Small apples are on the trees, irises are in full bloom, trees have for the most part leafed out, and most importantly, we have just had blackberry winter. What is blackberry winter? Well, here in the Ozarks, when the blackberries are in bloom, we get our last patch of cold weather and after that, it’s time to plant the main garden plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and pole beans.
Preparing Tomatoes and other transplants for Planting in the Garden
To prepare the transplants I planted over the winter, I first have to “harden the plants off”. Hardening off the plants is the preparing the plants to go outside.
How to Harden Off Plants
You see, plants can’t handle direct sunlight. They have to ease into the sun just like we have to tan to prevent sunburn. To prepare the plants, we have to put the plants outdoors for short periods and gradually increase that time until the plants are no longer negatively affected by all-day sunlight. During this time we have to ensure that the plants have plenty of water, much more than we might otherwise have done before introducing the plants to sunlight. On hot, sunny days, the plants are especially vulnerable.
I give the plants ample time to harden off and start the process long before I plant the transplants in the garden. When cold weather or even nights occur, I brought the transplants into the warmth of the house. If the days were especially cold, often I would keep the plants indoors for a couple of days and then take them back out when the temperatures were above 50 degrees F (10 degrees C) during the day. As time went on, I started leaving the plants outside when the temperatures were above 50 degrees F (10 degrees C), but I decided not to plant them until after Blackberry winter occurred. Then I’d know we weren’t likely to have any more overnight frosts.
Planting Outdoors
During this past week, we had our last frost early in the week and then the blackberries were in bloom. When temperatures went above 70 degrees during the day and in the evening before a night of rain was expected, I planted our tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, onions, and a few annual herbs in the garden beds.
We have eight 4×8 foot raised beds that we surrounded with the fence this year and another larger bed outside the area where we planted potatoes and are using grass clippings to mulch the bed. Our grass-catching lawnmower makes it easy to collect the grass and dump it onto the bed.
In two beds, I put determinant paste tomatoes along with onions, lettuce, swiss chard, and basil. In most of the other beds, I put in the slicing tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and more onions. I had one bed that I had not yet completely planted, except for tomatoes and some onions.
More to Do, But the Weather Isn’t Cooperating Right Now
I still need to finish that last bed, but right now the rain has kept us out of the garden for the past several days. We’ll be doing more when the rain lets up for a day or so. I’m not complaining though. It is April and we need the rain.
If you’re interested in putting in a vegetable garden this year, I have written several books to help you get started. All are available on Amazon.
Simply Vegetable Gardening
The Survival Garden
The Four Seasons Vegetable Garden
Help From Kelp
Using Diatomaceous Earth Around the House and Yard
The Perpetual Homesteader 