Transplanting Tips & More from the Homestead Garden Class

Early April rhubarb

Happy April, everyone! Food gardening season is just starting in our area, and that means sowing seeds, weeding, planting and transplanting is hitting high gear!

“Grow a Homestead-Style Food Garden,” my Community Education class, always attracts lots of energetic, knowledgable students, and last week’s session was no exception. 

We explored a variety of new and interesting food-gardening approaches (in addition to the regular course content). 

And as usual, I learned a couple of new techniques myself!

One student, Ron, had a longtime career as a professional landscaper, and offered loads of suggestions for successful transplanting. He shared an intriguing tip from an old friend of his, a Native American:

*Tie a ribbon around a branch on the north side of your plant. Then when you replant, place the plant in the same orientation, ribbon on the north side. This way, you are providing the plant with the same level of sunlight in its new location. 

Another student was new to raising food, but his parents were giving him a large, 25 year old blueberry shrub for his property. Was transplanting doable?

I advised that he dig as big a root ball as he could, and wrap it in burlap, or some other protection. This way, you can keep the roots moist during transporting and until the shrub is in the ground.

Ron, our landscaper, had more suggestions: Try to provide similar conditions for the plant in its new location: in addition to sunlight, aim for a similar soil type, moisture level, and so on.

Also, when you’re transporting plants in the back of a pickup, make sure to protect the plant from the wind, and *go slow*! Ron said he’d seen so many plants/shrubs/trees lose all their leaves to windburn, after a trip in a pickup bed. 

He also noted that in our area, with winter bringing Northeaster events, very cold temperatures and high winds, it’s not the cold that kills plants. It’s the windburn. 

Food gardening was new to him—but Ron said it’s “in his blood.” His grandfather, he said, was a lifetime food gardener, and a big fan of the Farmer’s Almanac. 

Following some of the more esoteric practices in the Almanac, his grandpa would be out at midnight, planting some crop under a full moon!

We had a bunch of questions about compost, both “vegetarian” and manure-based. Since I don’t use commercially-produced compost, I talked about my homegrown compost, which is comprised of kitchen scraps, leaves, and a bit of soil—and how I use my own compost on all my vegetable crops. 

Here’s the recipe and all about making your own kitchen compost!

I also have chicken manure compost from our chickens—I mix a lot of wood chips in with the manure, and let it compost for about a year. Keep in mind that chicken manure and manure compost is alkaline, and is not suitable for berries—especially blueberries. Blueberries need acidic soil.

Manure compost isn’t suitable for some vegetable crops, like carrots, and particularly potatoes. Potatoes need soil that’s slightly acidic. 

One younger student stayed after class to ask about pruning a very old apple tree. She and her husband had gotten some property a couple of years ago, but it was wildly overgrown. They started to clear the ground, and kept finding new food plantings!

Upon discovering the old apple tree, she harvested lots of apples, and made applesauce and pie filling. But the tree was kind of a tangled mess. 

Her husband wanted to cut it down and start fresh with a nursery tree. She, however, was hoping to save it. Was it worth pruning?

“Did you say it was good fruit, no scab or disease?” I asked. She said the fruit was just beautiful. “Then I think you should definitely keep the tree.”

When it comes to old fruit trees, Mother Nature might do some pruning herself, in a windstorm.

Or like at our place, the local bears have done their share of pruning our trees! 

Last summer’s regular visitor

But if she and her husband try a good, solid pruning of their tree each year, shaping the tree as the years go by, they should end up with a solidly producing apple tree.

That’s the beauty of permanent food crops like orchard trees, blueberry shrubs and rhubarb…they’re the gifts that keep on giving, year after year! 

If you’re interested in the Homestead Garden class content, it’s free in ebook format—just download a copy of Little Farm in the Garden, available at all ebook retailers, and my Susan Colleen Browne website!