Planting a quarantine garden: 10 easy steps

Assuming you’ve planned your garden and prepared all your garden supplies, the most important step of having a garden, of course, is planting it!

Anyone can stick a plant in the ground, but getting it to grow and thrive is a whole other story! Doing things in the right order and with some planning and intentionality can make a huge difference. So check out these 10 tips to make your plants happy and healthy.

1. Fill your garden containers ahead of time with soil

After you measure your gardening containers or spaces, buy your soil and fill your containers at least a couple days before planting. You’ll want to “water it in” a couple times to get the soil nice and moist for planting, which allows the plants to root well. Skipping this can cause the water to run off and the plants to dry up and die shortly after being planted.

If your soil doesn’t include compost, you must add it in at this phase as well. I talk a little more about this in my gardening supplies post, but the gist is that you want those beneficial microbes starting to activate and work their way through the soil before you plant. Don’t wait until after the plants are in the ground.

2. Map out your garden space

Unless you live on sprawling land with endless space for planting, you will need to plan your garden space. Whether your garden is large or small, I recommend using a combination of square foot gardening, a companion planting guide, and an awareness of where and when the sun hits your space when planting.

Using a ruler or measuring tape, twine, and a staple gun, mark your spaces into 1’x 1″ squares to keep visual reminders for your plant spacing. Then take your transplants and start to lay them out in the grid so you can start visualizing your plan. This step is so important because you want your space to be both aesthetically pleasing but also logical. You might suddenly realize that your lettuce is on the south side of your tomatoes, and it will get burnt to a crisp by the hot summer sun. But if you move it to the north side, it will benefit from the shade of a towering tomato plant.

3. Set aside time for planting

Gardening always takes 2x-3x longer than you anticipate, so plan for that. And also take the following into consideration:

Try not to plant in the heat of the day, as this will further stress out your transplants
Try to plant in the early evening or early morning for more temperate conditions
If there is rain in the forecast, try to get your plants in before that. But if there are severe storms with expected high winds, hail, or torrential downpour those could damage plants and it’s best to wait until after.

4. Plant transplants

Here are the basic steps to plant your seedlings successfully:

Prepare a hole larger and deeper than your transplant. (Check out my Amazon Garden Supplies list for my favorite tools and supplies!)
Remove the plant from the pot.
Gently squeeze the bottom of the rootball to remove extra dirt until most of the roots are poking out of the bottom of the dirt clump.
Place it gently in the hole.
Add earthworm castings and fertilizer.
Refill with soil and pat down soil gently but firmly.

5. Plant seeds

Read the seed packet to find out the recommendations for plant spacing and how many seeds per hole.
Many plants can be started indoors in nursery pots but double-check with the seed instructions and the planting calendars for your area.

Make all the holes for one area at a time.
Sprinkle the correct number of seeds into each hole, refilling with soil and earthworm castings as you go. It can be difficult or impossible to see if you’ve dropped tiny lettuce seeds, for instance, so this ensures that you don’t double plant.

6. Install irrigation

Irrigation for your garden is not necessary but in my experience it can be the one variable that can easily sink your ship if you aren’t going to water your garden each summer day at 6am.

I highly recommend buying a garden irrigation kit so you have all the pieces you need to attach to your hose. You can find pieces individually, but it can be a hassle. Once you have the spacing of your plants and seeds in place, snake your irrigation hose around the plants. In my experience, larger hoses need less coverage while micro hoses are best snaked around each plant as best as possible.

Test your irrigation after you’ve installed it. Sometimes hoses have invisible tears or leaks and you want to make sure you fix it before setting it and forgetting it.

If you can manage it, I recommend using a garden timer so you can set an automatic schedule or simply go outside and press the button and avoid accidentally watering for an hour (guilty!).

7. Build or install garden supports

When you put seedlings in the ground they get stressed out, so give them as much “support” as possible. For transplants that are more than a couple inches tall, it’s a good idea to get those supports and trellises in the ground ASAP.

I recommend build-your-own support systems so that they can adjust to the plant as it grows. Otherwise standard tomato and pepper cages are better than nothing! And many plants like cucumbers, squash, and pole beans can grow on trellises to save space, so consider installing one to use your space efficiently.

8. Apply mulch.

Apply mulch as soon as you can to protect your seedlings from cold or heat. Pine straw mulch is preferred because of its beneficial acidity and benefits for the soil as it composts. A little is better than none so do what you can, but some plants do best with 1-3” of mulch, so keep this in mind so you don’t fill your containers too full with dirt!

9. Water deeply and carefully.

Seedlings and seeds need a good soaking after being planted. Use the gentle shower or soaker setting on your hose nozzle to completely saturate all the soil in that area.

Seeds need to stay consistently moist to germinate properly, so keep in mind with your watering that those areas will need more frequent watering.

Also ensure that you aim your hose at the soil and not the plant’s leaves or stem. Even in cooler temperatures harsh sunlight can scorch plants and leave them more vulnerable to disease and pests.

10. Keep an eye on your plants.

One of the biggest mistakes new gardeners make is forgetting to pay attention! Especially those first few days and weeks, your new plants are stressed out and fragile, so check on them daily for wilting, slumping, burning, pests and the soil getting too dry.

Daily watering with your irrigation is the best thing you can do for your garden especially with sunny and hot days. But if that’s not possible then set a consistent schedule for checking on and watering your plants and you won’t have any surprises!

If you haven’t read my previous post in this series How to Plan Your Quarantine Garden or The Quarantine Garden Supply Guide, check them out before you get started!

Also, I’ll be following up with additional gardening maintenance tips this spring to keep your garden growing and thriving!

Have any questions about planting your garden? Or tips for others?

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