Wicking Bed Finished

Insect mesh in place and ready for planting

I finallygot the wicking bed finished and the insect mesh attached. The final finish is not as good as I wanted as I couldn’t figure out how to keep the insect mesh in place and still get easy access.
My stop-gap solution is to hold it in place with boards and a couple of screws in each board. The battery operated screwdriver comes in handy attaching and removing the boards.

If you can think of any simple, elegant solutions to my dilemma, I would be pleased to receive them.

Seedlings and Seeds Planted

One of my aims was to have the wicking bed planted just after the winter equinox which was 22/23 June. I’m about a week late but I got the Black Russian tomatoes in the soil yesterday, which was 1 July 2015. Today I got the trellis system in place and will show you how to tie up tomatoes and prune them as they grow. It is quite simple and can be used outside in the garden as well. All you need is some support for the string that will be the support for the tomato plant.

Turnbuckle and  pin for supporting wire

The turnbuckle tightens the supporting wire and the wire is passed throught the hole, around the pin and back through the hole.

The tomatoes are at the southern end of the wicking bed as they will be the tallest plants in the bed, unless I decide to grow some climbing beans as well. If that happens the tomatoes should be well advanced by then. They are at the southern end so they don’t overshadow all of the smaller plants like choy sum, spinach, endive and all those greens that go in stirfries, soups and salads.

So far I have planted seedlings for tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, dwarf french beans and choy sum. Seeds have been sown for choy sum, Tat Soi, chinese kale,spinach, minutina and endive.

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