Garden Wisdom Blog — hardening-off

Many plants benefit from a head start by sowing indoors during late winter and early spring. For a few crops, notably peppers and tomatoes, this indoor start is an absolute requirement if growing from seed. These tender, tropical plants will be killed outright by frost, and will show immediate signs of distress if exposed to cold spring weather. So the gardener’s strategy is to make an educated guess about when it will be warm enough to transplant them outdoors, and work backwards from that date according to which crop is involved. Tomatoes, peppers, and many perennial flowers require a good...

Gardening instructions can be full of peculiar phrases from British gardening traditions. “Potting on,” “pricking out,” and “hardening off” are all things we do with seedlings to help them prepare for eventual transplanting out into the garden. Hardening off seedlings is probably the most important concept that new gardeners can grasp to improve successful transplants. It is the process of gradually introducing seedlings started indoors to the much harsher conditions of the garden outside. As bright as any indoor grow lights might be, none compare to direct sunlight. Plants that have not been introduced gently to direct sunshine may show...

Why grow strawberries at all, when there are so many plump, juicy ones available in the grocery store? For me, that’s like asking, “Why grow tomatoes from seed when the stores have lots, even in winter?” Anyone who has enjoyed a home grown tomato will understand the inescapable truth about harvesting the fruits when they are truly ripe, and at the peak of their flavour potential. They do not compare to the relatively bland and watery tomatoes available in most grocery stores that are the product of a mass production greenhouse system. The luxury of harvesting truly ripe fruits for...