The months are passing quickly, and I feel I am running behind, but today I have been able to get outside and transplant some plants from my greenhouse to the vegetable patch.

I’ve spent a fair amount of time preparing the vegetable patch, which has delayed transplanting by a few weeks. Last year we put up a fence to protect our produce from our chickens, and I have been spending time planning how to lay things out as well as adding compost to the soil.

I have chosen to create small beds running out from the old concrete path, which runs through the middle of the veg patch. Each bed is around 18 inches wide to allow two plants to be planted next to each other, and I have placed a 12-inch path between each bed covered in wood chips to help prevent weeds. I wanted to make all the vegetables accessible to make the best use of what we are growing.

The vegetable patch gets around 10 hours of light a day during the summer, but the far end of the patch experiences shade earlier than the end closest to our house. To make the best available light and shade, I am growing plants, like lettuce, at the shady end and plants that love the sun close to our house.

Transplanting can damage plants, especially if they have grown in trays and their roots have become tangled with each other. To give my plants the best chance of making it through the following few days, I gave them a good soak in water a couple of hours before transplanting them.

After they had a good drink, I gently pulled the young plants out and carefully teased their roots apart. I tried to make sure each plant had a good root ball covered in compost. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case with all plants, and some ended up with bare roots, which I quickly placed in the soil. I am hopeful they will make it but will not be surprised if they fail to grow.

Plants can experience shock when transplanted, so I made sure to give them a good watering once they were in position.

So far, I have transplanted Iceberg lettuce, Kale, Spinach, Dwarf French Beans and Courgette. I have more plants to transplant, but they are a few days off from being mature enough to survive the process. With seedlings moving out of the greenhouse, my next task is transforming the greenhouse into a growing space for tomatoes, peppers and gherkins.