Hope you all had a fantastic Easter. The full moon was beautiful in a clear sky Saturday night. A lot of trees are in bloom and the birds are busy building their nests. All of our birdhouses have already been rented for the season.

This year I started my seeds early because of the mild weather, and it makes for transplanting at an earlier date. By now I am running short of space and lights in the house. For the first time, I had to put the heat on in my small greenhouse. Over the weekend, the temperature outside went down to —1 C and maybe more as the roofs were white and some of the plants in the garden were frozen. With the heat on, the thermometer said 4 C in the greenhouse and the tomato seedlings didn’t mind. I didn’t want to take a chance on basil, cucumber and watermelon seedlings so they came in the house for the night. It makes for a lot of moving back and forth.

Last week I transplanted arugula, lettuce, orach, shungiku (greens) and a few carrots. Nothing was affected by the frost. Of course, they had been hardened before transplanting.

Hardening off your plants means getting them ready for the harsh reality that they will find when growing in the garden away from your tender care. You cannot simply move your plants from inside the house or greenhouse into the garden. The sun will burn them, the wind might break them and a heavy rain will drown them.

You have to start acclimating them slowly over a period of one week or so. This will help them to get used to the outdoors. I usually put my plants in the shade and leave them for about 20 to 30 minutes the first day. Make sure it is not a very windy day. A light breeze should be OK Then I bring them back in the house or greenhouse. The next day I double the time and give about 10 minutes of sun, but in the morning or late afternoon so they don’t get burned. You can increase the time every day and make sure that they are watered so they won’t wilt. I have a very large container with the bottom covered with water. I put my whole trays in this and let the plants take all they need. When the surface is wet, they have had enough and I remove the tray from the water and let it drain. I try to never water the plants directly.

For the first week you should check on them when you do this so they will not get stressed. After all this work, your babies should be able to get transplanted without too many problems. Tomatoes, peppers, basil, cucumbers, melons, eggplants and many other very tender plants should go in the ground after the night temperature stays around 10 C. When you transplant your seedlings, try to choose a cloudy day or late in the afternoon. There are lots of ways of cheating the weather by using hot caps, row cover, kozy-coats, tunnels, etc. You can find a lot of sites on the internet or many seed catalogues that sell these and will give you all the details. I will try the kozy-coats this year. Apparently, the water continues to give off lots of heat even as it freezes. If the water freezes solid, the kozy-coats become an igloo, keeping warmth from the soil around the plant.

For more information, call 250-558-4556 plantlady1@shaw.ca

Vernon Morning Star