Efficient gardening in

the Northern
Hemisphere
By Atle Hesmyr
Amidst the present climate crisis, horticulture and agriculture confront massive challenges
with respect to carry sprouting plants through to the ripening stage and resist attacks from
microbes and insects. As several of the modern grain varieties, for example, are beleaguered
by the so-called Rust fungi, which has destroyed crops on a world wide scale during the past
few decades, species which has developed resistance against the one fungicide after the other,
the need to co-operate with microbial life forms instead of trying to "defeat" them is more
pressing than ever before.
As an illustration of how this can be done, I will present in this paper my diary from the
growth season of 2012, which brought me ripe harvests of vegetables such as beans, carrot,
potato, parsley, beet, leek, onion, garlic, squash, celery, in addition to tobacco, at the latitude
of ca. 59o. All vegetables include traditional varieties, some of them dating all the way back to
the Early Modern Era and beyond. The soil is partly heavy clay and loam.

March:
10: Sowed leek, onion root celery and tobacco.
24: 18oC. Extremely dry and hot late winter/early spring so far. The lawns are greening
already.
25: Implanted tobacco. Started pruning leek and onion, to develop the stem.

April:
1: Sowed parsley and cherry tomatoes (Gardeners Delight).
20: Implanted root celery. Sowed "pick" lettuce and broccoli. After a very hot March with
temperatures approximating 20oC, April has arrived with frost and snow, and temperatures
hardly reaching 10oC so far. Started careful water manuring of leek and onion (poultry
manure from local animals).

May:
2: Sowed cucumber, sunrose, pumpkins squash and maize.
4: Sowed potatoes. Reaped leek and potatoes which had overwintered. A bit sweeter than the
automn harvest, but fine quality.
7: Sowed carrots (Amsterdam forcing and Autumn King).
12: Sowed red onion and yellow onion (nodules). Sowed parsnip and root parsley. Cool May,
as last year.
13: Sowed garlic (a New York variety).
16: Sowed persian clover. Prepared sow beds for mulching and inoculation with nettle water
and mycorrhiza.
19: Sowed yellow beet. Provided mulching material to the whole area (ca. 200-250 m2),
except from the carrot/onion and parsnip/parsley spots respectively. Implanted pumpkins.
Somewhat too early inoculation of the tiny sprouts, at least as far as maize is concerned. Wait
till the leaves are more developed. Temperatures up towards 200C today -- gradual increase
during the last few days.
21: Implanted squash and sowed beans. Approximately 200C during the past couple of days.
Watered the plant rows (carrot, parsnip, parsley and yellow beet).
22: Implanted cucumber. Temperature up towards 270C. OK carrot sprouting. Continued
watering in the above mentioned rows in the evening. Moisty soil underneath ca. 5 cm.
mulching (lawn cuttings).
24: Very hot and dry weather. Added mulching material (lawn cuttings with a high flowering
dandelion content rich in phosphorus).
Onion shoots fine. Autumn King carrot seems fresh. Yellow beet starts sprouting. Potato
plants are showing, and garlic is shooting fast.

the final space for the carrots, and watered them with nettle water (mycorrhiza inoculum), and
provided mulching as far as the plant sizes allowed for.
Planted celery and tobacco in the evening.
28: Cooler weather (ca. 20oC). Planted broccoli, pumpkins, maize, lettuce and leek. Down to
15OC in the evening. Looks like it's going to rain.
29: Inoculated the potato plants (10 cm high leaves) and provided mulching material close to
the stem.
30: Planted the rest of the lettuce plants. Considerably cooler weather. Down towards 8-10OC
at night. No precipitation during the last 14 days.
31: Inoculated onion (nodules), tobacco, pumkins and maiz. Provided mulching close to the
plants. Supplied more mulching material to the beans, which now are sprouting. Watered
persian clover.

June:
1: The first summer month is coming with rain and astonishing 4oC (!), which means a
temperature pendulum of close to 30oC in the course of few days. (Thanks to occasional
sunshine in the middle of the day, the temperature rose to 15oC -- a releif).
2: Frost at night has caused severe damage to pumpkins and maize. Had to sow them all over
again
All the other plants have made it through the harsh conditions. As regards the inoculation
procedure, it functioned well as regards leek, onion and lettuce. The others should await the
treatment until after planting and proper establishing.
4: The night frost also killed of a few bean sprouts. Apart from that, all looks well. Planted
sowed leek, parsley and sunrose. Waiting for benign night temperature before planting of
cucumber and squash.
As I am writing this down, a massive hail is thumbling down, followed by heavy rain. After
the incident, it is almost possible to og skiing over the garden. Temperature fell by more than
10oC in the course of an hour.
6: Two days after the hail shower over the tiny sprouts, there are only minor damages to the
plants. Planted cucumber. Fine conditions now, 18oC.
9: Cloudy and rain showers, ca. 15oC. Made space for the bean plants, which seems
remarkably healthy despite night frost and hail. The tobacco plants are standing still -- the
cause may well be the harsh weather and possibly too thick mulching. Loosened the mulching
and provided for air to the roots. The squash plants almost ready for planting. Did the second
step in the mulching process -- ie. cleansed the leek, onion, carrot and bean rows.

10: Planted squash. Made proper space for the parsnip.

11: Fine growth weather; a little rain and sunshine in succession and ca. 18 oC. Potato plants
are ca. 30 cm and stark green, onion plants are at an even height (15-20 cm) throughout the
rows, and carrot plants are almost ready for mulching clos to the stems and inoculation. Leeks
are well established after planting, the same obtains for broccoli, lettuce, cucumber and
squash. The beans are well established and made it through the critical stage -- soon ready for
mulching close to the stems and inoculation. Yellow beet, parsley and parsnip are doing well - may soon be provided with mulching.
14: New round with mulching over the whole field, apart from the potatoes. Discovered
belated damages after the hail on some of the beans, but it seems like they will make it
through. Heavy rain and down to 13-14O in the afternoon.
15: Sowed green mint and pepper mint with the view to develop early C-donators for next
season. The persian clover is clearly better established around single individuals of field mint
(a wild local species), primarily as a result of low irradiance/low temperature after sprouting.
17: Planted field mint amnong weak persian clover/beans. New layer of mulching on the
potatoes, with a new round of inoculation (nettle water/mycorrhiza). Tried to provide one row
of the carroots with mulching close to the stem, and supplied inoculation.
18: Heavy rain and lightening. Ripe lettuce.
23: Moist weather and heavy soil. Provided sand from the "wilderness" to the onion and
carrot rows; new round with inoculation over most of the field. Cracked the dense soil
surface.
24: Loosened the soil in the rows in which the clay had stiffened. Inoculated between tobacco
and potato plants. Inoculated the last leek rows (St. Viktor).
Provided new layer with mulching, containing coarser material (straw). Inoculated in the new
cover as needed. Cut some persian clover for nitrogen fertilization for the broccoli plants.
27: Gathered mycorrhiza over a vast area in the forest region and by the roadsides in the
vicinity of my garden.
29: Planted pumpkins and maize. Inoculated with the new "substrate".
30: Loosened the soil once more over the part of the garden containing the heaviest clay.
Another inoculation.

July:
5: Cut the persian clover, which was about to flower. Reaped some garlic. Considerable
amounts of lettuce. Broccoli about to flower. Potatoes are flowering. Spring onion (from last
year) is flowering.

8: Provided persian clover, beech leaves and gras to the broccoli; persian clover to cucumber
and squash. Another inoculation on the latter.
9: Reaped a few potatoes -- enough for a wild trout dinner.
14: Ripe broccoli. Planted tomatoes (down prioritized this season).
16: Cut white clover yesterday and distributed it all over the field. Watered inittially with
temperated water (20o), provided the mulching and inoculated. Reaped a few leaves of
tobacco.
18: Has started reaping potatoes for dinner, starting where the plants have flowered.
Satisfying quality. Because of the dry weather, some watering is provided to keep the
mycorhizzae going. Daily watering of cucumber.
22: Tomato cuttings rapidly rooted thanks to the inoculum. Cleansing of the leek, carrot and
other roots. New layer of mulching and inoculum. Reaped ca. 1 kg broccoli yesterday. New
side shoots are already developing. Mulching delayed because of rain, to spare the soil for
compaction.
23: Regular reaping of parsley, broccoli and lettuce. Mulching material (white clover from the
lawn) is meant for leek and carrot. Reaped a couple of full grown tobacco leaves (Virginia)
from flowering plants, to let the side shoots develop.
28: Lots of rain, enough to secure a plentiful harvest this season.
29: Reaped 2-3 kg broccoli and prepared them for the freezer.
30: Reaped 16 l lettuce and delivered to local restaurants. Reaped 2-3 hg tobacco for drying.
New side shoots are developing rapidly. Cut some mulching material for lettuce and tobacco.

August:
1. week: Fast ripening of broccoli. The first beans and squash are ripe. Onion is ready, and the
first leek may be harvested, too. Lots of rain the last few days -- good for the roots and the
potatoes. Ok lettuce plants, but some has flowered. Delivered 40-50 l to the local restaurants.
8: Implanted peppermint. The experiment with the tomato is highly interesting; the cuttings
are about to flower -- more or less without sunshine (indoor) -- that is, about 14 days after the
development of the roots started, with the sole aid of the mycorrhizza cocktail containing
probalby hundreds/thousands of species).
Tobacco is still flowering and still develops leaves -- after the ripe ones have been harvested.
The few overwintered leek plants meant for seed production is flowering -- looks like they
will be able to produce ripe seeds. Yellow beet is ready for reaping, but should be left in the
soil until proper storage temperature. Parsnip and celery root develop fine in the heavy clay.
Moist weather has caused some potato leaf rot on the ripe plants.

Persian clover is well established once again after the 1. cutting, and some of it has been cut
to provide nitrogen mulching to the plants which seemed in need of it.
17: Cut the potato leaves as the growth process was completed and it started to wither. Good
harvest and good quality under difficult conditions. Harvested the most delicious garlic, with
fully developed slices for the first time. Reaped 3-4 kg broccoli. Tasted the leek, which was
spicier and not so voluminous as in the previous season, which was much moister and hotter
during the main season. Delicious yellow beet, which could easily be eaten raw. The same
applies for parsnip. Squash has ripened slowly, but is tasty. Onion has grown so considerably
that the nodules are competing of the space, even if the distance was ca. 10 cm. Highly
variable carrot harvest, probably because of the seed material (Autumn King), which used to
deliver uniformously good harvests earlier. Amsterdam Forcing produced a harvest consisting
of uniform roots, among the onion.

September:
20: Has reaped between 50 and 100 kg onion. A little less potato harvest than last year
because of drier weather. The lettuce provided a good harvest, and the same was the case with
broccoli, leek, parsnip and yellow beet. Moderate bean harvest and ok carrot (Amsterdam
Forcing) harvest. Autumn King produced a poor harvest; lots of the roots rottened in the soil - they probably did not tolerate the intense mycorrhiza inoculation of some reason. Small
harvest of squash, cucumber and pumpkins because of the cool and dry weather. Okay
tobacco harvest.

Litterature:
Charles Walters (ed.): William A. Albrecht: The Albrecht Papers (1918-74) (1975: Acres,
USA).
Albert Howard: Soil & Health (1947; 2006: The University Press of Kentucky).
Charles Dowding: Organic Gardening; The Natural No-Dig Way (2010: Green Books,
Devon, U.K.).
Sally E. Smith & David. J. Read: Mycorrhizal Symbiosis (1983; 2008: Academic Press,
Amsterdam, Boston, Heidelberg, London, New York, Oxford, Paris, San Diego, San
Fransisco, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo).
Marcel G. A. van der Hejden & Ian Sanders (eds.): Mycorhizzal Ecology (2003: Springer:
Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Hong Kong, London, Milan, Paris and Tokyo).
Chantal Hamel & Christian Planchette (eds.): Mycorrhizza in Crop Production (2007:
Haworth Food & Agricultural Products Press, New York).
William R. Jordan & George M. Lubick: Making Nature Whole; A History of Ecological
Restoration (2011: Island Press, Washington, Covelo and London).
J. G. Torrey & D. T. Clarkson: The Development and Function of Roots (eds.): (1978:
Academic Press, London, New York and San Fransisco).
R. Lal, J. M. Kimble, R. F. Follett and B. A. Stewart: Soil Processes and the Carbon Cycle
(1996: CRC Press, Boca Raton, Boston, New York, Washington and London).