Hardening off baby plants

Have you started your seeds indoors and are ready for them to jump into your garden to grow and bring a smile to your face?  First step is to harden them off.  Hardening off your baby plants is an essential step to getting them ready to go into your garden.  It usually takes 7 or more days to get them acclimated to the outdoors.  Each day your set them out in a shaded area for a few hours for the first 4-5 days.  Then you start to move them into the sunlight for a few hours and back into the shade each day.  It's a drawn out process with lots of moving your babies around, but well worth it in the end.  When you can leave them outside overnight, it's then time to put them into the ground.  The photo here is day 5 of the hardening off process.  I can't wait to see the beauty these babies have in them.
Pictured:  Tomatoes (Purple Cherokee and Cherry), Zinnia, Pincushion, Celosia, Chocolate Lace, Apple of Peru, Calendula, Clary Sage and  Clarkia.

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