hardening off

so when thinking about plants you start inside (your house or a green house)
many people have the tiny plants die when they take them outside to plant them in the ground
this is a common issue,
and it can be avoided
it is called "hardening off"

the idea is that you take your plants outside for a few hours at first in the middle of the day
then you put them back inside at night to recover
then you increase the time outside each day
after a week they likely will be just be fine to be outside all the time,

many people think this is just to get them use to the temperature, but it is more to get them use to the wind
the air is always moving outside
most places the air does not do that inside all the time
and the wind will hurt the plants more than the cold outside will,
but either way you have to be careful with the tiny plants or they will die
many people only do a 3 day hardening off time,
I tend to use 5 days to a weeek
it could be that I am protective of my plants that I love so much.

I ran out of cute pictures, sorry (though I do have one for tomorrow...)