How to plant nursery plants

Most of the plants I placed in the garden came from a nursery.  I also have some winter sown seedlings that I will plant next week so i will talk about those then.  I also am going to grow some plants from seed.  That discussion will be in a day or so.

For today we are going to talk about how to give a nursery plant a good home so it will thrive in your garden.

These are the plants.  I obtained them from four places.  A couple I acquired at the Home Depot.  These are in peat pots from Bonny Plants.  I got basil and lemon balm on a whim when i was searching for a new patio pot.  Most came from the Herb and scented plant sale at the Oak Park Conservatory.  The Herb sale is their big fund raiser, although they do not have many herbs anymore I still support the sale and there are a few items you can only get there which I return each year for.  Several of my tomato plants, a few herbs and the cucumbers all came from the Conservatory.  I stopped at the Good Earth Nursery on my way home from the herb sale and got a few heirloom tomatoes, root celery, and a couple more herbs plants.  Luurs Garden Shoppe, which is my local nursery, less than two miles from the apartment is where I always get my potting soil, compost and other supplies like that, I picked up several thyme plants from them.  They stock an amazing selection of perennials and I cannot wait to shop there when I finally move out of the apartment!  I also won 4 broccoli plants at the garden club meeting in April.

So first things first.  The soil must be ready to be worked.

I laid out the garden with the plants still in their pots to make sure there was space.  I referred to notes, plant stakes and my own research to determine plant spacing.  Once I knew where I was placing the plants then I could dig holes.  Never take the plants out of the pots and leave them laying on the ground with bare roots.  They will dry out so quickly in the sun and the stress to the plant can be catastrophic.  All plants suffer from transplant shock adding dry roots to that and you can kill some less hardy plants.

Using a trowel or shovel, I like a hand shovel, dig a hole that is twice the size of the root ball of the plant you are planting..  This is my ergonomic shovel and I can dig with this all day without straining my wrist.  I admit this is an older tool, I have had it for years using it in my herb garden.   Use a ruler to measure over from the center of the hole to make the next hole when planting multiple plants. 

Toss a handful of compost into the bottom of the hole and water the hole liberally. This is a pepper plant so I just added some mushroom compost.  Organic materials like peat moss, composted grass clippings or plant material would also be perfect.  You just want to give them a bit of a food boost.

Then plant the plant, firming the soil around the plant with your hands enough to keep the plant upright and  the soil from washing away from the plant when it rains or the plant is watered, but not so firm that you press out all the air pockets around the plant.  Remember plants breathe from the roots so spaces in the soil for air are needed. Water the plant well after planting, then move to the next plant.  This is a bush cucumber.  

I place the plant tags that came with the plants in the soil near them.  I will eventually replace these with a larger, easier-to-read tag, but for now, it will keep them identified and allow me to remember what is what.  If it did not have a nursery tag, I wrote the name of the plant on a Popsicle stick and put that in the ground instead.

I put a top dressing of peat moss around the plants as a first layer of mulch to help the soil hold moisture.  I may add more mulch later.  I am waiting to see how the soil sheds water and if I need mulch for weed control. There is a lot of "unknown" in a Community Garden the first year.  In your own yard you will have a better grasp of the soil needs and quirks.

That is it, there is no other technique needed to plant these vegetables and herbs.  Just keep in mind that certain plants, like squash, are grown in a hill rather than on flat ground.  You mound up the dirt and place the plant in the center of the hill or if growing from seed you place three seeds in a hill and thin to one plant once they germinate and grow.

Here are  three planted hills of Zucchini.  I am growing that from seed.

Next time I will demonstrate layering.

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