on your plot

This section will feature one way of planting tomatoes. The steps are as follows: You seed them in
pots at home or in a green house. When they have their second set of leaves, you transplant them
into a larger pot. This step can be repeated as often as necessary until they can be planted in their
final place.
You can use milk cartons or liter bottles if they get really long. You just remove all leaves except
the very top ones and more roots will be formed along the stem that is under the soil.
Now, when it is time to plant them in their final place (the ground) you make a shallow trench with
a deeper place at one end. This is where the main root ball will go. Lay the plant on its side and
cover it completely except for the very top leaves. Prop these up and place a plastic cup or an
empty flower pot over the root ball and partially submerged in the soil.
You give water in the cup to the deep roots and along the underground stem. I have read that the
deep roots take-up water and the roots nearer the surface take up nutrition.
The reason for planting the plants in this way is that the tom's roots like warmth and when planted
this way, they get extra. By laying the plants on their sides the covered stem roots are closer to the
surface. When plant gets this extra warmth it will grow faster than plants that have their roots
planted deeper in the still cold soil. This is helpful, as here in the north we have a shorter growing
season.

This is the way the planted toms should look with their watering cups. Don't
forget to water over the horizontal stems underground. You can mark them
with sticks for so you won't forget...see the pic on the right. We have used
cane segments.
The toms are planted amongst the butterleaf lettuces, maximising the space
available. The lettuces will be picked in a couple of weeks and then the
toms will have all the nutrition for themselves.

There are all kinds of ways that one can seed and plant their beans, I will
show just one of them here below.
We begin by making paper seeding "cups" out of newspaper with a special
little paper roller that we found in Britain. These will be filled with garden
soil, the seeds will be planted in this and then covered with a fine compost.
You water them once then place them together in a container in the green
house to germinate.
They should be up within a week. Wait a few days to to give the roots time
to form a decent clump, then plant them in the place where they will
grow.
We select a place where the beans will come the year before the planting
time.
Once a place has been selected, it is a good idea to make a trench, fill it
with compost or weed cuttings (earlier in the year), and work it through
with regular ground.
Use a tulip planter to make the holes (it should be like a hot knife cutting
through soft butter if the soil texture is correct), fill the holes with water
then lower the plantlets in and cover. When you have finished planting the
row, water it once again...then let Mother Nature do her thing and do
YOUR thing: defrost and clean the freezer.

The cultivation of asparagus on our complex is not widespread, but there are a
few folks that are making the effort.
I visited Gerard Schepers, Lottie 262 and he explained how he does asparagus.

The process of growing asparagus is a long and sometimes tedious job. Having
said that, the hardest work is in the beginning stages with the ground
preparation and development of the mound; after that, it is a relatively simple
matter of maintenance. Perhaps the best aspect of all is that once the bed had
been made, it can be used for 10 - 12 years.
When it comes to harvesting�well who's going to complain about that! One
must only be careful when removing the stalks.
The procedure that is described here is one that you follow every year until the
bed has finished producing.

PREPARATION
The first thing to do is to decide if you want green or white asparagus.
Next decide if you want to buy seeds to plant (which will cost you an extra year
before the first harvest) or buy klauwen (root clumps). Gerard chose for the
latter.

PLANTING
You choose a sunny location with sandyish soil if at all possible.(1) In March,
dig a trench about 30-40 cm deep (� the depth of a spade). The length depends
upon how many plants you want to have.
(2) When the trench is dug, make a small "ridge" in the middle on the bottom of
the trench. You then place the klauwen(roots) flat on top of this ridge, with
the roots spread-out like a spider and space them four per meter. Fill half the
trench with the sandy soil that you dug out to make the trench. The plantlet
roots (klauwen) are to be covered completely�and then just wait.

WAITING/MAINTAINANCE
Let the plants grow until October, at which time; you clip the plants off just
above soil level (3). Add a little sandy soil as necessary. When March rolls around
again, mound-up your plants (4) before the asparagus grows out of the soil. Just
wait until about early May.

HARVESTING
The time from first planting to the first harvest is fourteen months.
You know it's time to begin harvesting when you see the points
breaking-through the soil on top of the mound.
The first year you harvest you can only harvest for about two weeks, then you
must stop in order not to "wear-out" the plants. Harvesting in the following years
can extend to � 21 June before terminating the harvest.
Gerard harvests about eight asparaguses from his bed per day; however, he says
that when things are really going well, it is better�and in fact necessary to
harvest TWICE a day.

HARVESTING METHOD
In early May you will see small, thick, white points protruding through the
top of your mound (5). It's time to harvest!
Begin removing the soil around the asparagus point with your index fingers.
To work deeper, use your index and middle fingers forked-apart (6).
Carefully remove more and more soil until you have reached the depth that
you want (7). You can then cut it with your special tool (8). You may
notice other points working their way upwards; just leave these, as they
will be ready the following day or perhaps the day after (9).
When you have removed the stalk, refill the hole so that the other
upcoming stalks won't become discoloured.
Sometimes you see that the stalks are a bit reddish-coloured or "blue" as
they call them here, and this means that they have had some light exposure.
You can't sell these to a restaurant, he says, but the flavour is not affected,
actually.

February is usually a month when the signs of
spring are there�but only just. This year the yellow, blue and
white crocus flowers are already visible�the narcissus leaves are
already nine cms above ground- and it's been this way for two
weeks now. The weather comes from the southwest and spring is
in the air, whether it's time for it or not.
The mildness of this years' "winter" can make carrots and
parsnips that are still in the ground be stimulated to begin
re-growing. If you take your border fork and loosen the earth
along the rows of these (without digging them up) their progress
will halt and you can keep them suitable for eating a while
longer.
I'll bet that you have already ordered your seeds; right�so now
you can begin to make serious plans for your plot this coming
season, remembering to rotate them properly (especially your
potatoes).
You can begin chitting your (early) potatoes.
Begin digging your plot's soil and mixing in fertilizer where
needed. Clean-up your plot from weeds and dying veg plants.

SOWING
You can begin sowing a few things directly in the ground now:
things such as radishes, broad beans and hardy pea types. Under
cover it's a different story - lettuce, carrots, beets, greens and
salad rocket can all be sown in the ground undercover. You can
sow tomatoes, caulis, leeks, onions, summer cabbage and celery
in heated propagators now.

PLANTING
There aren't a lot of things to plant in the ground just yet
because there is still a real threat of frost.

HARVESTING
Continue harvesting your Swiss chard, perpetual spinach,
parsnips, and carrots. You can also steadily remove the things
that you have put in clamps, or check them at least to be sure
that they are not being eaten or rotting from too much moisture.

FRUIT
Cover your first year strawb plants to protect them. Continue
pruning bushes, pear and apple trees, add mulch at the base of
your fruit trees, keep an eye on any trees that begin to bloom
(such as pear) and try and protect their blossoms if frost is
forecast. Add fertilizer to medium-sized fruit trees working it in
lightly. The mulch can then go on top of this.