Recent letter received

Hi  SFG people,  I'm blind and have been doing Mel's method for about 3-4 years now, never experiencing this type of issue...some of my trellis plants, specifically cukes and eggplant, are growing elongated and strange looking.  The fruit starts out very skinny at the top and eventually fills out toward the bottom.  The food is edible, but this seems strange to me...any ideas or solutions?          A SFG fan

Dear Blind Square Foot Gardener,

I was so happy to read your letter, that I wanted to respond to it directly. I'm always interested in all the different people and their situations and physical conditions that could still garden because of the simple, easy, Square Foot Garden method.  I have taught many blind people, in fact, I taught at the Helen Keller Institute on Long Island to the blind and the deaf on how to Square Foot Garden.  We even built a special garden there on the grounds for them, and developed several methods that show even a blind person can still garden, despite their physical limitations.

I would be interested in hearing more about your history, and how you find yourself gardening and what it means to you.  We could even develop an article that we could print on our website, that would encourage others no matter what their limitations they don't have to give up gardening.

Now on to your question.  I'm glad you have a trellis. That's the way to grow cucumbers. I'm surprised it's your condition of elongated and misshaped fruit is affecting both the vertical grown cucumbers, and the ground grown eggplant.  Frankly, it sounds like a watering problem.  And, it sounds like the plants were fairly dry for a while, and developed a skinny start in life, and then apparently got a lot of water, and filled out quickly. That's the only thing I can think of that would cause something like that to happen. 

Can you describe your garden a little better to me?  Is it all in one box?  Were the cucumbers and the eggplant close by?  And, is it possible that it was fairly dry for a while and they were setting fruit, and then either received a lot of rain, or a lot more water.  The fruit should be edible, there should be no problem there.  If you could tell me more about the soil that you have in your garden, I could help you and watering advice.

I hope that gets us closer to an answer, but go ahead and eat those. They should be OK. You probably want to cut off the small ends, they might be stressed, and the flesh may not be as good tasting as the rest. Would you also consider writing a short article about how a blind person can still garden?  Or, how I overcame my physical limitations, and still can do several things, one of them gardening. 

This would be so powerful to people that have given up because of whatever reason, and they think they can't garden anymore. It could be age, it could be blindness, it could be physical conditions, it could be anything, but they've given up.  A lot of elderly people can't garden any more because they can't do all the hard work of traditional single-row gardening. But, once we show them you can put a plywood bottom on your box, lift it up on a table, you now have sit down gardening. What could be easier than that? 

And, since Mel's Mix is so loose and friable, you don't need any heavy tools. So, you could even use a stick for mixing the soil up and replanting. And, if you're poor and don't have any money, once you build your garden and get it going, there's no more cost to it. Another would be how to save seed packets from year to year, so you don't have to spend a lot of money on seeds every year.  And all kinds of subjects like that. The more we can tell people about the simplicity and ease of Square Foot Gardening, the more people can enjoy it and be healthier, and happier.

Thank you again for writing, and happy gardening,
Mel
Learn more about square foot gardening at www.squarefootgardening.com

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