No matter how hardy the vegetable, herb or flower seedlings you've purchased from a greenhouse or grown yourself, all plants grown indoors need a period of hardening off before they can be safely transplanted into the garden. Begin the hardening process indoors about two weeks before transplanting, by watering a bit less often, withholding fertilizer and lowering the temperature a few degrees, if possible. A week before transplanting, begin setting the seedlings outdoors. Place them in filtered sunlight, protected from wind, at first Gradually increase the amount of time the plants spend outdoors, as well as the amount of direct sunlight and exposure to wind, until the seedlings are spending the entire day outside. Avoiding Transplant Shock Transplanting involves a certain amount of trauma to a seedling as it struggles to adjust to its new home and develop enough new feeder roots to support and nourish itself.
Many folks are eager to sample some of nature's wild bounty.
Yet few of us grew up in families where wild food foraging was common and wild foods appeared regularly on the dinner table. We need help distinguishing the many edible foods from those that are unpalatable or genuinely toxic. Seek information from knowledgeable wild food foragers in your community. Use the detailed botanical information contained in the guides to help you identify a plant correctly. Use caution, and begin with small servings as you experiment with wild edibles.