On Facebook yesterday I noticed a post on the wall of Bierkreek (the organic rose nursery in The Netherlands) with a picture of tractor in their fields with a caption that described planting rose rootstocks with the tractor driven by GPS. I found this absolutely intriguing and commented on it. Today Hans ver Hage, one of the owners, posted a video on my Facebook wall, and this video showed that autopiloted tractor in action. A notebook computer appears to be attached to the front of the tractor in the driver's area, and in back of the tractor is some kind of cubicle with seats. People sit (looks like a row of 4 people seated side by side) in there and attach individual rootstocks to some kind of wheel each one has, which as the tractor moves forward, circles into the ground and progressively places each rootstock in the soil. The discs of the tractor appear to follow behind and cover the newly-placed rootstocks. Just how neat is that?

My roses are lucky to get aluminium wire on tags, and as to their location in the garden, well if I get around to it, they are written in with a pencil I use to crudely sketch a map. Ugh, how passe! Now how to incorporate GPS into the *home* garden?;)

Melissa