizer. No pests. No weeding. A little watering. Lots of growth.

What I am proud to report is that I may have a future career as a cucumber farmer. My cukes have been massive and plentiful. The beans have done well too. And the tomato plants are looking good — lots of fruit, though none is ripe yet. My honeydew melon plant, while not in a square foot, is also coming along nicely — lots of blooms, although the fruit seems slow to take off. The pepper plants are healthy, but they only seem to want to grow one fruit at a time. Not sure what’s up with that. I’ll need to do some reading.

The snow peas were a write off, and my baby spinach and watermelon plants, while still alive, have failed to thrive. On some of my other plants, the jury’s still out. The rutabagas, carrots and red onions all got off to a slow start, and since they’re all root plants, it’s hard to know what’s happening below the surface, so I’m singing to them and visualizing a massive harvest.

The kids’ 2 by 2 garden — with strawberries, cukes and a cherry tomato plant — hasn’t done so well. It’s on the shady side of the garden beside the fence, and it turns out that tomatoes and cukes like a lot of sun. I transplanted the tomato plant on the sunny side and it seems to be catching up. We did get a few strawberries, and the rasperry bushes I planted on that side of the garden have been growing well and have lots of fruit. My 1.5 year old likes to help me water. In fact, I can’t water the garden without him picking up his watering can and saying “Me too?” The girls’ involvement has been mostly limited to eating lots of diced cucumbers — they’re a staple around here — as well as the odd strawberry and raspberry. They’re not fans of the beans yet, but we’re working on it.

So, it’s been a learning experience this year. Most of my plants have done well, despite my inexperience. For the others that didn’t do so well, I’ll know next year to plant earlier or in shadier or sunnier spots. Probably the greatest lesson I’ve learned is the importance of patience. Some plants take a long time to get started and you just need to wait. But I’ve been happy with the Square Foot Garden method. Aside from the setup, which took some time, it’s been very little work to maintain. It looks great, and it’s really satisfying to eat food you’ve grown yourself — or to give it away.

I’ve got a few open squares, and now I’m thinking about what to plant for the fall.