Things that grow up may (beautifully) be planted with things that grow down.

For we city gardeners,this is news we may grab with both hands.

It means we can grow more tucker in less space.

This natural intensity, easy as it is for us to apply in our urban farms, can bring:

• plant, insect and bug diversity
• more competition between pests, and perhaps the triumph of those pests we prefer – the ones that predate the pests which destroy our tucker
• more birds, particularly the more threatened smaller ones.

To plant like this, picture, side by side:

- a tall spinach above the ground, then beside it a rooting down beetroot, then beside that another spinach growing upwards with its providential leaves seeking the sun, then a carrot growing downwards in the soil seeking darkness, then a basil (your sun seeker), then, beside it, a beetroot seeking a bottomless pit . . . and so it goes . . .

The growing up plant produces harvestable leaves, the growing down root vegetable beside it grows tucker below the soil.  These different plants seek different things and can be closely planted together.

The one needs the sun, the other needs the gravity and solemnity of the dark soil.

Snap.

So, go to, plant up, plant down,

Michael