[Garden] gearing up for transplanting

[s3lyons at scimail.uwaterloo.ca]

Hello again gardeners,

I just chatted with Lynn (the biology greenhouse manager) and she  
brought up some good suggestions for our planting strategy. She  
suggested that we consider two planting dates-one for the frost  
resistent/tolerant plants and one for the tender crops.  We separated  
out the flats for the two groups.  The frost tolerent crops can be put  
out by the 20th.  These plants are at an excellent transplant height  
and the longer we wait with these plants the harder the transplant  
will be on them.  These plants include leeks, cabbage, kale, brussel  
sprouts, califlour, and broccoli.   There is only four flats that are  
in this first group.  ***We need to harden up these plants-could  
someone keep these plants at their house for next week befor planting?  
  In case you don't know what the effort that is required in hardening  
the stems....the plants need to be put outside during the day and  
until the late evening they need to be put inside for the night.

The second group-the tender crops-includes squash, cucumbers,  
eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, basil, merigold, and zuccini can be  
planted later but the plants are getting pretty large.  Lynn suggests  
that we also plant seeds for the squash, cucs and zucs when we do the  
transplanting.

OK so as for greenhouse access....this really isn't going to much of  
an issue at all.  Yes Lynn is going on holidays but the greenhouse is  
still open all day until 3.  When we want the plants to move them to  
where we can harden them just let me know in advance.  Jenn and I (and  
any of the other Biology students) can arrange a location for transfer  
of the flats to office space until they are able to be transfered that  
night.

In the future we should consider doing the planting closer to the  
transplant date....transplanting is hard on a plant esp when they are  
larger.

Cheers,
Steph