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Planting the Garden

Before even THINKING about planting, you need to harden off your seedlings -whether you started them in the house or bought them. Carry your seedlings outside each morning and place them in a spot that gets morning sunshine and not too much breeze. Carry them back in at night. Repeat. On day three or four, try them in afternoon sun. Be sure to check to see if they are too dry - even a few hours of hot sun with inadequate water can damage a plant. By day 6 or 7, your plants are ready for planting - if weather permits.

It is commonly believed that the last frost of the spring coincides with the full moon. Gardener Sally Wellborn of Cornish, NH kept records of frost dates for over 20 years. As a college student her son, Gwyn Gallagher, decided to test the theory. He took his mother's records and correlated them with the phases of the moon over all those years. He concluded that the moon does not affect the temperature.

I tend to wait to plant frost sensitive plants until I am ABSOLUTELY sure that there will be no more frost - for me that means June 10. I just don't want to take any chances. I also realize that my garden soil is usually still cold and wet on Memorial Day weekend, the traditional time to plant here. There is no point in planting if the soil is below 50 degrees. Your hot-weather plants will just sulk. Lettuce? Sure, I'm already picking small leaves from lettuce I planted long ago.

What plants will not survive a frost? Basil, cilantro, cukes, dill, eggplant, melons, peppers, pumpkins, all kinds of squash and tomatoes. Potato vines will get killed by frost, but the spuds won't get hurt, and will send up new leaves. Most annual flowers are frost sensitive, but some will survive light frosts. And the tough guys? Artichokes, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chives, corn, garlic, greens, horseradish, kale, leeks, lettuce, onions, oregano, parsley, parsnips, peas, spinach, Swiss chard, thyme and turnips.

If you are impatient and want to warm up the soil, you can heat up the soil by stretching clear plastic over your beds. Pin it down with agricultural staples, rocks, planks or soil so that it won't let cool air in. Clear plastic heats the soil better than black because the sun goes right through it, and directly warms your soil. A few sunny days helps.

How you plant is important. The soil needs to be loosened around the plant so that fine roots will easily extend as they grow. The soil should be rich in organic matter. Every year I stir some compost and Pro-Gro organic fertilizer into my planting holes. Bagged organic fertilizers are gentle, slow release fertilizers that provide a full range of macro- and micronutrients. And they won't burn young roots.

Before you put your young plant in the soil, look at the roots. If they are a tight mass that was constricted by the plastic container it was growing in, you need to tease out the roots. Using a finger or a hand tool - my favorite is the CobraHead weeder -and pull them loose, starting at the bottom. It is critical it is to loosen the roots of big plants growing in small containers. I've pulled up marigolds in August (planted by someone else in May) that still had rootballs the size and shape of a single cell in a plastic 6-pack. They were so tangled that they never got out into the soil, and the plants were pathetic.

Plant on a gray, drizzly day if you can. Or plant in the late afternoon. Depending on how much you've disturbed the roots, your plants may wilt badly, and hot sun will exacerbate the problem. If your plants haven't recovered by the next morning, put up a temporary shade shelter if you can - sawhorses and a tarp will do.

After planting, water. This will settle the soil and eliminate air pockets which might dry out roots, causing damage. Check the soil daily to see if you need to water again. Young plants need more frequent watering than full-grown ones.

Hot caps are a way to protect plants from drying winds and cold nights. The cheapest are home made: cut the bottoms out of gallon milk jugs and place them over tender new transplants. Take off the milk jug's cap to keep excessive heat from building up during the day, and put them back on at night. Bury them deep enough so that they won't blow away.

Gardening can be a struggle against the weather, the black flies, marauding raccoons and sneaky weeds. I prefer to think of it as real-life Sudoku puzzle: how do we line up all the variables to get the most out of our garden? And each year when I taste my first tomato, I know it's all been worthwhile.

Henry Homeyer is the VT/NH associate editor of People, Places and Plants magazine. His website is www.gardening-guy.com. He may be contacted at gardening.guy@valley.net, or P.O. Box 364, Cornish Flat, NH 03746.