Now with the danger of overnight frosts gone, the young plants big enough to survive in the big bad world and the ground prepped it's time to the put plants out to take their chances.
Sounds simple doesn't it, dig a hole, stick the plant in, fill it up and water.....or is it?
I follow a 3 simple rules for planting out and thought I'd share them with you. They are quite simple, those that go in deep, those that in level and those that need a hill.
Those that can go deep:
By deep I mean putting them in the ground up to the first set of true leaves, not the baby leaves. These are plants that will put out extra roots from the stem, or those that need strong support such as brussels and sweetcorn.
It this category I put tomatoes, sweetcorn, sprouts, Kale, sprouting broccoli
Those that go in level:
These are plants that need the surface of the compost they were planted in to be at the same level as the ground soil, where planting them deeper could cause the plant to rot.
These are plants were the end product is swollen stem, such as onions, or very close to the ground such as cabbages and cauliflower.
Some say lettuces should be included here, but I've always planted them a little deeper to provide support.
Those that need a hill:
Some plants don't like their leaves and stems getting wet. Not only can they not be planted deep, but water shouldn't be allowed to pool around them. This is the cucurbit and gourd family, mostly known as squashes.
These should be planted on a mound, pile up the earth, make a hole in the top, pop the plant in level with the surface. This can mean the root ball doesn't have much soil around it in the first couple of days so it's best to put a plant pot in so you can water near it.
I tend to dig a bigger shallow hole, make my mound in the middle and then water into the moat around it. The white pipe is instead of a plant pot
If you have a sloping plot then planting them at the top will stop the water pooling.
Hope this helps someone out
Happy gardening folks!!
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