So, the big summer season is over and that makes us a little sad. Summer goes fast and there is a lot of things to do and take care of. In the vegetable garden, in the flower beds, the vast majority of the work has been done. The garden is empty, and we have removed the leaves, dried branches, and twigs thrown down by the last hurricane. The harvest was also mostly cleaned, packed, and reliably hidden away, rolled up in jars for the winter.
It seems that the most durable crops remain in the garden, but you have to understand that if there is a frost or snow at night, everything is over. The transplanting of plants from the garden, thrown away, and summer and even autumn can be over. But do not be pessimistic, because if you try, if you want and apply a little knowledge, you can prolong the fall and summer can come back home and build it on the windowsill.
DELIVERING VITAMINS TO PLANTS
How can we ensure that fresh vitamins flow all year round, or at least a much larger fraction than warm periods allow us to? What if we replanted our own plants at home, restoring them to life from seed?
That is, take the pot, the bulbs, the southern windowsill, pour the soil, buy the seeds, plant the seeds, open the bulbs, supervise the watering, and then wait patiently to pinch the tips, clip the shoots, water them, treat them, grow them, and finally cut the cherished foliage and serve them on the table?
It’s very doable, but how many questions are there! What if the seeds get the feeling that there’s a blizzard blowing outside and they simply don’t want to wake up? What about the light bulb? Sometimes we want to take a nap by turning off the lights, where we have to nurture the seedlings, and that’s when the lights have to burn.
And it looks like everything is working out, but then the heating season starts and everything goes wrong. I went to work – everything was fine, but when I came home, the room was hot. The sprouts wilted from the heat, there was no place to take them, and you were more likely to get cold with the windows open than to save seedlings or fall sprouts.
Here are the factors that ruin seedlings when sowing in the fall: trouble with fall seedlings, then hot fall batteries, extremely dry air, and cold from the window.
In general, we leave the first (autumn) way of planting to caring and skillful hands, which will solve all the problems of seedlings without exception, if, I repeat, it happens to be planted in the autumn.
We’ll deal with the second way, simply transferring those plants still growing in beds, pots and set on windowsills to continue enjoying their greenery without much care or hassle. However, there are subtleties to all this, and we’ll be sure to talk about them.
WHICH CROPS ARE EASY TO MOVE FROM THE VEGETABLE GARDEN TO THE HOME?
Plants such as leafy parsley, leafy celery, onion greens, basil, and arugula will move from your garden beds into clay or plastic pots with little to no problem. The plant that most aggressively starts growing and giving its first crop on the south windowsill of your home or apartment is watercress.
When transferring plants, try to use a spade and take one plant at a time, digging from all sides and then destroying it from below before transferring it to an appropriately sized pot, which should already have drainage holes in the base and drainage in the form of expanded clay about 1 inch thick. Then compact the soil very well, adding soil and watering as necessary.
Take only the healthiest and most developed plants. If there are signs of illness, it is better not to take them, preferably without any kind of plants, rather than allowing the disease to spread to all crops in the house and then remain without a “vegetable garden” on the windowsill.
Watercress lettuce
Let’s start with it because it develops best in pots after it is transferred from the flower bed. And it doesn’t need a southern windowsill at all; an eastern windowsill is sufficient. For watercress, it is even better not to take a pot, but flat ground, pick it up with a spade (in the vegetable garden) and lay it on top.
It will become like a cake on a large plate. Put this “plate” on the east or west windowsill, spray it with a sprayer and collect the first harvest in a week, that is, in just one week – here you can continue the summer at home.
After that, after 15-20 days, you can fertilize with a wood ash infusion. To do this, take 200 grams of wood ash in 5 liters of water at room temperature, mix it thoroughly, leave it for a day, and then filter the infusion. All that remains is to refill the sprayer with this infusion and treat the watercress directly on the leaves.
As for the other crops I mentioned, they are more demanding to transplant, although the order of action is the same. It is important that the pots themselves do not show signs of various diseases, so, just in case, dilute a weak solution of manganese and use it to clean all the pots, then rinse them with water.
So, watercress – this one can be dug if you want, but other plants are best dug up before the frost (which is a must) and you need to follow the weather. Now here’s the tricky part: when it gets really cool and you can feel the winter, you have to take your chances. Then you can safely keep digging.
Parsley leaf
For this plant, a medium depth 5-6inch (12-15cm) container will do, or if you want to dig up several plants, you can use a long bed. You can transplant them right next to each other. If you have enough space in your house, you can fill the whole tray with parsley.
The main thing is that once you have dug up the parsley and put it in the tray, place it in a dark and cool place, such as a hallway, where it is warmer than outside but significantly cooler than inside. The parsley will acclimate there. Parsley does not need to be watered yet.
Observe the parsley: If you have done a good job, the plants will begin to slowly start growing. Then you can move them into the room and place them on the south windowsill. After that, water the parsley and cover it with 0.4inch (1cm) thick wood ash. The light is usually enough for her room, but at least a few hours of light should be artificial (as afterglow).
In the future, I recommend that as the greenery grows, do not cut it off all at once, but when it grows to about 25-30%, cut it off and do not cut it again. Of course, the leaves to be cut off should be at least 2-3inch (6-8cm) tall. Try not to leave any petioles or anything else behind, and always cut the leaves right out of the soil. Once the plant is acclimated and fully grown, you can go for only the largest leaves.
Celery leaves
Basically the same as parsley, these plants are even slightly similar in appearance, except that celery looks more powerful. After a few days in a cool room, leaf celery can also be brought indoors and placed in a southern window. In order for it to grow well, it should be watered well, without achieving dryness of the soil, and after watering it should be mulched, for which you can use wood or stove ashes, or soot, and cover the soil completely with it.
After a week of transfer to a warm room, you can feed: take a tablespoon of nitroaminophos card, dilute it in a bucket of water and use a solution of 50 grams of this fertilizer every two weeks per pot of leaf cress. Although, if it grows and develops well without fertilizer, you can do without it.
Do not forget the phrase: “The wife is pleased with her husband – it is the celery eaten at dinner,” but I think it is – in combination with other products (not the one he chews). Later, when the celery grows and you start cutting off its leaves, be careful with the watering: the fewer the leaves, the less water evaporates from the soil, so watering can be minimized.
Green onions
Here, it is easier to buy onions in the market than to laboriously dig them out of the bed. So, let’s imagine we dig it out of the bed, trim a few inches off the top, and put it in a pot or several pots, and place it on a southern windowsill.
For onions, it’s usually no problem at all, mainly to have a drainage outlet in the pot through which the excess water drains away. The soil is the usual vegetable garden and as the feathers grow they should be cut and eaten right at the bottom. There is no point in feeding the onions: the bulbs are full of nutrients and provide us with a green mass.
Extra light does not need to be given to it either, daylight is enough, although (if he suddenly starts bending towards the window) it should still be turned towards the window through a different side. Watering should be moderate, and the main thing here – do not to overwater, because the bulb will start to rot and then the process will not stop. When watering, try to water at the edge of the pot, not into its center, in the middle.
Basil
Basil is a vegetable for connoisseurs, so not everyone dares to bring it into the house. Soak it in a dark and cool room just long enough for a day. Then you can put it on the west windowsill. Basil needs moderate watering and forced drainage.
And after watering – cover the soil with wood ash with a mulch of 0.2inch (0.5 cm), this technique is enough to do a few times. Some people use tea leaves as mulch, which they say makes basil milder. Try it and write back in the comments.
Other feedings, depending on the situation: Basil often suffers from potassium deficiency, I think you can dilute potassium sulfate (10-15 g) in a liter of water and take a teaspoon of the solution every week until it grows normally. Cut off all the leaves at the level of the soil, without parts, and shoots do not leave.
Eruca vesicaria
Transfer from the plot is easy, but it needs to be soaked in a cool room for ten days, otherwise, once in a hot environment, it sometimes refuses to accept food and water and wilts instantly.
In other respects, everything is the same as with basil, but here it is better to carry out very accurate watering, because the soil dries out, loosens it, does not allow the formation of a crust, and applies fertilizer with nitroaminophos. The standard is 7-8 grams per bucket of water, practically a teaspoon of this solution per plant, once every ten days until arugula gains strength and begins to develop actively.
WHAT TO DO IF THERE ARE NO GREEN PLANTS IN THE GARDEN?
There are times when the beds are empty in late summer, in all kinds of situations, and then you can buy celery root and onions at the general store. Both have good root systems and excellent above-ground growth in ordinary garden soil and in ordinary pots with drainage.
The main thing is to buy before the earth freezes over, pick larger bulbs, celery – healthier, all kinds of rotten and moldy do not take for anything, it’s a waste of time – everything goes in the trash.
Remember that it is important to fertilize basil and rocket, and onions do not need at all.
If you do not have a dark and cool room in the house, because you live in an apartment – here is another option: the floor of a wooden house or balcony. But then try to water, because it is unlikely that you have a log cabin without windows.
If after transferring to a room you feel uncomfortable with the plant (it will immediately become clear: it will begin to wilt), then carry out heavy watering, make water through the entire soil mass and make a compound fertilizer (nitro phosphate solution: one tablespoon per bucket, one teaspoon per bush), and add artificial lighting – one hour in the morning and one hour at night.
After water, it is better to apply fertilizer in liquid form or in combination with watering (in principle, it is better in combination with watering), then mulch the soil with wood ash, furnace ash, furnace ash in a layer of 0.2inch (0.5 cm).
Important! Do not cut all the greenery at once, it is destructive to the plant, cut no more than 25-30% of the new growth. Try to choose the best-developed leaves. Always cut off small leaves at the soil level, so it is good for thinning out the rest.
Until Christmas, you can let these plants grow freely in your home and enjoy their fresh greenery.
