After a long period of carrying in and out, last Thursday I finally moved all the seedlings outside. The heated shelves have been emptied, and the wardrobe is now filled with blankets and clothes. The temperature past 14 days has been well above freezing point, daily temperatures haven’t been as high as earlier, with maximums around 21°C (70°F), but since my seedlings are now huge, that’s more than enough. The seedlings will be perfectly fine outside, without the need to move them indoors at night. The only two containers that are being moved indoors are cobea and the latest tomato container, but that’s insignificant compared to the 8 big plastic fruit containers I’ve been moving indoors every evening.

The initial plan was to have the tomatoes and peppers on the balcony and to move cucumbers and zucchinis indoors at night, but since the morning temperatures have been around 8°C (46°F), there’s no need for this. 

This is why I’ve rearranged all of the seedlings outdoors. The tomatoes and peppers have been moved downstairs. I’m moving them closer to the house during the night, and during the day seedlings are in the middle of the yard, catching as much sun as possible.

We haven’t had many sun hours lately. There have been lots of clouds and showers. Some of the tomatoes have turned blue, they’re cold, but I can’t move them indoors since they are too tall for the wardrobe. They will recuperate during this week when we should get more sun. 

Instead of tomatoes, my balcony is now home to zucchinis and cucumbers. The balcony is always much warmer than the rest of the yard, and that’s great for the zucchinis and cucumbers. Also, we have had very windy days lately, and the balcony is the only place where I can protect the seedlings. Zucchinis can easily break in strong wind.

Flower containers have also been moved downstairs, closer to the house. We’ve made an improvised table to move them, and they are now in the shade, but the flower seedlings won’t mind. If they start leaning to one side I will rotate the containers. 

Once the tomatoes, peppers, and flower containers have been moved downstairs, my brassica pots lost their place, and I had to move them to the other side of the yard. I would have moved them to the side terrace by now, but the winds are still strong, and the seedlings are still too delicate to be exposed to this kind of wind. They are growing great and have tripled the size in 14 days, but that’s still not enough to endure a gust of north wind. 

Soon it will be time to start transplanting the seedlings into the garden and start sowing the late summer seedlings. These seedlings won’t go in the house, so they will be easier to take care of. It has been a long 4 months of seedling worry, which is finally coming to an end.