Week 12: Transplanting your plants into the garden

Hey everyone!

So, it’s been a BIG week here! It is now past the full moon, and my plants were bursting at the seems, so they needed to get into the ground! I waited for a cooler day, around 18 degrees, that was cloudy and knew that there were decent days to follow. Sadly, I couldn’t see really far into the future (as in 5 days) and suddenly the weather is calling for snow…. so I will be covering all my babies for a few days with frost blankets.. yikes!! But anyway… on to how to transplant.

So, we harvested our first broccoli plant yesterday. I had to share my 4 year old’s video. He’s been helping me with mine, and now he wants to do his own…. super cute perspective of a young gardener… 🙂

Now remember, your plants MUST be hardened off prior to transplanting. I have a blog about that here too, if you look under “The Singing GreenThumb” tab. The other preparation you should do to save time is to make all your bump up mixes for under the plants. Each group of plants needs different nutrients. They will grow without it, but not as great. Here are a few mixes to make if you would like to try:

Mix for under Cabbage/Broccoli/Kale/Brussels

Get a wheel barrow and add the following to it

1/2 filled of chicken manure or composted

1/4 wet peat moss

1/4 garden soil or composted cow manure instead of garden soil.

2 cups bone meal

2 cups blood meal or 64 00 00 fertilizer

2 cup Epson salts

*** add a borax and lime in the hole to prevent brown heart in the cabbage family

Dig a deep hole at least a foot deep this will give you a well around the plant for watering.

Add the mix and just mix lightly in the hole put some garden soil on top of this mixture to protect the roots of the new plant from burning.

Mix for under Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Squash and Peppers

Using a wheelbarrow again, mix

1/3 peat moss,

1/3 top soil

1/3 composted manure

2 cups bone meal

2 cups blood meal (don’t add blood meal for the tomatoes)

1 cup Epson salt

2 cups of eggs shells

Make the hole the same as for the cabbage make sure you have enough soil (6″) on top of mixture to prevent burning these are touchy if they get dry just after planting.

With peppers add some tomato-tone or plant tone in the bottom of the hole. This will eliminate one side dressing.

For tomatoes skip the blood meal in the mixture. I usually take some out before add the blood for the tomatoes. Then add the blood meal for the other plants. For the squash, dig the hole even deeper and add some chicken manure directly in the whole, cover with dirt, then add the mix, cover with dirt, then the plant.

When transplanting your tomatoes and broccoli, you can plant the stems fairly deep to avoid them being too leggy. This will help them beef up a bit, and create more roots on the tomatoes.

With all my plants, I like to leave a little well around the plants so that the water stays with the plant and doesn’t run off.

Alrighty! Happy Gardening you all!!!

Shy-Anne

P.s. If you have questions, please feel free to drop me a line at shyanne.leah@gmail.com

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