Just Grow Something | The "Why" Behind the "How" of Gardening

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Knowing when and how to pot up your seedlings can make all the difference in their health and success when they finally reach the garden. This is usually something we only have to worry about when starting our own seedlings ahead of the gardening season. But you may find if you buy warm-weather plants from the garden center too early, that they quickly outgrow their containers, and they’ll need to be potted up or risk being stunted when they finally do go into the garden.

Today on Just Grow Something we’ll cover why and when potting up is necessary, which plants typically don't need potting up, and the best technique for potting up transplants.

We’re also going to answer the question of the month: Whatdo you have the most difficulty with starting seeds indoors?

Let’s dig in!

References and Resources:

My new SEED TO SPROUT course is live! https://www.justgrowsomething.com/indoor-seed-starting

Just Grow Something: https://justgrowsomething.com

Just Grow Something Merch andDownloads: https://justgrowsomething.com/shop

Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/groups/508637300354140/

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Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/justgrowsomething

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I will never forget the first time I successfully started my own transplants from seed indoors and they actually looked healthy and strong. I was so excited to get those tomato plants out into my garden and lovingly transferred them from their little pots out into the garden, got them all watered in, and was so excited about the money I had just saved by doing it myself instead of going to the garden center.

Three days later those plants were flopped over flat on the ground, looking like they had seen a hard frost over night even though I knew they hadn’t. Those plants took weeks to bounce back and started producing way later than they should have. That very next year I did it again, only this time it was cabbage and the plants got completely sun bleached and they never bounced back at all. They dropped most of their leaves and just didn’t grow.

In both cases, I had failed to give the plants adequate time to acclimate to their surroundings, moving them way too quickly from the indoor seed-starting setup with its perfect lighting, perfect temperatures, and protection from the elements right out into the full sun, gusting winds and wild temperature swings typical for our gardens here in the spring.That process of acclimating our plants to the outside world is called hardening off and nobody had every told me anything about this. It seems obvious if we think about it in terms of anything else in our world. If we live somewhere warm and travel someplace cold, our bodies need to time to acclimate to our new surroundings or need adequate protection to help with the transition. If we need it, our little plants need it, too.

So, today on Just Grow Something we’re walking step-by-step through how to transition your plants into the garden, whether you started them yourself or you bought them somewhere else. Will it always end in disaster if you don’t do this, no, not always. But the number of times it has ended in disaster for me has me checking myself every time I think I don’t have the patience to wait a week before putting my plant babies in the ground. Let’s dig in.

References and Resources:

Save 20% on your new own-root rose plant at HeirloomRoses.com with code JUSTGROW

Just Grow Something: https://justgrowsomething.com

Just Grow Something Merch andDownloads: https://justgrowsomething.com/shop

Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/share/g/18YgHveF5P/

Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JustGrowSomething

Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/justgrowsomething

Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/justgrowsomething

Success with starting seeds indoors comes down to a handful of factors: your materials and technique, soil temperature, air temperature, light, and air flow. How we approach each of these will determine how successful our outcome is. Just like any new skill, starting seeds indoors and successfully getting them to the transplant stage takes practice. Last week we talked about the supplies we need to get started. This week, we’re covering how to use them.

Today on Just Grow Something, we’re going to run through what I would consider to be best practices in terms of each of these factors. We’ll talk about the optimal way to approach seed starting and talk about where we can go wrong. By the end you’ll be able to decide for yourself whether you should tackle indoor seed starting as a beginner or where you can improve if you’ve been there before. Let’s dig in!

References and Resources:

Free Seed Starting eBook: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/seedbook

Garden Planning Workbook: https://www.justgrowsomething.com/shop/p/just-grow-something-garden-planning-workbook

Seed Starting Supplies Options (aff):

https://www.amazon.com/shop/justgrowsomething/list/2C6VB08JWCYZ9?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_PQ0YZ9H0SFS3SM5RXCH5

Just Grow Something: ⁠https://justgrowsomething.com⁠

Just Grow Something Merch and Downloads: ⁠https://justgrowsomething.com/shop⁠

Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/508637300354140/⁠

Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon: ⁠https://www.patreon.com/JustGrowSomething⁠

Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast: ⁠https://buymeacoffee.com/justgrowsomething⁠

Amazon storefront: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/shop/justgrowsomething⁠

One thing I am often asked by beginning gardeners is, “what is the easiest thing for me to grow?” Some of us just dive right in to gardening headfirst, attempting to grow whatever our favorite veggies are, regardless of how easy or difficult it is. Or without even considering that one might be more difficult than others. That was me and ignorance is definitely bliss until you are unsuccessful, and then it’s just frustrating.So, today on Just Grow Something I’m going to cover some of the easiest things for a brand-new gardener to grow, whether it’s in garden beds, raised planters or pots. We’ll take about which growing zones they are appropriate for, what type of light requirements they have, and any specific requirements they prefer like temperature or how they germinate. Just because they’re easy doesn’t mean they won’t appreciate a little attention to their preferences and that will only make them easier for you to get them to maturity. This is a great episode to share with a new gardening friend! Let’s dig in!

References and Resources:

Save 20% on your new own-root rose plant at Heirloom Roses.com with code JUSTGROW https://heirloomroses.com

Episode 240: Spring Planted Bulbs and Garden Perennials

Ep. 79 - Planning a Children's Garden

Just Grow Something: https://justgrowsomething.com

Just Grow Something Merch andDownloads: https://justgrowsomething.com/shop

Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group:https://www.facebook.com/share/g/18YgHveF5P/Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JustGrowSomething

Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast: https://buymeacoffee.com/justgrowsomething

Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/justgrowsomething

Save up to 48% on your Magic Mind subscription! https://magicmind.com/GROWSOMETHING20 with code GROWSOMETHING20

What is your biggest problem in the garden? If you’re like most gardeners, this can be any number of things ... weeds, deer and rabbits, diseases. But the number one thing I hear from gardeners that they feel is so out of their control is insect pests. Once we think we have one pest figured out another moves in to wreck as much havoc as the first, sometimes more, and it feels like a losing battle.

There are a lot of things we can do in the garden to mitigate these pests right from the beginning and it all starts with our garden plan, before we even plant a single seed or buy our first transplant for the season. The way in which we plant our crops, in terms of companion planting and intercropping, is just the start and I’ve talked a lot about that on this podcast. But, if we look at this from an even more detailed perspective, home gardeners should be using a multi-layered approach to battle pests. In sustainable agriculture we refer to this as Integrated Pest Management and you may very well be practicing some of the principles already in your garden but you may be missing some components, too.

Today on Just Grow Something we’ll break down the core principles of Integrated Pest Management, or IPM, and how we as home gardeners can easily apply those principles to manage pests effectively while still protecting beneficial insects, the environment, and our plants. Let’s dig in!

References and Resources:

Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/justgrowsomething

Companion Planting episodes, videos, blog posts: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/search/companion

Companion Planting chart: https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/chart

Grow and Flourish Planner (use code JUSTGROW to save 10%): https://justgrowsomethingpodcast.com/planner Just Grow Something Merch: https:/justgrowsomething.com/shop

Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/508637300354140/

Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JustGrowSomething

Bonus content for supporters of the Podcast!: https://buymeacoffee.com/justgrowsomething