Care for Plants

Once your seeds have germinated, you do need to baby them for a little while until they strengthen. When they are small and tender they are most vulnerable to rodents chomping at them or kids or pets breaking or pulling them up. After 2-3 weeks then it's just a waiting game. Pull any weeds that may pop up, but you should have very few. Pull aside the mulch occasionally and check that the soil is still damp.

If this is your first year garden, you will need to fertilize once a week if you want a yield of any significance. You can use a chemical fertilizer like nitro phos or miracle grow or you can use organic fertilizers like cottonseed meal or fish emulsion. Organic fertilizers will take 1-2 weeks to deliver nutrients and chemical fertilizers will take 2-3 days.

Trellis any vine plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, or english peas. Keeping them off the ground will reduce the incidence of disease and improve formation of the fruit.

Water the ground, not the plant. Some plants will absorb nutrients through their leaves but all do so through the roots. You're less likely to have problems with rot and disease if you keep the plant dry and only deliver water to the roots.

As plants grow, you may need to trim off dead foliage. Typically the plant will stop supporting older leaves in favor of support new growth and fruits. It's not always a problem to have dying leaves, just remove them if they bother you or are touching the ground.

Some plants such as tomatoes need to be pruned to encourage large fruit growth and increase air flow around the plant. The suckers are a new growth point that usually begins between the leaf base and the main stem. When they are small, quickly jerk the sucker sideways to snap it off. I usually allow 2-3 growth points per tomato plant and prune any other suckers.

Watch for indications of pests including eggs or holes in the leaves. Inspect your plants and smash any unfavorable insects. if a plant is wholly infested or unhealthy, sometimes it's best to cut your losses, remove the plant and discard. Healthy soil and healthy plants will encourage beneficial insects to take up residence and those will in turn keep the pest population in check. Except you'll always have stink bugs, they're relentless. I've never had an aphid problem because I always have lady beetles!

I like to walk through the garden every day or every other day and just note the health of the garden. Your time investment at this point should be very little while you wait for the plants to flower and fruit.