Vanishing Variety Plants

For a part of my show, I am giving away free vegetable starts. I have grown these from seed and I have really enjoyed the process of growing them. This is the first venture of this kind for me. I had some great friends help me replant them into paper pots. My parents also have helped me with many gardening tips. I would like to share these with you as well.

Gardening tip#1:
Keep the plants in a sunny window about a week before planting so that the plant can get used to daylight before it ventures out into your garden. I would also recommend "hardening" them by placing them in the shade a few days before planting. I learned the hard way with this because I brought some of the peppers out from fluorescent lights to the bright sunny days that we had a recently. Some of the young leaves got burned and turned white. The plants will be fine and the new leaves will be accustomed to the actual daylight. I would just recommend slowly introducing them to the light. After this prior mistake, I have already exposed a lot of the plants to natural light. They could probably use just a little more before they are fully in the sun. Also water them once a day, because they dry out quickly in the paper pots.

Gardening tip#2
After planting the starts, they may go through a period of shock. They should adapt and in a few days they will be ready to enjoy their new home. If you water them right away, this will also help. If it is a sunny day, try and just water the soil rather than get the leaves wet. This is where the sun can do some damage. At night come back and give it a good soak.

Gardening tip#3
If you are curious as to how to grow the specific varieties, below in the "Growing Varieties" post is a list of each of the seeds. Attached to each is where I got the specific variety. On this page, it should show you how to grow and harvest each type.

Gardening tip#4
Just try things out each year. You learn something new each time. Try and stagger plants based off of height or think about crop rotation. Something like spinach will bolt with the summer sun but then you can replace it with some lettuce starts that you have grown in a window.

For more gardening tips, I would also like to share my father's gardening journal that he wrote for this project. I will have it available at the next installment of this show at Disjecta in June. It is available for download here:

Jerry Shelly's Vegetable Garden Notes

This has been an exciting project from the beginning. Because of Johnny's Selected Seed's essay contest, I was able to have healthy seeds for this as well. I would also like to thank the Portland Nursery for donating Edna's Best Organic Potting soil for the show. This has made it possible for me to give these away. With the state of our economy right now, it feels good to be able to do something for others. The art world is typically thought of as being only market driven. I am trying to show that it can also be giving.

I would also be interested in photos people have of their gardens. I will be working on some new drawings of Portland garden spaces and I would love to include yours in the work.
Just follow the contact link through my website:
www.rebeccashelly.com

Thanks and I hope you enjoy your veggies this summer!