A Farmer

Hint:
To attend to the closed system of the farm, make at soil (soil
used in ats or containers for seedling propagation) from equal
amounts of compost and bed soil (saved from the double-dig).
Once soil is available from used ats or containers, use equal
parts of old at soil, compost, and bed soil. If seedlings were
diseased, use that old at soil for compost where the
microorganisms can transform it into healthy soil again.
Your plants will be healthiest if you transplant
the seedlings when their roots and leaves are
thriving and in balance with one another. Roots
are too big when they’ve hit the bottom of the
at or container. Remember to harden o
seedlings for a few days before transplanting
by bringing them from a protected
temperature into the ambient tem- perature.
Transplanting is best done in the cool of the
day, followed by immediate watering to settle
the roots into the soil. Transplanting is
preferable to directly sowing seeds in the bed
because you can:
1. Avoid empty spaces in the bed caused
by poor seed germination, ¦ establish living
mulch faster because seedlings are
already large; therefore they cover the soil
sooner and the soil requires less water.
2. Use the healthiest seedlings to maximize
yield.
3. Produce warm-loving seedlings earlier
(with some protection) that will be ready to
plant when the weather allows, and
4. Bring the crop already in the bed to
fuller maturity (producing more compost
material and higher yields), while the
seedlings are growing.
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