beef, steak, and nematodes

Many little caterpillars were nesting and having a merry time inside the beefsteak tomatoes (some caterpillars found a cosy home in the bud of calendulas and marigolds too - almost cute), so to make way for the next season's plants, I finally dug it up. Given that the tomatoes really weren't growing so well, I wasn't surprised to find a bad case of root knot nematode when the roots came to surface.  
According to Gardening Australia, nematodes (which are like microscopic eels) usually affect: 

- the Solanaceae family, which includes potatoes, eggplant, capsicum, chilli and tomatoes (evidently so)
- cucumbers, melons and pumpkins
- strawberries, peaches, bananas, grapes, passionfruit, pineapples, pawpaw 

They also offer a solution of sowing mustard seeds as a green manure, using the spicy chemicals found in mustard to "fumigate" these nematodes away. I was planning to grow lots of snake beans in that bed, but now I know that incorporating some mustard would be helpful. Luckily, beans and mustard work as companion plants. 

To conclude, I won't be expecting a great crop of beans from this bed, but hopefully the root knot nematodes won't be an issue next season.