Sometimes you have to plant when you have the time, even if that's high noon on a Saturday. But the ideal time to plant is on a still, overcast day. The point is, stress your new plants as little as possible.

• Water the plants in their pots the day before you intend to plant.

• Don't remove all the plants from their pots and leave them sitting in the sun for the roots to dry out.

• If the roots are densely packed or growing in a circle, tease them apart, as shown in the photo, so they will stretch out and grow into the surrounding soil.

• Bury the plant to the depth it was in the pot. Too deep and the stem will rot. Too high and the roots will dry out.

• Don't press down hard on the plants as you cover them. Watering will settle them into the ground.

• Water your newly planted garden as soon as it is planted and make sure it gets at least one inch of water per week. You may have to water more often in hot dry summers. Let your plants tell you how much water they need. Some wilting in noonday sun is normal. Wilting in the evening is stress.

You hear a lot about mulching lately, but it really does make a major difference in a garden. Mulch conserves water, blocks weeds and cools the soil. Organic mulches like shredded or chipped bark, compost, straw and shredded leaves, will also improve the soil quality.
Plastic mulches are nice in a vegetable garden to heat the soil around warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers, melons and squash.

Whatever mulch you choose, apply it soon after planting, before new weeds sprout. Apply a 2-4 inch thick layer of mulch, avoiding direct contact with the plant stems. Piling mulch around the stem can lead to rotting and can provide cover for munching mice and voles.

Keep a record of what you have planted or better yet, keep the labels that came with your plants. This will help answer any questions about what the plant may need if it starts looking poorly and will remind you next year of what you liked and what didn't work. It also helps to take pictures and label them. You'll remember color combinations and favorite plants.

If you start a garden journal, you can also record how plants perform, when flowers are in bloom, how large a harvest was and all kinds of information that will help youmake a better garden next year.

Hopefully when you were selecting plants you did some background checking and didn't select too many prima donnas. All plants are going to require some maintenance. The idea that perennial plants require less maintenance than annuals is wrong.

• At the very least, your plants will require 1 inch of water a week. If it rains regularly, good for you. If not, don't let your plants get drought stressed. Once a plant is stressed it will never recover fully that growing season.

• There will also be weeding to do. Weed seeds come from all kinds of sources: wind, birds, soil on shoes...

• Deadheading or removing the spent blossoms from your flowers, will keep them blooming longer and looking fresher. Vegetables will produce more if you keep harvesting while young.

• Some taller plants may need to be staked, to keep from flopping.

It may happen that one of your choices isn't happy and dies. Move on and replace it with something else.

You've heard the saying "Stop and smell the roses"? Gardeners can be the worst at taking that advice. We're so busy with our heads down at soil level, pinching, pruning and pulling every weed, that we often don't appreciate what we've created until someone else tells us.

Step back and enjoy what you've accomplished. Then start making plans to expand next year.