I had two failures and they both have me baffled. My yellow squash produced a few at the beginning and then just quit. They formed little ones that never grew. My eggplant formed quite well and then jus stopped.

The tomatoes, beans, both Kentuncky wonder and contender, cukes, peppers, cantaloupe and watermelon (which are about ready now) all did well. Strawberries did well but it was a fight to get any. Rabbits and birds and possible three cats LOL...made off with them. The peas did well, but the carrot tape was a mistake. Not much there. All my herbs did well and the marigolds I planted here and there, were outstanding in the garden.

I have replanted my squash and more tomaotes. I am trying to figure out now, what to replant or just wait a few weeks and start a fall garden.

Here is a link that might be useful: GARDENING ON THE MS GULF COAST

I learned that the bugs will come! I also learned that you cannot plant summer squash or any squash for that matter in the middle of your bed.......HAHAHAHAHA! Cantaloupe are everywhere with vines, wow that was a surprise. I did not expect to want to just go stare at my garden so much, so the time factor was hugs for me.

socalgirl - the cantelopes, watermelons, and cucumbers would have wreaked havoc with my garden space- had I not forced them to run up trellises. Also, I understand about "looking" at the garden too much. But, I have to say - that everytime I go out there, I spot at least 3 or 4 "bad" bugs.
iameve- since you're in gulfport, you should still have plenty of options and time to grow stuff. It sounds like the squash were not pollinated well. Sorry....want a couple of my bees? I've got TONS now! They are fighting over blooms every morning.

Oh mine are trellised, LOL That just does not seem to be enough, just a learning curve!

here's what one of my squash plants did, when I opened the fencing last weekend. One of the plants just fell out into the yard.

Oh I would certainly start earlier I barely got any lettuce and my spinach sprouted 2 leaves before it bolted. :(
Next year I will use black plastic mulch to warm my beds earlier maybe even a cold cage if I can talk my hubby into it. ***fingers crossed***
Also I will buy some heat tolerant lettuce so that I can have lettuce with my tomatoes.
I will also start to look for pests earlier I was way to naive to believe that since I never had a vegetable garden at the house they would not be a problem because they would not know to look for me yet. They knew to look for me alright and they also had a field day as they ate away without me catching on. Its ok though I know what they look like now and I am on the hunt to squish them! Everyday when I wake and right before bed I am on cucumber beetle killing brigade.
I am sure as more of my plants start to produce I will discover more things I could improve on and ignorant goofs on my part that I will make sure not to do again next year.

Here is a link that might be useful: My square foot garden blog it has my garden layout and pictures comments are welcome!

I'd have to say first off that you surely seem to have more successes than failures. The garden looks lush and happy.

Sorry to hear about the beans. Just curious why you didn't put them in the ground to begin with? Why the containers?

My failure has definitely been peppers. The hots are OK, but the green, red, and yellow have all rotted before being picked. I guess it's blossom end rot. I've gotten rid of it on the tomatoes, but no luck yet with peppers.

And I've had a blast now that I have GOOD tomatoes. I'd never grown any of the heirloom varieties before, just the better boys, and am loving having the different tastes. Brandywine, cherokee purple, and others. Funny story -- my wife NEVER goes near the garden, but with my daughter the other day went out and picked all the ripe tomatoes, but didn't keep track of which was which. I'm still working on that myself, so suddenly I was left with a bunch of good, but unidentifable tomatoes. I wasn't amused. At least it was better than the last time she helped ... she went out in the fall in pulled out all the dead flowers ... perennials all.

Of course ... it's half the fun, isn't it ... figuring out what you did right and wrong, and what we can do better next year. And sharing like this makes it even better.

What are you planting for the fall?

Happy gardening
David

the bee's, just grow a patch of clovers, i have clovers in my lawn, i have more bee's than i know what to do with, i've never been stung befor, the other day i was stung, and the day befor that i was bitten by a spider, i like to walk barefooted in the yard. ummmm.... not anymore!! LOL so i decided next year i will grow a huge patch of clovers in one flower bed and the rest somehow i will get rid of. "somehow" LOL i have a HUGE lawn so it will take time, i'm sure, LOL
we just picked 5 tomato's and all of my tomato's that i planted are just filled with fruit, unfortunately they are not sq ft. i did n't have the stuff to do that yet. ~Medo

David, thanks for the compliments. When I got my "plan" all worked up for the garden, I had no intentions to grow beans. It was my project, my plan, my labor - everything to make it happen. Then one day, when I was out there admiring it- my wife walked up and I asked her what she thought. She said, "It's ok, all it needs now is some green beans". I told her there was no room for them, so - I tried containers. Next year they will go in the garden, and I won't have to sleep in the doghouse. Anyway.....In one of the threads started by di_h, I put a copy of my layout on there - it tells what i'm planting this fall. I have that box(4x25) and another one that I built later, that's 4x9. I currently have 70 corn plants in it, but later will plant good ol' georgia collards, and turnip greens. Woooo doggie! BTW, i've visited your blog site several times, and really like your setup. Man....the way you've got all that stuff trellised. Could you possibly share some more pictures with us? Especially closeups of the different varieties on the trellises. That'd be great!
EG

I learned that tomatoes grow small and produce few fruit when they are planted in small containers. Same thing for squash (butternut).
I also learned that it is not humanly possible to keep up with all the forums and threads in this place. I am only doing SFG and self-watering containers next year so those are the forums I will stick to...I promise...no more staying until ungodly hours reading GardenWeb postings!!! (I can stop anytime I want to...)
Successes this year: Potatoes! yeah!!! delicious!! Onions (got really lucky with them. Not huge but big enough.)
And my bell peppers grew huge and actually produced fruit.

That's good to know, about the butternut squash. I was contemplating putting one in a large container. How big was the container that you used? One thing I learned this weekend - don't plant turnips for greens, until the jap beetles have went back down into the ground. Here's a photo.

I'm new here and this is my first real sfg. I had amazing success with peas and romaine this year. Herbs also rock!
I need to stop overloving my tomatoes, but they look lovely also. Will definitely try more melons next year. Watermelon, zucchini, and pumpkins are all doing wonderfully even with our weird weather and short season, and they look beautiful on trellises. I will put black mulch on everything but the tomatoes next year, and I'm trying red mulch on those. I've also learned that our slugs love beer. It seems to make them hungry. Diatomous earth only here.