Lavender and Lettuce Part 1

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/