Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John Smith" <mikakigr@gmail.com>]

For the past week or so we have been having heavy rainstorms and it couldn't have come at a better time since there was very little rain all winter and underneath my mulch it is easy to find dust-dry soil which  explains some very stunted growth of winter vegetables in some areas of my garden.

 

The season started much earlier this year (very warm weather since April) and in previous years I would be planting tomato transplants about this time but they have been on sale and the conditions were right for them to be planted out well over a month now. We are at a transition period at the moment where the decision has to be made to sacrifice the winter veg which don't like hot sun but which haven't quite finished yet e.g. broad (fava) beans and broccoli.

 

I'm trying to do no-till as far as I can (but I'm on top of very sandy soil with very few worms in evidence), and my solution with those last two vegetables ending was to get out the hedge shears and clip them into tiny pieces from top to bottom and then to place on top of that some compost, aged manure mixed up with some mulch formed from tree bark. It was into that mixture that I planted the summer vegetables. It looked quite neat and I'm hoping it will prove to be very fertile for those plants.

 

John Smith, Greece

 

On 5/26/07, TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net> wrote:

Greece? I'd like to hear more about growing there. Are you sharing in the
drought of northern Italy?

paul tradingpost@lobo.net

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 5/26/2007 at 10:41 PM John Smith wrote:

>Perhaps it is flea beetles that are chomping away. In my situation
>(Greece)
>it is their season at the moment. The snails and the flea beetles have
>wiped
>out a lot of my seedlings and certain plants are marginal - may or may not
>survive. When you talk about tomato plants what size are they? I've read
>that seedlings are at most risk and that once the plant gets bigger they
>are
>less of a risk. I have also heard that pill bugs eat greenery when need be
>but I have never seen it. Anyone with any hard first hand evidence? I've
>seen some ants strip green off plants next to their nest but I'm sure that
>it was lack of other food - or maybe they needed some vitamins. It is very
>limited damage, thank God.
>
>John Smith, Greece
>



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