Ideas and Complications

Two catch phrases this week: Beyond Organic and Companion Planting. I was suddenly reminded by a Facebook post about companion planting. Of course! It is fundamental to my ideas and somehow I had forgotten all about it. I have lots of books about organic gardening and they all have a page or two about it, but I wanted more. I found a gorgeous book by Helen Philbrick and Richard Gregg, first published in 1966 and I started reading. I also ordered some flower seeds. I’m in another super-excited phase. I’m also battling with the neat rows of my horticultural education.

Action

As you can see from the picture, I am learning about these combinations. I am also busy in the greenhouse sowing seeds and planting cuttings. There is suddenly so much to do. Every year I find that January, February and March disappear in a flash even though nothing much can be done, and then April is here and everything needs doing.  At the allotment I have sown some peas, in square and circles, with space around for their companions, and covered them with net to keep away the wood pigeons. I also planted little clumps of spinach and nasturtium mixed.

Plants

I have sown Tagetes, French marigolds, to grow with my tomatoes, and I have bought nasturtium seed, also to grow with tomatoes. I have also sown some mignonette seed, just for fun. They have rather dull looking flowers, but they smell of boiled sweets, such an old-fashioned plant. They were old-fashioned when I was young, so I don’t know what that makes them now. The cuttings I am trying this week are sage and grape vine, fingers crossed. The work that needs doing this week is sowing sweetcorn and purple sprouting, also salad plants. Oh, and we had a frost.

Other things

The frost could be a problem for the tomatoes. It was only a degree below freezing in the greenhouse, and they do look more or less OK. That is to say, they don’t look worse than they did. But I think they are a little unhappy. The ones I potted on to individual larger pots look a little sad, and the others, which stayed longer in the seed pots , and are now on their own look better. I think they may be fine, but I would love them to get on and grow. The frost won’t help at all.

Beyond Organic

This is my category of growing vegetables. Much organic gardening relies on inputs of approved fertilisers and pesticides. This is not my way. My plan is to have no inputs. I may cheat to start with. I have a big tub of seaweed extract to use up! But the idea is to create harmony, and the information about companion planting will greatly assist this process. I started by thinking about the edaphon, the soil organisms. Now I am also thinking about the armies of insects and other bugs, and how to get them to help. And the frogs and hedgehogs.