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Its hardening off time!

Its hardening off time!

The growing season is here! And this means its time to get those seedlings planted outside, but before you do that, make sure you harden them off.. Your seedlings have been pampered indoors for weeks. They need to be introduced slowly to the elements of wind and intense sun.

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Initially, you will put plants outdoors only for short periods of time, perhaps for a couple of hours. You'll want to set them in a semi-shaded area. Gradually, you will increase the time plants are kept outdoors; you also will gradually increase their exposure to sun. after about a week, these plants will be ready for the outdoor life 20121005-171247.jpg

As part of acclimating the plants to the outdoors, you also will cut back on watering. This will allow plants to toughen and will prepare them for being transplanted. If you still havent prepared your soil, now is the best time; work some compost and mineral rock dust in your soil, turning it and preparing it for those hungry seedlings.

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Pruning peppers

Pruning peppers

To get pepper seedlings growing strong and healthy before making their move outside, prune them back for bushier and lower plants that branch out and give much more fruit.

20120926-145015.jpg Cut them back, right under the first fork, and side shoots will grow. Below is the same plant a few weeks later..

20120926-145523.jpg With all plants, go for low, bushy plants instead of tall single stemmed. This is especially applicable for basil plants, the more pruning you do, the more basil you get.
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Now What?

Now What?

Its here. Summer may be our Kuwaiti gardening 'off season', but there's still a lot to do to improve your future garden.

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Just as gardners everywhere else have frost, which is in the winter, we have our summer scorch, as I like to call it.

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Since soil in containers can heat up as much as 30% above the air temperature, try to protect your container plants as much as possible, by grouping them together under partial shade, to create a micro-climate of cooler conditions. Summer is a dormant period for trees, with little, or no growth. By mid summer even Hibiscus and Bougainvillia will have slowed down. Prune back your shrubs and trees to reduce water consumption. Summer is also a time of maxiumum water consumption, try to conserve water as much as possible by watering at night, when loss through evaporation is at its lowest. Try to shade plants as much as you can. Most importantly, do as much composting as you can for your next plantings in September!

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Itallgrows In Kuwait Times

Itallgrows In Kuwait Times

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Collecting Basil Seeds

Collecting Basil Seeds

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When basil flowers start to drop and the flower pods turn brown, it's time to collect seeds. Only pollinated flower pods will have seeds in them so dont expect to find seeds in every pod. This is why having bees and beneficial insects in the garden is important.

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Cut away the browning stems, and start unwrapping the pods to find the seeds.

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It doesn't get easier than this. Now is great time to plant basil seeds, so start collecting!

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Morning Sun

Morning Sun

My garden looks the prettiest early in the morning..

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Tomatoes from cuttings

Tomatoes from cuttings

If you like the tomato variety you're growing, you have a great opportunity to grow duplicates. All you'll need is a large container (5 gallons or bigger), compost, peat moss, perlite. You can of course grow the plant directly in the ground too, just make sure you amend the soil.

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This is the easiest way to grow tomatoes, you don't go through the hassle of planting seeds. The main rule is to clip of the branches on the sucker's stem, and to bury it until its very top leaves. Water generously the first time, but don't drown the plant or else the roots will rot. The most important thing to remember with tomatoes is that they are heavy feeding monsters when it comes to soil nutrition and water, so the need lots of room and really good compost. Never plant them in anything smaller than a 5 gallon container, and always keep feeding with compost.

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Hardening Off

Hardening Off

I've put the time and effort into growing my own healthy vegetable transplants indoors under lights and now it’s time to transplant them into the garden. But before I head for the garden I must be sure to harden off those tender seedlings or I'll be making a mistake that could destroy all my careful efforts. I left the country for about two weeks, and since then, my seedlings got yellow and sad, but they're still alive! and I'm sure they can make it with the proper care! [/caption] Even after the temperatures drop, conditions outside in the garden are still much harsher than your home grown vegetable seedlings are accustomed to. If you were to take those sensitive plants and move them directly into the garden there’s a good chance that they would not survive the transition. What the vegetable plants need is a hardening off period where they can slowly adapt to the more intense light, winds, temperature variations, and other conditions that they will encounter in the outdoor world. Hardening off requires time but the process itself is a simple one. Begin by carefully transporting your seedlings to a somewhat sheltered location where they can get their first taste of what life outdoors is going to be like. This initial exposure should be brief, only an hour or two during the early morning or late evening hours. Start the hardening off process a couple of weeks before you anticipate planting the seedlings out into the garden. Each day you will be moving the plants outside for increasing lengths of time, allowing them to gradually get used to the sunshine, wind, rain, and other outdoor conditions. In my case I've moved them to a warm area with direct sun through glass windows. The area is not as hot as it is outside, so I can leave them all day. The Terra-cotta pots are from TrueValue.
root-bound zucchini plants
Being Root-Bound: "When a plant grows for too long in its container, it generally becomes root-bound. With no room for additional growth, roots become tangled, matted, and grow in circles.  Root-bound plants placed in the ground without having their roots untangled often fail to overcome their choked condition. This results in stunting the plants growth and potential." My plants are definitely root-bound and need to be transplanted as soon as possible. The plants look yellow and weak because of malnutrition, they're hungry! this is why I've just added a layer of compost to the very small pots to give them a quick fix. They will bounce back, but the tiny pots are not enough, they will soon be transplanted into their permanent location; the square foot raised beds Don't skip this crucial step when transferring your seedlings to their containers or in the ground.
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You don't have space

You don't have space

A lot of people really like the idea of gardening, but don't imagine themselves doing it since they don't have space.  You don't need to be planting things in the ground, container gardening is perfectly fine! and maybe even better, since you completely control the soil. Containers come in all shapes and sizes and they will fit your lifestyle and space. If you live in an apartment, you may have a balcony that is perfect for container gardening, or a wide enough window sill outside your window to fit a container with all your favorite cooking herbs!  space really isn't an issue. Anything will grow in compost rich soil in full sun, you just need to fit its roots in their correct size container! Tomatoes need a minimum size 5 gallon container, and herbs will fit really anywhere thats about 8 inches wide and deep.  The Square Foot Gardening method I'm adopting for my garden is essentially a container method. So find a good spot around your house that receives about 8 hours of sunshine and you'll have a nice kitchen container garden to last you from September to May.

Here's a photo update on my seedlings: Here's something I found interesting, This is a French Marigold seedling escaping its very peculiar seed:

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