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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >When you are starting the second and third crops do you just put the 
> seeds into the ground or do you start the seeds ahead and put in as 
> transplants.

Radishes, turnips, beets, are sown directly where they grow for the second 
and third (and more) crops.  Spinach most of the time too.  The beds I use 
are around 4' wide being closer to 40"  or so on top.  No sides, they are not 
necessary.  They are planted by taking some seed in my right hand and 
folding the two middle fingers over it.  I then let down two or three seeds 
between my thumb and forefinger.  The pinkie is extended and it is used as a 
dibble to punch a small hole in the soil, rotate the hand, and drop the seeds 
into the hole.  With practice this hole operation takes about a second,  two 
or three more seeds into place, dibble a hole, drop the seeds ... repeat.  
This every four to six inches or so (depending on the plant) in both 
directions I plant the bed.  More than one seed is used as a hedge against 
poor 
germination.  They are pulled out as tiny greens later.  Radishes most often 
get 
only one seed, the germination rate is nearly 100%.  With this spacing I can 
use a special small hoe I've made (you can make one out of an egg turner 
you get and the "Everything's a Dollar" store) and cultivate between the 
emerging plants once before they are big enough to mulch heavily or before 
the 
leaves take care of that.

When the beets come up (each "seed" actually being a cluster of four 
seeds), if there are any gaps, I loosen a cluster of plants and transplant 
them 
into the vacant spots.

Lettuce, chard, and all the brassica including oriental greens, onions and 
all such as leeks, are planted in short straight rows in the seedbed close 
together.  When they are 1 1/2" to 2" tall, I loosen the soil and transplant 
them.  Creek sand or sterile peat is very good for such beds because it 
forces a lot of root growth and the soil comes away without damaging any of 
the 
roots.  A note about transplanting such:  keep one of those small watering 
cans with the tiny spout handy (or an old tea pot).  Press a hole in the 
ground with your thumb, place the scraggly roots in the hole, and use the 
water 
to cave in the hole around the roots.  Doing this survival is nearly 100%.

Cucumbers, summer squash, and melons are started in pots and tansplanted 
when they are 4" tall or bigger.

We like beans right out of the garden for as long as this is possible so 
bush beans are planted every couple of weeks.  I put three or four bean seeds 
in holes spaced one foot apart in all directions.  Again, there's two 
purposes for this:  it mitigates any poor germination .... one bean plant 
growing 
in that spot is not too few and four is not too many ... and while the beans 
are emerging it is easy to cultivate between them before they are mulched 
or shade the ground themselves.

The sweet corn is grown in the Center of the Universe garden and not in the 
corn field (obviously).  As with the beans, three or four seeds are put in 
every foot and a half to two feet apart in all directions.  This way there's 
no spotty germination, one stalk is respectable but three are not too many, 
and it is very easy to cultivate and mulch.

With shell peas I've been broadcasting the seeds so they land every 3" or 
so then covering them over with two or three inches of mulch (usually horse 
stall litter).  I've still got peas in the freezer from last year doing this 
and we eat a lot of peas.  I get two and maybe a skimpy third picking from 
them then hoe them in and plant something else with another pea patch coming 
on behind them.

I may replant pole beans once.  Most of the time if you strip the old ratty 
leaves compeltely off the declining vine, it will leave out again and make 
a whole new crop of both leaves and beans.  But we grow so much hard corn 
and have pole beans in most of it that there is plenty no matter what we do.  
Whole dried pole bean plants, pods, leaves, stems and all, make excellent 
winter chicken and rabbit food.

Half-runner beans (including black turtle beans, red habenas, and pinto 
beans which are all half-runners) are gown much as climbing peas.  They are 
grown on a fence or trellis and when the vine gives up on the lower leaves 
(the 
beans having been harvested), yellows them and begins dropping them off, 
more beans are planted parallel to them 6" away.  By the time the first bean 
is calling it quits and bidding fair to die altogether, the second one is 
crawling up the haulm and setting on more beans.

Using some of these (and other) techniques, it will boggle you how much you 
can get in how little square footage of garden.  


James