How to Protect Your Plants
21.08.2023 - 11:59
/ theunconventionalgardener.com
/ Emma Doughty
“April showers bring May flowers.” English proverb
The traditional way of telling whether soil is warm enough to start planting outdoors is (allegedly) to see whether you can stand to sit on it with a bare bottom. In this day and age, with smaller gardens and nosier neighbours, it’s probably better to rely on the weather forecast! April is famous for its showers, but what it really brings is some very changeable weather. It can be bright and sunny one minute, enticing gardeners outside to sow seeds and plant out, and literally freezing the next. Combined with stiff breezes, it’s a trying time for plants, particularly those raised indoors.
Seedlings that you’ve been nurturing on the windowsill (or in a heated propagator, if you’ve invested in one) need to adjust to life outside if they are to survive. It’s not a ‘sink or swim’ scenario – they’ll sink. It’s not just that it’s cold at night, but the sun’s rays can be harsh and those breezes are drying. It’s an endless source of stress that, at the very least, will cause a ‘check to growth’ – a phrase that strikes fear into the heart of vegetable gardeners everywhere, as it means your final harvest will be smaller. The solution to this problem is hardening off. This is a process somewhat mired in myth and mysticism, but it’s pretty simple really. Hardening off is simply the process of gradually introducing indoor plants to the outside world, to lessen the shock. It’s a bit like taking a child to nursery for a couple of hours the first few times, so they get used to their new world before mum disappears for a well-earned break. So… hardening off. In some ways it’s easier if you’ve got a cold frame, which acts as a halfway house. You can pop your seedlings in there and they’ll
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