Get the Warm Weather Plants Outside

“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.”
– Alfred Austin

Got Roots?  Check out the giant corbaci pepper roots!

It's mid May and if you're lucky the chance of a snow or freeze in your area is now gone.  Out here in Colorado we had one last May snow the other week, which made me very glad I hadn't planted any tomatoes or peppers yet.  A big part of urban farming is knowing your area and what you can expect depending on the time of year.  Most of the time you have to go with your gut feeling on what you think is right given what you know.

If the chance of cold weather is gone in your area then that means it's time to get your warm weather plants in the ground, stat.  Hooray!  During this time of year I always feel like I'm a paratrooper getting ready to skydive into a battle zone.  You've been sitting on the plane waiting patiently for precisely the right moment, then when the time comes you go from doing nothing to doing everything all at once.  GO GO GO is all you hear as you quickly jump out of the airplane!

The mad dash to get everything in the ground and the rest of the seeds planted has to be done strategically.  You can't get everything all done at once and if you have a big(ish) yard like mine you'll need at least two full weekends to get everything transplanted and new seeds in the ground.

Tomato seedlings in the ground and ready to rock!

I normally try to get the already growing seedlings in the ground first so they can grow faster and be watered by the drip irrigation (instead of me watering them by hand each day).  Then after the seedlings are set I then focus on the rest of the seeds that I haven't planted yet.

You wouldn't think that just transplanting and planting some seeds would take a lot of time but you also have to pull the existing weeds and break up the soil a little bit first.  When it's all said and done, it takes a surprising amount of time.  The best way I've found to go about this is to not set any goals for the day (or the weekend) but just have a list of what needs to be done and making as much headway on it as you can without setting any hard goals to accomplish.  I used to set goals along the lines of:  Saturday morning from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. I'll pull weeds, then Saturday afternoon between 1 and 5 p.m. I'll transplant the seedlings, then Sunday morning I'll have plenty of time to plant the squash, etc.  You're setting yourself up for disappointment if you do that.  Gardening seems to be a lot like construction in that everything seems to take about 5x as long as you initially think it will.  Give yourself plenty of time, put on a good podcast, audiobook, or tunes, go after the first task and once it's done move on to the next task.  You finish when you finish, there's no use stressing yourself out over it.

Warm weather seedlings to get in the ground asap:

-Tomatoes

-Eggplant

-Peppers

-Any other seedlings you have

Seeds to plant asap:

-Squash

-Cucumbers

-Beans

-Any other seeds you have that aren't cool weather seeds

Here's a video I made showing you how to transplant your seedlings: