Planting a Tomato Plant, Fending Off the Chickens

Here's how I planted a tomato plant today. Basically, I dug a hole, filled it with water, and poured in homemade potting soil (our soil has a lot of clay in it, so I want something that provides drainage around the roots). Then I plucked the leaves off the bottom half of the tomato plant, pulled the entire root-mass out of the nursery pot, and planted it as deep as I could (the top leaves are just at ground level). That lets the plant develop roots along the buried stem and makes for a
stronger plant (or so they say). I sunk an empty flower pot next to it that I'll fill with water periodically. That pot will deliver water deeper into the soil and hopefully reduct the amount of watering I need to do. I finished filling in with soil.

The photo above shows one chicken keeping an eye on the hole - there's no telling what the shovel will turn up. You can see the plant-protection devices next to the chicken. If they weren't there, the young tomato plants would turn into chicken food.

I dug the hole, now I'm filling it with water to give the plant something to drink when it goes into the hole.

I put in homemade potting soil (only because that's what I had quickly available). I didn't want to reuse the soil I dug out of the hole because it has so much clay that it doesn't drain well. The photo shows that the potting soil is suspended in the water, which hadn't drained out of the hole yet (due to the clay). That pot comes off before the plant goes in the ground.

When I take the plant out of the plastic pot, I'll bury the stem in soil all the way up to the bottom set of leaves. I'll pinch that bottom branch (or two) off to put as much of the stalk in the ground as possible, so it can all form roots. The plant will grow just fine.

Now I'm putting the plant in the hole, so the leaves will be just above surface level. I'll fill the hole with more soil, so there's still a bit of a depression to collect water. I'll also dig an empty flower pot into the ground next to the plant so I can fill the pot with water and the water will trickle deeper into the ground.

Here's the pot going in.

The final planted plant, under the empty milk crate the keeps the chickens away.

As I planted, I fended off the chickens. They love when I garden.
Henney Penney knows the best pickings are in the fresh dirt, so she's
underfoot always. The two Ameracauna's have a real taste for tomato
leaves, so I have to protect the plants (you can see them next to the
caged plant). They all love to scratch in the dry soil around the
tomatos, so it's become a real challenge to keep the plants alive.

Photographer: Anya

Author: Bruce