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Busy, busy, busy this month... as always of course! Let`s start off with a major plantingsession by sowing a wonderful range of nutritious vegetables, quite unlike the chemically

contaminated, often poor quality, wilted produce generally olTered in the market atincreasingly exorbitant prices.

First and foremost, some basic salad ingredients with tomatoes, lettuce, cucumber, radish and

spinach topping the list, closely followed by endive, chicory, arugula, leaf beet/Swiss chardand chives, garlic chives, oregano, marjoram and thyme for a hint of something special.

Tomatoes, lettuce and cucumber are the most common salad ingredients but, instead of

sticking to tried and tested varietics, search out seeds for something different such as black,

brown, purple, orange, pink and... wait for it... white tomatoes to give your salad bowl and

your garden a touch of intrigue if not downright astonishment.

When purchasing tomato seeds, look out for huge beefsteak, plum, cherry and even pear-

shaped varieties to make growing them more interesting still. Tomato seeds are best started

olT in pots, trays or prepared seed beds of highly fertile, organic soil/compost and thentransplanted out, distance depending on variety, into their finalgrowing position or into

individual 10 inch clay pots or other suitable containers.

If you are a little short on space them opt for trailing tomatoes which are perfectly at home inhanging baskets and, if you don`t happen to have any hanging baskets around then improvise:

Empty tins, lined baskets, old boots, canvas shopping bags, old hand-hands thoroughly firstto remove any traces of tobacco as tomatoes, like your lungs, do not relish contact with this!

Lettuces come in many shapes, textures and colours too therefore, rather than sticking to the

plain old tried and tested, try to sow a variety instead and don`t sow all the seeds in one

packet at the same time. Sow a 1 few every week to extend the harvesting season and when

the weather begins to warm up, plant them in partial shade rather than full sun. With care and

planning, you can be harvesting fresh lettuce and tomatoes all the year round. Cucumbers are

not all green either; white and yellow varieties can be found, some cylindrical, others 1 round

and yet others shaped like lemons and some of the latter even have a slightly astringent,

lemony flavour.

On to radishes; red, white, black, pink, long and thin, fat and round, tapered, small 1 and big

ones can all be grown. As with lettuce, sowing a few seeds approximately 1 quarter of an

inch deep in rows, four to six inches part according to size at maturity. In even a week or so

will give fresh radishes 1 over a long period of time rather than having masses of them all atonce.

This month you can also make a start on putting in courgettes, pumpkins, lauki, tin1bags, the

legs of `finished` denim jeans with the bottoms tied/stitched firmly closed all make ideal

hanging plant containers and recycling used goods is an environmental, not to mentionsensible, must.

Tomato seeds should be thinly sown, just under the soil/compost surface and kept moist, not

wet, at all times. The seedlings are transplanted once they have developed four to six true

leaves in addition to their seed leaves which are the first to emerge.

Handle tomato plants with care as they are brittle and, if you are a smoker, wash yourda,

spaghetti squash and other members of the extensive gourd family of veggies. Some of these

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are climbers and ramblers needing strong support, some prefer to run riot of their own accordand others of bush varieties don`t take up too much precious room. That wonderfully

versatile, calcium containing, veggie known as bhindi or `Lady`s finger` can also be sowntowards the middie of this month providing there isn`t a delayed cold snap. Bhindi seeds are

hard and round and the germinationrate is increased by warm water, soaking the seeds for 12

hours before planting them, where they are to grow, an inch deep, six inches apart in rows 10

to 12 inches apart.

Bhindi is not very fussy about soil but crops better if lots of organic matter has been worked

in at least a month prior to sowing the seed. They are sun loving plants, some of which grow

quite tall so, if your garden is subject to winds, plants are best given some support otherwise

they may snap.

Aubergines; how I personally adore them can be sown towards the end of this month and like

tomatoes, these benefit from being started off in seed trays or pots. When one thinks of

aubergines it is quite natural to imagine huge, dark purple fruits be they round or long and yet

some of the most flavourful aubergines are the luminous, eggsized, egg-shaped white oneswith almost translucent skin which are grown, even commercially, in quite a few regions of

the country. There are also green aubergine varietics along with pink, Turkish orange andeven yellow ones but the seed is very difficult to track down unless you personally import it.

Elsewhere in the garden this month, give all of your trees, fruiting varieties and others, a

decent top dressing of old, well rotted, organic manure, organic compost or a50/50 mix ofboth to set them up for the months to come. If you have room and have prepared suitable

planting holes in advance, add some more trees of all kinds to your collection. As they grow,

they will be benefit humans, birds, animals, insects and the environment. If you have any

wall space going spare then pop in some climbers now: Grape vines and passion fruit are

always a good bet but so too are ornamentals like Tecoma grandiflora or Trumpet vine, much

appreciated by indigenous, very industrious and beautiful sunbirds.

Many of you will have cultivated masses of glorious seasonal annual flowers over the winter

months and some, if not all, of these will now be beginning to produce seed which, providing

the original seeds were non-hybrid, should be collected for sowing next season. Only harvest

completely ripe seed from the very best plant specimens not from mediocre or poorly

growing ones if you want, as you do, top quality blooms next time. After harvesting, spread

the seed out on sheets of newspaper in an airy place out of direct sunlight and leave them

there for a few days to ensure that all traces of moisture are gone. When you are certain thatthis is the case, store the seed in labeled jars or other airtight containers and keep in a cool

dark place.

You are off to a head start, a free one, when planning your next winter display. E Please

continue sending your gardening queries to zahrahnasir@hotmail.com.

Remember to include your location.

Answers to selected questions will appear shortly in a future issue of the magazine.

The writer will not respond directly by email. E-mails with attachments will not be opened.

The writer`s garden is not open to the public.