See those giant pumpkin vines? They are 2 plants (which are triple in size now) which are the result of my first "failed" seed starters. I tossed the dried out seed pots in our compost, because I thought I killed them. A few weeks later, my compost was growing! I carefully replanted the misc pumpkin / squash plants (I had no idea what they were) and that is how these pumpkins came to be. I have to get a picture of our tree out front as well, because my hubby turned the compost and then treated the trees with it. Needless to say we have about 8 pumpkin vines at the base of our orange tree!

Now I can share with you my tips on transferring:

Water the area.  You want nice and moist soil, not dried up clumpy soil.  I like to deep water the transfer area a day or two before I plant, so that the soil is welcoming to the new seedlings.

I love this sprinkler that I recently purchased. Now I just have to step outside the door, turn on the faucet, and voila - watering my garden!

Cultivate the soil.  If you have compost, go ahead and mix some of that into the top layer of your soil.  If you do not have compost, you can mix in some fresh soil (we buy ours at Kmart where it’s cheap).  And if you are really lazy (like I often am) just go ahead and use a trowel to loosen the dirt.

This soil needs to be turned with a little hand shovel before I transfer my seeds (but I actually planted rows of peas here, after loosening the soil with a trowel).

Prep your Seedlings.  Make sure they have grown big enough to be transferred.  This means you do not want to transfer a tiny little seed that has barely started to grow.  I transfer squash when they have reached about 2 or 3 inches, tomatoes once they are 4 inches or so.  If the roots are grabbing onto other seed pots, it is time to transfer them!  I also break up the bottom of the seed pot and separate the roots a bit before transfer, so they aren’t in one big clump.

See how the squash and zucchini (top center and bottom left) are getting tall, this told me that they were close to transfer stage. I let them grow for another week or so in the tray.

Once you have planted your seedlings, give them another water.  Here in the desert we have to water twice a day. That sprinkler above has greatly impacted my garden.  Now it gets all the water it needs (because before I would get tired of watering after a few minutes and think I had done enough), because I let it go for 15 or 20 minutes in the morning and evening.  You will also have a better harvest if you plant in the morning or evening, when it’s cool and the plants have time to adjust to the ground before being scorched by the sun!

Thanks to Terry for the Swiss Chard plants (in the back). The onions are also doing incredibly well, anyone know the harvest time on these babies?

I will share one last picture of the garden with you.  This was my attempt at apartment/porch planting.  I had all of these great little pots with seeds in them, and the cats made them their sandboxes.  No, they did not poop in them, but they did dig up all the dirt.  But here is what your porch garden could look like:

These pots would have been perfect for an apartment garden, don't you think?

So what do you think?  Have you transferred your seeds yet?  Have you had a successful apartment garden?  Let me know!