Potting my first plants

After returning home with my veggie plants and gardening gear, my next goal was to re-pot my plants into bigger containers without killing them. Well, it's been a few days and my plants are in bigger pots now and still green and perky. I happened to have a friend over that afternoon, so she chatted with me and held my dog's leash while I worked. Some people probably enjoy gardening as a chance to feel quiet and commune with nature, but I also found it fun to have someone to talk to. One container at a time, I scooped soil from the bag into the pot until it was at a reasonable-looking height, then dug a little hole with my hand and propped a plant in. I filled the soil to just above the roots, patted out the air pockets and moved onto the next one. When I was done, I watered them, letting a half inch or so of standing water sink in several times to make sure the dirt settled and the roots were nice and wet. On the last round of watering I mixed a powdered fertilizer into the watering can. Then I spent the next couple of days trying to figure out the plants' sunlight requirements. I heard part shade for both of them. I know kale doesn't like to get too hot, and even though it's November, the Florida sun can still be pretty warm. They started out on the outdoor landing of my front stairs, but I worried they weren't getting enough light to photosynthesize well. So I moved them to my back deck/balcony area, which is pretty sunny. The next day they looked a little dry so I compromised by leaving them on the back deck, but close to the railings so they were somewhat sheltered from the sun. 

The current placement of my pots.
If the sun gets too much I'll move them back to the front stairs.

I guess one of the benefits of container gardening is that you can frequently tweak your microclimate until it's just right for each plant. I have continued to water them almost daily, but I haven't fertilized again, because I read that it's better to under-fertilize than over-fertilize; if you see your plants aren't getting enough nutrients, you can always add some, but if you burn them there's nothing you can do. Today, instead of watering, I checked the trays under the pots. There was standing water, so I dumped them to prevent root rot. Tomorrow they'll probably need more watering, but in the meantime they still appear to be alive. Wish me luck!