Day 3: Our First Primaries

This post represents DAY 3 of the day-by-day documentary of the gardening adventures of a newly-wed first-time gardening couple. They are not only first-time bucket gardeners but first-time any kind of gardeners. The details of their successes and failures will be communicated here so you can follow along with your garden - if you wish. To see links to each of the "days" click here.

Day 3: Our First Primaries

After thinking about our plants all day at work we hurried to our local nursery to purchase our first batch of primary plants. We decided to buy small starts rather than growing them so we could speed things up. Cost: $14

Our cast of characters included:

We arrived at the nursery 10 minutes before it closed - Bah! We hurried really really fast to find some yummy plants to start with. The main thing we looked for was small plants - small plants will grow quicker once planted in our bag and they will adapt to the new environment in the bag better than a larger plant. Indeterminate tomatoes were a must for us. Really that's all. Maybe we'll get better at the shopping thing once we get some more experience.

When we got home I watered the plants thoroughly to prepare them for their feeding in the morning. Before spraying your plants with nutrient it is crucial that they are well hydrated. The top soil around the plants felt moist but when I put my finger in the pot and felt the dirt in the bottom it was fairly dry - that is how I knew I needed to water these babies. To water my plants I ran the kitchen sink sprayer on the soil until a puddle of water formed then left them in the sink for a few minutes to let the water drip out of the bottom. I tucked them in a safe place inside our home for the evening - we've been experiencing very cold evenings {even at the end of May} here in Utah so I'm going to keep them warm inside as long as possible. Hopefully we have plenty of sunlight tomorrow!

Note: For day 4 you will need your nutrient bottle and sprayer and you may want to set your alarm a little earlier than normal tonight. Sweet garden dreams!

*Today I also printed off a copy of the Garden Master's nutrient application instructions for quick reference. You can do the same by clicking here.