I just found the first cabbage worms on my broccoli yesterday so keep an eye out in your own garden.
Transplanting Tomatoes
In case you haven’t planted your tomatoes yet. when you do so you should plant them so much of the existing stem is below ground. You can either dig a deep hole and put the plant in straight. Or you can dig a trench and put the stem is sideways. If you use the trench method you can bend the stem so the leaves are pointing upright. You can break the stem so bend carefully or you can use the following trick I came across recently.
Lay the tomato plant on its side in its pot the day before you plan to plant it. The tomato plant will reach for the sun creating a curved plant. I’ve also read that you can put some object under the stem which helps make the stem curve up.
Preparing Tomatoes for Planting in a Trench
Whether you plant straight or curved, you should remove all of the leaves that will be underground.
Picking Lettuce
When you harvest from your leaf lettuce plants (as opposed to head lettuce) pick leaves from the outside of the plant. Leaf lettuce grows its new leaves from the center of the plant so if you just lop off the whole top of the plant when you harvest you’re reducing the amount you can harvest from each plant.
Lettuce Havesting (circled area is where lettuce was harvested)
Planting Bed Placement
In thinking about where to place you lasagna garden beds one place that I would avoid if you can is in a meadow. I’ve placed a couple of gardens in meadows and found that some of the plants are so vigorous that they can push their way all the way through the manure, cardboard, and compost and cause more weed issues that if you put the garden on a lawn area. Besides meadows are attractive and lawn not (my bias, I understand) so cover up your lawn, not your meadows.
Also, while I understand the impulse to put your beds up against the fence around the garden (if you have a fence) to save room or use the fence as a trellis, I advise against it. There is always a gap between the bed and fence and this is another great place for weeds to establish and infiltrate your bed.
