We're so excited that you've received your box! Your baby plants are teeming with life and ready to get a'growin!

So what do you have to do to make sure they have a great place to thrive? This guide parallels the Zine that was included with your shipment, and is intended to help you get started off right. 

We hope you enjoy getting started on your #EasiestGardenEver!

Plant Babies

What you have in your hand is a box full of babies-- plant babies! Just like babies don't like to be swaddled for too long, so your plants don't like to be in a dark box for a long time. If you know where you're going to plant, that's great! Be sure to get your babies nestled into their new home as soon as you can. 

If you need a bit of time to sort out where to plant, we recommend cutting off the lid of the shipping trays and standing your plants upright in them. You can put a little bit of water in the bottom of the trays (1/8-1/4" of water) so that they don't get thirsty, and set them in a bright place (a place where they'll get sun half the day is great!). You can keep them like this until their new home is ready, but we do recommend getting them into their new home as soon as you can. Click HERE for more information on plant hardening, which shows how you can do this. 

Where to Plant?

The good news is that plants aren't mean, picky house guests who only want to stay in your finest room. Have you ever seen weeds growing out of a sidewalk? That goes to show you that plants really do want to grow!

But there are some things that you can do to make sure they can be comfy, healthy, and ready to grow you some really delicious food! We're going to try and make it as simple as possible to make this happen. 

To answer where question, we need to think about WHAT plants need. That's what's going to tell us where we need to put them.

Plants are like people when they're on vacation-- they want SUN, DRINK, and FOOD. 

 1. SUN- Look for a place that has sun for at least half the day. If you wanted to get a tan in your garden, where would you sit? That’s probably the best spot for your plants to get some sun. If you already have an area and don't want to move it, that's OK. Just be sure that your plants will get sun at least half the day (the more the better).  

2. WATER-Your plants should always have damp soil-- not too dry, not too wet. Think of a delicious moist cake; that’s how damp your soil should be. So be sure you plant where you have irrigation or where you’ll remember to water often to keep the soil moist. Forgetting to water for a few too many days is the #1 reason we see plants not make it. If you're really ambitious (or lucky enough to already have it) a drip irrigation system can take the work out of watering buy automating it for you. You can click HERE to see some great starter kits and other watering tools. HERE is a guide on setting up drip irrigation.

3. FOOD- Soil is a plant's food (apart from CO2, but that's getting more complicated than we need to!). The better the soil, the happier your plants will be. Generally the darker and softer the dirt is, the better. Think of a mud pie dessert with the crushed Oreo base-- that’s what delicious soil for plants would look like. Adding in some fertilizer every time you plant helps make sure your plants will be well fed! CLICK HERE to see some products we recommend. You can also always add some bags of high quality soil from your local gardening store too. 

Now that you know what plants need, go on out and look for places in your home or yard where they might be happy. 

So, now that you know what to look for, we need to think about where exactly you'll want to plant. Remember, plants aren't picky house guests. Just like easy house guests don't mind if they go in the guest bedroom, on the couch, or in the camper, so plants can be happy in a variety of different homes. It all depends on what you have and what you'd want to get if you don't have it. Just remember, they need SUN, WATER, and FOOD (good soil). Here's some ideas to get you started:

• Ground- Plants have been growing in the ground for a very long time. There's really no need to reinvent the wheel. Your plants can grow happily in the ground in your yard if they have sun and water. This is the cheapest option, though it's also the option that needs the most prep-work, since you'll need to get the ground ready for your plants. If you want to do this and are starting from scratch, click HERE to see step by step instructions on how to do it right. 
• Planter Boxes/ Raised Beds- These are great! They help raise your plants off the ground so you don't have to bend down. They also help keep weeds out. They look good, and can be a wonderful option for your garden. Check out some of the ones that we recommend HERE. If you like DIY projects, you can also make some wonderful planter boxes using recycled wood, stone, brick, or a variety of other materials. HERE is a link on how to build a wooden planter box yourself. Remember that you'll want to fill these with good soil from your local home garden store. 
• Pots- Pots are similar to planter boxes, except that you normally put fewer plants into a pot than you do a planter box. They can be really beautiful items to have sprinkled around your garden. They are also great for herb gardens. If you're planting in pots, make sure they have a hole in the bottom of them. This is important to make sure the pots don't fill with water and accidentally drown your plant roots. 

Good Soil 

Again, the soil is your plants food, so this is a great way to make sure your plants will be happy and healthy-- producing an abundant crop of herbs and veggies for you. Now, before your plants arrive, is the best time to get the soil ready.

Once you've identified where you're planting, you can make sure your soil is great by adding some plant food (fertilizer) and tilling your soil to make sure it's soft and delicious to your plants! It's best if you can add fertilizer at the beginning of every planting to make sure your plants can grow strong and well. Here is some great plant food and here are some gardening tools that we recommend which can help make this happen.

For the plant food, follow the directions on the container you use, but generally all that you do is sprinkle the plant food on your garden bed and use a gardening tool (or even your hands if you have a small area) to mix it together a bit. This makes sure that the ground is soft, the plant food is mixed in, and no weeds are growing-- the type of place any baby plant would love to call home!

Weeds 

Weeds are like those people at beach resorts who leave their towels all over the beach chairs, even though they're not using them. Pretty soon, all the chairs are used up and your vacation all of a sudden got a lot more unpleasant.

In a similar way, weeds eat up your plant babies plant food and steal their sun. Because of this, you'll want to send them packing before your plant babies settle into their new home. If you notice them popping up again later, be sure to pull them out as well. You can spray a weed killer, till them into the ground, or pull them out by hand. 

The good news is that the more you make sure that weeds aren't in your garden, the less weed seeds that will spring up in the future. But if you let the weeds grow and they drop their seed, you'll have more work cut out for yourself.  

How to Plant?

Now that you know where you're going to plant and have the soil ready, it's time to get your plant babies in the ground. The most important things to remember as you're getting started are:

Plant Quickly 

Your plant babies have been hidden in a dark box for one or two days, and plants love light, not darkness. Because of this, it's really important to plant your plantlings as soon as you can after you receive them. Planting early morning or late afternoon is best-- try shooting for planting the afternoon that you receive them, after 5 PM. If you need a bit more time and aren't ready to plant quite yet, click HERE to see a trick you can use. 

Plant Hardening- if it's HOT

If the weather looks to be really hot around the time when you're planting or if you live in a place where the sun is really strong, click HERE to see the steps of plant hardening. This helps your plants acclimate to your area and avoid getting sunburned after you plant them. This is good to do if you think it will be over 80-90 degrees around the time you're planting and important to do if you think it will be 90-100+ when you're planting. 

Plant Spacing

It's easy to brush past this, since the plants look similar right now. But pretty soon, you'll be amazed at how different they are. So take a few minutes to come up with a good plan on how you're going to space. 

Plants come in all shapes and sizes. Think about how much bigger an oak tree is compared to a rose plant. It's the same with veggies and herbs. They all look similar now, but pretty soon, they'll be all different shapes and sizes!

To make it easy for you, we've divided them into four sizes- small, medium, large, extra large. These sizes are written on the packages, on the quick start guide with an example layout, and in the zines. We recommend that you lay out all your plantlings on the surface of the area where you're planning on putting them, according to the spacing they need. That way, you can make sure you have the layout you want before you actually start planting. 

Don't worry if it's not perfect-- the plants will still grow if they're too close together. But it will be like being in coach in an airplane. We want to help your plants sit in first class, with the perfect amount of space to move around and enjoy growing! To do this, follow the spacing guides as best you can.