Now that your seed have germinated and the seedlings are growing strong, it is time to think of planting them out in the garden. There are a few basic things you need to provide your new little plants in order to ensure they thrive for you.

1. Check Your Timing.

Check the frost-free dates for your area. Most annuals and vegetables will not survive frost, so make sure you are past the chance of frost before planting out. If you have a short growing season or if you just can’t wait for that first ripe tomato, you can fool mother nature for a couple of weeks by using some protection. The Wall O’ Water or Kozy Koats (a circle of translucent plastic tubes that you fill with water) set over a tomato plant will act like a mini greenhouse for your plant, protecting it from cold nights and even late frosts, while surrounding your newly planted tomato with light and humidity. You can also get an earlier start by covering your new transplants with a row cover, which will give up to 3 or 4 degrees protection when laid over the plants, and even more if held above by some support. This is more practical for larger plantings, while the Wall O’ Water is ideal for a few individual plants.

Coldframes and hotbeds are traditional ways of hastening spring and forestalling fall. The coldframe is heated externally, by sunlight, and you control the air temperature by opening or closing a vent. A hotbed is a frame where the soil is artificially heated, usually with a heating coil or heating mat placed under the soil. And if you are really ambitious, you can build a green house, or buy a small plastic one.

2. Match the Location to the Requirements of the Plant.

If you have a boggy or damp place (under a faucet, or in a low place on the north side of your house), then pick a plant that likes damp feet. If you have a sunny bank that dries out fast, choose plants that take heat and drought well. And if a plant likes full sun, be sure that is exactly what it gets! Of course, there are always caveats – plants that take full sun in the north will benefit from some afternoon shade in places with very hot summers.

3. Great Soil Grows Great Plants.

The right soil condition is the most important thing you can provide your precious plants to ensure their success! Preparing your soil will make everything afterward much easier and give your plants a much greater chance of performing their best. 90% of all plants like a well-drained situation, with moisture-retentive, fairly fertile soil. There are several ways to achieve this condition.

1. A raised bed

1. Select the area you want for your bed and dig out the dirt to about a foot deep. Use the edge of your shovel to cut up the soil in the bottom of the hole so there is a gradual transition from the original soil in the bottom of the hole and the amended soil you will use in the hole.

2.Add soil amendments (compost, sand, peat, depending on what type of soil you have) to the dug-out area.

3. Add back the original soil a bit at a time and work in thoroughly with the added amendments.

4. Keep adding until the soil in your bed is about a foot higher than the surrounding soil.

5. You can place an edging such as stones, railroad ties, or bricks around the perimeter to hold the raised soil in place, or simply let it angle down to ground level at the edges.

B.  The right soil.

If you are really serious about giving your plants the optimal conditions, you can start with a soil test from your local Cooperative Extension Service (check the government pages of your telephone book under County Offices or under the State Departments of Education or Agriculture.) They will tell you what nutrients are missing and how to replace them. If you have heavy clay, you need to add things that will make the soil lighter, more porous, and friable (which means that it breaks up easily). Some sand helps, but you mainly need organic matter, such as composted leaves and vegetables, manure from horses, cows, chickens, or goats, (make sure manure is WELL composted, or you will be pulling barnyard weeds for several years!), peat, vermiculite or gypsum. To amend hard pan clay, you should use 40% to 50% clay, and 40% to 50% organic matter, all mixed together evenly. When you’re finished, the soil should be a nice rich brown, should be loose and easy to work, and should hold moisture but not be soggy. If you have sandy soil, you need to add things that provide nutrients and hold moisture. Again, compost and organic matter, as well as a little clay are needed.

C. Lots of organic matter.

Whether you have sandy or clay soil, your plants will benefit from the addition of organic matter – compost, well-rotted manure or peat moss. Organic matter does not last forever, so you will need to keep adding it to your plantings each year, and working it into the soil. This is easy to do in a bed where you plant annual items such as Petunias, Impatiens, Zinnias, or vegetables. In beds with perennials, you will have to be more careful not to destroy roots as you work in the organic matter. A 4-tined spading fork is really helpful for this.

You can make inexpensive, easy compost at home from leaves, grass clippings, garden wastes such as stalks and weeds, and vegetable leftovers (never meat!). Pile these together until well rotted; many use a bin or barrel to contain their compost and make it more aesthetic, but this is not strictly necessary. Aeration, however, is very important. You can turn the pile or use a compost tool that is thrust into the pile and stirred around to get oxygen into contact with the organic matter. Keep adding organic matter until the size of the pile suits you, then start another one. Keep the pile moist but not soaking. It will generally be ready for using in the garden in six months. You will know it is ready when it is dark and crumbly and looks like woodland soil.

4. An Inch of Water a Week!

Soak the plants with water in their flats or pots before transplanting, and then again immediately after transplanting and every day for about a week until they are well established and growing. If they show an inclination to wilt, you might give them a bit of shade (row cover, an umbrella, whatever you can devise) for a day or two until they become acclimated to their new location.

After your plants are established and in active growth, a good rule of thumb for watering is to give them an inch of water a week. Usually nature provides this much or more, especially in spring and early summer. But if a couple of weeks go by with no rain, you need to be prepared to water. This is especially true of newly planted plants and of moisture-lovers, like Phlox, Geraniums, Hydrangeas, Azaleas and annuals like Petunias. An automatic watering system is well worth the cost if you are serious about gardening, and want to grow plants other than those that are extremely tough and are not bothered by dry spells. Drip irrigation delivers water right where it is needed – at the plant’s roots – and is very good for conserving water.

When you water, do not sprinkle a little at a time; this will create shallow roots that stay near the surface and dry out quickly. Water at least an inch at a time, whether you do it once every five days or once a month (when nature doesn’t provide a shower). You can check by having a cup or can half way between the sprinkler and the furthest plant it reaches. When an inch has accumulated in the cup, you will know how long you have to run your sprinkler.

5. Feed Your Plants.

Do you remember the poster the USDA issued several years ago showing a human figure made up of vegetables, showing you are what you eat? Well, this principle holds true for plants, too! Unless you have extremely fertile soil with lots of compost and manure added to it, you will need to add some plant food for most plants to look their best. An all-purpose liquid fertilizer does well when your plants are in their first flush of growth, especially if you want them to grow full and lush and rapidly. You will also want to put out a slow-release fertilizer that slowly disintegrates and releases nutrients over a long period. It can be scattered over your entire garden and will last the whole season. A balanced fertilizer like 10-10-10 or 5-5-5 is also fine to use, but will have to be re-applied periodically.

A good four to five inches of organic mulch makes a tremendous difference in how your plants perform. It keeps water from evaporating so quickly, it shades the roots, keeping them cooler and moister, and it retards weed growth. There are non-organic mulches (ground up tires, small rocks, a polyethylene sheet) but if you use an organic mulch, it will make humus to help improve your soil texture as it decomposes. In fact, if you mulch your vegetable garden, you can simply plow in the mulch at the end of the season to give added humus, and the same for annual flower beds. However, there is one caveat: never place a thick mulch over newly sown seeds – it will prevent germination.

Likewise, do not place the mulch over your transplants, but around them. An easy technique for mulching transplant beds is to spread your mulch over the bed BEFORE you plant, creating little windows in the mulch as you place your plants.

In colder areas, a thick winter mulch applied over your perennials after the ground has frozen will help prevent damage from alternate thaws and frosts. Newly planted perennials and biennials must be mulched over the winter as soon as the first hard freeze hits the garden. Of course, the best winter mulch is a lasting snow cover, and then when it melts in spring, it gives a good soaking to your garden. Those with winter snow cover are blessed, indeed!

Organic materials commonly used as mulches include: straw, pine needles, grass clippings, leaves, compost, bark and sawdust. If using fresh sawdust, add nitrogen, as this nutrient is taken from the soil as sawdust decomposes. Leave a few inches between the plant’s crown and the mulch to discourage disease.