{"id":832,"date":"2010-04-15T04:25:31","date_gmt":"2010-04-15T11:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=832"},"modified":"2010-10-20T03:54:55","modified_gmt":"2010-10-20T10:54:55","slug":"hardening-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/?p=832","title":{"rendered":"Hardening Off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hardening off is a transitional period during which one accustoms seedlings started indoors to the natural environmental conditions outdoors, in preparation for transplanting.\u00a0 It’s a delicate process requiring patience and diligence to prevent shock or stress to the seedlings.\u00a0 Or so I hear.<\/p>\n

I’m not exactly sure how hardening off works because patience and diligence are in short supply around here.\u00a0 The little bit I was saving for this week was used up when my goat milk soap refused to trace even though I stirred it until my arm was numb (Note to self: put stick blender on my wish list for Mother’s Day.\u00a0 Then spare myself the disappointment and just go buy it on my own).\u00a0 As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure I even used up some of next week’s patience and diligence, so conditions won’t be improving any time soon.<\/p>\n

Which means the seedlings are going to have to fend for themselves.\u00a0 Sure, I’ll put them out on the deck in the morning to start feeling the sun’s rays without the kitchen window running interference.\u00a0 But I can’t promise I’ll be home if it gets too hot.\u00a0 I might just be 70 miles away at the zoo with the kids and the seedlings will have to deal with it.\u00a0 Even if it gets up to 89 degrees.\u00a0 Really. 89 degrees in the first week of April.\u00a0 After a winter with 3 snowstorms that shut down the entire state.\u00a0 Losing the spring garden to freezing temperatures and the summer transplants to sudden and extreme heat.\u00a0 Yeah, that’s fair.<\/p>\n

I’m especially glad that as I carried those precious plants out for their first breath of spring air, I lectured the kids on the principles of hardening off.\u00a0 Gradual exposure, careful monitoring, wind and rain protection, blah, blah, blah.\u00a0 So when we arrived home from the zoo, sweating and sunburned, to find our seedlings wilted and broken, they asked me doubtfully,<\/p>\n

“Have you actually done ‘hardening off’ before or did you just read about it?”<\/p>\n

Clever kids.\u00a0 Even the 4 year old knows there’s a difference between reading about how to do something and actually pulling it off yourself.\u00a0 A big difference.\u00a0 I like to think my kids will never grow up and decide they should put in all their own hardwood flooring with their only assistance being a 2 page pamphlet from the local home improvement store.\u00a0 I mean, there’s a thin line between do-it-yourself and driving-yourself-to-the-brink-of-insanity-with-a-project-you-have-neither-the-skills-or-competence-or-money-to-complete.\u00a0 Trust me.\u00a0 I’ve done it<\/span> seen it.\u00a0 It isn’t pretty.<\/p>\n

But even if you don’t have the knack of proper hardening off, you don’t have that much to lose.\u00a0 So you germinated the transplants from tiny seeds, babied them with grow lights, and gently fertilized them with fish emulsion. (Have you ever smelled fish emulsion?\u00a0 Have you ever smelled the downstairs of a house where fish emulsion was used to fertilize the seeds growing on the windowsill?\u00a0 I won’t have to host bible study again for a long, long time.\u00a0 Like never.) \u00a0 So what if 8 weeks of work wilts in one afternoon while you’re at the zoo?<\/p>\n

You’re only out the cost of the seed packets.\u00a0 A small price to pay for keeping you too busy to watch television (did you really want to know about every crime within a 100 mile radius?\u00a0 Sure, that’s the way to get a good night’s sleep<\/em>) and out of the shopping malls (are there malls anymore?\u00a0 I don’t know.\u00a0 There certainly isn’t one next to the Southern States or Tractor Supply Company where I spend my time<\/em>).\u00a0 Bet you’ve never heard of a farmer embarrassed by a sexting incident.\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Got no time for that when you’ve got to thin the seedlings with a pair of tweezers.<\/p>\n

Besides, sometimes God appreciates effort over aptitude.\u00a0 With a little water, my transplants actually recovered.\u00a0 They even survived a later incident of being trampled by the dogs and left outside during a surprising night time dip into the 30’s.\u00a0 Go figure.\u00a0 By the time I put those plants into the ground they should be able to survive almost anything.\u00a0 Which is good.\u00a0 Because around here, almost anything can happen.\u00a0 All the time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hardening off is a transitional period during which one accustoms seedlings started indoors to the natural environmental conditions outdoors, in preparation for transplanting.\u00a0 It’s a delicate process requiring patience and diligence to prevent shock or stress to the seedlings.\u00a0 Or so I hear. I’m not exactly sure how hardening off works because patience and diligence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,86],"class_list":["post-832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-seedlings","tag-transplants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=832"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1550,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832\/revisions\/1550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ruffledfeathersandspilledmilk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}