Why my Tomatoes love me, and other stories…
After fighting with 2 million year old Cape Peninsula sea
sand, red spider mite, white web mite, red beetles, green snout beetles and other
vampires I decided in October last year to try permaculture as an alternative
to growing in the ground.
I’m so glad I did.
I drilled drainage holes at the bottom of a large
plastic basin, then glued crushed eggshell
to the sides and rim to keep snails and slugs out. My son calls the result
urban camouflage.
I added broken Styrofoam (to
help drainage) and old Yellow Pages (to hold
moisture and help control nematodes).
Bits of egg-box or newspaper are also good.
Then I added potting soil, left enough place for my seeds, put them
gently to bed, covered them with a thin blanket of soil, and watered them well.
I watered daily and added compost when the plants were 5 cm high. I then added
other seed in between the plants where there was space, so the tomatoes have
mustard (big enough to have been in a few sandwiches), red peppers which have
only just started to sprout, onion seed (none up yet)and a few marigolds to
help chase away insects.
My permaculture pot now holds
more healthy baby tomatoes
busy forming than the
4-door space bed did the whole of last year!
I re-potted the heavenly-smelling white lavender I cloned in March 2012
the same way last weekend and put young lettuce plants in with them. I had to
hurt the roots to get them out of the smaller container so they are going to
sulk for about a month or so, but they will be able to stay in their new
container until they’re big enough to go in the ground. Pics will follow.
I’m winning at last - and I’m
having fun!
To see something I do even better, even in my sleep, visit http://www.intelliverb.co.za/
To see something I do even better, even in my sleep, visit http://www.intelliverb.co.za/
