Almost Done with All the Transplants in the Garden

I am just about finished with all the transplants that I will be adding to the garden.  All I have left is some dill, wildflowers, statice, alyssum, and various other flowers that I need to get outside real soon.  With vegetables and fruits finally planted from seed or transplanted into the garden from containers, I can now focus on weeding and caring for my plants.  I am just looking for the first harvest from my garden this season.

It looks like some of the first harvests of the season will come from either my lettuce plants or some other spring crop.  Radishes don’t take long to mature and they were planted in the ground a couple of months ago along with my pea plants.  These are just some of the harvests I have to look forward to this year.



The only flowers I transplanted into the garden this week were my cilantro and cosmos flowers.  These plants I started growing back in April and took quite awhile for them to germinate and grow in the containers that I provided them.  They survived this whole time and it was way overdue to plant them in the ground.  It seems like they all took to the soil and with the rain today should definitely help them out greatly.



Rhubarb was another plant that had been grown in pots and was eventually destined to be added into the garden.  I gave them a spot with plenty of room since they have very large roots and need plenty of feeding.  I don’t plan on harvesting any of the stems this season, but hopefully with some good care this year and a cold winter I should have a small harvest next season. 



Last but not least I wanted to mention some of the seeds that were planted and which ones have shown signs of germinating.  Squash was the first since they don’t take long to germinate.  This includes both zucchini and pumpkin plants.  Some cucumbers were in the mix beginning to sprout.  Sunflowers were the other seeds that are starting to grow in the garden.  All that I am waiting for are carrots and a couple of melon seeds that I added a week ago.

What Plants Are Next for Transplanting?

It looks like this weekend has been quite productive with adding three types of plants into the garden.  This doesn't sound like much, but with over twenty tomato plants, twelve squash plants, and a dozen melon plants it makes for a long weekend.  Today I was able to finish the melons and squash transplanting.

A couple of days ago when I had finished tilling I wanted to get as many tomato plants into the ground as possible.  Since I had many tomato plants to add to the garden I wanted to get the hardest plants over with.  It only took about four hours to plant all my tomato plants into the ground.

My melons had been in peat pots for quite a long time and they probably wouldn't have last that much longer in these containers.  That is when I decided to plant them right after my tomatoes.  This includes all my
melons such as watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew.

Right after doing my melon plants squash plants were next.  The two squash plants that I grew this season were pumpkins and zucchini.  These are the only two squash plants worth growing.

The Latest Progress of my Fruit and Vegetable Plants

I didn't want to write a long post and bore you to death, but instead I am going to give a small update on how some of my plants have been doing.  This month will start the garden season with tilling the entire garden, planting seeds of corn, beans and more, and transplanting many plants.  After May I should have everything that I need in the garden.  This includes some seeds that will be planted directly into the garden.

Most of my plants are doing well and I have given updates previously on onions, spinach, and many flowers.  Today I want to share with you all my other plants such as cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, lettuce, and more.  The pictures below are of plants that I have not given an update on this year.

My lettuce plants this season were not doing well outside and it might have been due to the weather.  I didn't think that they would come back at all, but they are now doing very good and I should be placing them outside before I till the entire garden.  As you know I grow both iceberg and the ruby glow hybrid lettuce.

Here are my tomatoes that were one of the first fruits that I started indoors.  They do take some time to grow indoors especially if there is limited amount of sunlight.  These are perfect plants to be grown in greenhouses.  Despite not having a greenhouse they are thriving.

I planted both zucchini and pumpkins which are both squash plants and that is what is pictured below.  Within a couple of weeks this plant is already thriving with several leaves.  I love how fast that these plants grow and how easy it is to care for them.  I hope to place them outside real soon.

The last one I want to show you are my cucumber plants.  They might not look exactly how they should, but once I get some good weather and harden them off I am sure that they will look healthy and vibrant.

Getting Some of My Onion Bulbs Planted in Totes

I like using totes for my onions and I also do use the ground for them as well since it worked out last season I wanted to do it again to make sure it works.  I have not placed them in the ground yet and I hope to finish that tomorrow with weather permitting. 

I have already placed them in totes this past weekend and since it usually doesn't take that long I took just one hour to get that completed.  It will take a little bit longer to plant them in the garden which is why I was waiting for a good day to do so.

I also needed to get my squash plants ready indoors as well.  This is around the time when I get them started now that most of my plants have filled the windowsill.  I can place both zucchini and pumpkin seeds under flourescent lights for a quick sprouting.  I do still have some tomatoes that are under lights, but for the most part many of them are getting light from the sun.

I will soon be placing my flowers outside along with lettuce that is being hardened off right now.  They have been outside the past week and I want them to get ready for the weather outside before transplanting them.  I probably will be planting lettuce by the end of the month if possible.

I am also growing some basil and parsley this season for something extra.  I don't usually grow herbs except for dill and cilantro, but this season I wanted to add some to the garden because when I grew parsley last season as a test they were able to last quite awhile and I collected quite a bit of it over the season.  Since parsley worked in 2015 this year I am adding basil to the list.

Started Transplanting All My Plants This Week

With the good weather over the past month it was time to start putting them into the ground right away.  The quicker they are placed in the ground the faster they will provide a good harvest hopefully.  This is why I decided to place them in the garden.  I still have not finished with the garden, but I should be complete by next week.

I am aiming for next week because I still have have plants to add to the garden including eggplant, peppers, along with planting corn, beans, and carrots.  There is still plenty to do and I am not sure if I can get this done by the weekend.  That is the earliest that I can get this done and even with good weather I might not get it done that quickly.

So far I have got a couple of alyssum plants in the ground along with squash, cucumbers, and melons.  This includes both watermelon and cantaloupe as well as zucchini and pumpkin squash plants.  I even had time to put some pot bound tomatoes into the ground too.

Here is a cucumber plant added to the garden this week.

Here is a pumpkin and zucchini added to the garden as well.

Transplanting My Plants Into The Garden This Past Week

I have been extremely busy with the garden and many aspects of it.  For instance this weekend I usually put up the nets for the blueberries along with the strawberries.  They need a net to keep the birds away and so you can salvage your fruit harvest.  They are targets for the birds and putting up a net can be a time consuming and boring process, but it needs to get done.

Along with putting up a net for my fruit plants I also needed to transplant many plants to the garden in their respective holes that were previously dug.  Since putting up nets takes at least a couple of hours I was short on time to get my flowers and vegetable plants where they belong.

Luckily it didn't rain this weekend and there was good weather every day.  Since the weather was good I decided on getting right down to it and planted my tomatoes, sunflowers, alyssum, pumpkins, and zucchini right to the garden soil.

Here is one cherry tomato that I took a picture of marking the first transplant into the garden besides the spinach plants that were done earlier in the season.

A picture of one of the two sunflowers that were placed outside.

Some alyssum that was put into the ground to attract the best insects possible as early as possible.

Last but not least the squash family of plants.

The Last Vegetables That are to be Planted Indoors

One of the last vegetables that needs to be planted include the pumpkin and zucchini.  These are part of the squash family and are sometimes referred by this name.  I like to do them last because as soon as they start sprouting they will grow considerably fast.  You don't want to have a plant on your windowsill that is taking up too much room.  This is one reason why I grow them last.

Another reason to grow them later than your other plants is that you need to put them into larger pots in order to accompany all the roots that will be needed in supporting these vegetables.  Root bound plants never end up doing good and will most likely not succeed as you had hoped. 

One container that you can use for this task are ones that can hold up to 32 oz of soil.  I happen to collect these types of containers and I reuse them for all my gardening needs.  Don't forget to insert holes on the bottom to allow for proper drainage and air circulation.  Hurry up and start growing your squash plants today.