Friday, February 26, 2010

A few answers so far

One co-worker says he uses a mixture of 1/2 top soil, 1/4 potting soil, and 1/4 mushroom compost in his raised beds, except when he's planting tomatoes, and then he uses manure too. He said the information in the Square Foot Gardening site has a good mix but you can do as well using potting soil for the peat moss portion initially, then add the peat moss each year after.

Some of the people in the library said that squash and zucchini grow really well, as do tomatoes and eggplants. And okra, but I'm not sure I'd bother with it since I don't actually like it.

The first co-worker says interplanting flowers with the vegetables works well, and can look great. The best thing is that it keeps weed growth to a minimum. Flowers like calendula, marigolds, coreopsis, zinnias work really well.

To the question of seeds vs seedlings, he said he uses seedlings for tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, broccoli, cabbage, and onion sets , but plants seeds for spinach, carrots, turnips and turnip greens, green beans, squash, cantaloupe, and cucumber. Hmm, I wonder why and how he has chosen?

So what should I be planting now? Lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage. Eeek! It has been pretty cold this week, and I'm worried about things dying, but I'm equally worried about waiting too long. Look soon for a lettuce related post, as I muse over the many kinds of greens one can plant and eat!

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