How to care for baby plants

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If you've ever wondered why women tend to be excellent gardeners, I can easily explain it to you, they understand that these are babies, and need special care when they're young.

But don't get me wrong, being nurturing isn't something that's exclusive to women, men can do it too, and I'm one of those men. Although I've never done it for a human baby, I've raised puppies, and LOTS of plants. And babies need special care. Just throwing them out into the yard and hoping for the best is not the way to go. Once they're established you can leave them alone mostly (and you should), but as babies you need to give them special care.

It's October 4th, and I planted some alyssum this past weekend. The weather is cooling off here in the Phoenix, Arizona, area, but it's still getting hot in the afternoons, and tiny plants from a six pack can be in danger until they've established some nice roots in the soil, and the weather cools down a bit more.

Although the term "garden center" is the most common nowadays, when I started doing this, they were mostly called "nurseries", and that term helped me to understand that these were tiny babies. And I learned that you really can't lavish too much care on babies. Give them a nice home of fresh potting soil to live in, plenty of mulch, and keep a watering can handy. You can wander over there and water them several times a day. I like to give them a special drink of water in the morning while I'm drinking my coffee, and some more before I go to bed. I'm retired, so I can give them water during the day, too. Be generous!


Of course, once they're established they'll grow like weeds so your main job at that point will be controlling them, keeping them from getting out of hand. I find that this is where my stereotypical masculine personality works well - I cut my plants back!

But right now, these are babies, and there's no need to be rough on them. What they need is tender loving care, and if you know how to do that, your babies will be just fine.

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