Thu, 01 May 2003 01:37:34 -0500 Archimedes Plutonium wrote:

I keep running research experiments on horticulture. One thing I found

out
about tomatoes is that your tomato garden should be close to the south

wall
of your house where no trees are nearby. And that your south wall of
the

house should be white as possible. I have found that the tomatoes
grown
in
such an enviroment grow twice as fast and large as tomatoes not. The
reflection
of light from the south wall of a house or building boosts the
sunlight
and
also the water from house roof runoff is added moisture. Explosive
growth
for tomatoes and so explosive that it covers the entire ground.

This year I am experimenting on control of the tomatoes. I have seen
wire
type baskets that hold up tomatoes. I have seen poles and stakes for
tomatoes.
But that is time consuming. Especially if you plan on having more than

10
tomato plants. So what I am researching this summer is a simple
method.
Those concrete block with their big holes. Concrete block are not
blown
by
the wind. And ants do not make a nest home. So I plan to plant the
tomato
seedling in the middle of a block hole and the block should protect
the
seedling
until it grows high. And then the block serves as a guidance system in

that
I know where the root stalk is for weeding and I am not stepping onto
the root
stalk.

I am going to try this concrete block method on the troublesome
watermelon and cucumber. They seem to make mowing a nuisance.

This is probably a new method of gardening for it places the desired
plant
into a sort of pot, but a pot that is without a bottom. It is a concrete
block
used in building houses. The conventional 8 by 8 by 16 with its two
holes.

They do not blow away in wind. They protect the plant inside one of the
holes. They give extra sunshine from the reflection and extra warmth.
They are good in watering in that you can fill the hole with water.

Best of all, the garden is easier to make than rototilling a plot and
having
it bare dirt. All you do is place the block where wanted and then plant
the
seeds or the tiny plant and then put the concreteblock over it in one of

its holes. Then when mowing you mow around the concrete block and
when weeding you clip the grasses and weeds with a headshears and
hand weed inside the block holes.

This method was started by me some 3 years ago when I wanted to
protect my young trees whenever I mowed and so I placed a block as
a marker on the north side of each tree (not inside a hole). So I used
block as a mowing marker. But then I began to place the block over
my young asparagus so I knew where they were and easier to weed
them because the asparagus was in one of the holes of each block.

And now, 3 years later in year 2003, my entire garden for 2003 with
tomatoes and watermelon (not ambitious this year since I have a
construction project underway), all of my garden is inside concrete
block holes so that I can easily mow and also weed the garden.

Strawberries are a constant concern over weeds. And strawberries are
too small for the holes of concreteblock. But I do have concrete block
surrounding my strawberry patch in order to walk in the strawberries.

I have found the best method of weeding strawberries is a long serrated
knife. It never needs sharpening and I cut enter swatchs of grasses and
weeds and dandelions from their roots.

Watermelons tend to roam over the garden and spill over into the lawn
making it tough to mow the grass. I plan to handle this by providing the

watermelon with more and more block as it spreads over the lawn. And
after the summer, I will use the block in building or use it again next
year
for the garden.

Archimedes Plutonium,
whole entire Universe is just one big atom where dots
of the electron-dot-cloud are galaxies