Getting Ready for Placing Plants Outside

At the moment there are only a couple of plants that are able to withstand the cool temperatures that have arrived.  It is still a little bit early to put all my plants outside.  With these temperatures only my spinach and lettuce can bear it right now.  I also have broccoli which I started inside that loves cool weather and I will probably be putting them outside soon as well.  For now I will be keeping my lettuce and spinach outside.  I am hoping by the end of the month to be putting them in the ground as long as they can get some sunshine.

I have been planting more seeds inside this season and have recently planted some cucumbers, cantaloupe, watermelon, and even carrots.  My melons and cucumbers are sitting underneath fluorescent lights to get them sprouting quickly. 

I have also used larger peat pots this season for these seeds.  Using larger peat pots will allow for more time for the plants to develop without having to put them in the ground too soon.  If they sit in the peat pots for too long the containers may begin to dissolve and I would have to put them in the garden soil right away when it may not be time to do so.  That is why I chose to use larger ones for my melons.

Carrots on the other hand are not normally put into peat pots and I usually just plant some seeds directly into the garden soil.  Unfortunately this is not very efficient to say the least and I needed to try a different approach to planting this vegetable. 

Using small peat pots for carrots seemed like the obvious and best solution to this problem.  Planting them in plastic containers is something that should not be done because of transplanting problems.  Many times when transplanting carrots from a plastic container into the garden may cause the roots to not grow straight and might crack easily.  This is why I avoided planting them in plastic containers and chose to use small peat pots.

 
I also have tomatoes and broccoli sprouting that have grown beyond the trays that I placed them in and had to move them into larger pots.  I moved all my tomatoes and broccoli and placed them into large cups that I had saved up and this should last them until it is time to transplant them into the garden in the next couple of months or so