Peppers will be the last thing to put into the garden but they grow slowly. If it is big enough then broccoli can go into the ground very soon, early April, and it could be outside now unless the weather turns really cold. Mine has spent the last two nights outside. You will need to harden it off by exposing it to a little more sunlight everyday. I gave mine a little sun for a few days and then moved them to a place that has shade until late in the day. Later, I will move them into the sun. Remember the pots are little so they may dry out quickly. In my opinion the tomatoes should get the pots because they are going to become a large plant quickly. When you change to a larger pot, bury them deeper because they will grow new roots further up the stem which will help the large plant survive in the garden. Keep your peppers on your warmest shelf (remember heat rises) and don't put them in the garden until the weather has turned very warm. I usually plant mine 2 weeks after the tomatoes.

Mia,

Carol already told you everything you need to know, but I just wanted to encourage you to be brave and separate those seedlings and pot them up. You've be amazed how well they grow when they are no longer crowded. With some of the smaller plants, like your little lavenders or coleus, you could plant a lot of the little seedlings well-spaced in a larger pot because they don't grow as fast as tomatoes or peppers do.

Sometimes, if I have a space crunch, I plant two peppers or two tomatoes of the same variety in one pot because it allows me to pot up twice the plants in half the space. I separate them when I put them into the ground.

Also, you really and truly can pot them up when they are larger. I just like to do it while they're small because they bounce back more quickly from any stress resulting from being potted up. The larger they are and the more leaves the have, the longer they sulk after I pot them up. Either way, they bounce back just fine but it just takes them longer to bounce back if they've gotten pretty big before I pot up.

Dawn

Thanks for the advice, soonergrandmom & Dawn. I made a trip to Lowe's on my lunch hour for potting soil, so I am committed! FYI, there was one random bag of Jiffy Mix organic veggie mixture potting soil (1.5 cf for $5.21 clearance) so I got that plus some Miracle Gro potting soil. Maybe a head-to-head growth test is in the making.

Also, if anyone doesn't know about it... a good budget tip is that Lowe's sells bags of soil, compost, mulch, etc. at 1/2 price if the bags are ripped. You usually have a Lowe's employee put it in a reclamation bag for you (to show you're not running wild with a steak knife, slashing bags, I guess). Cashiers don't always ring it up as a discount, sometimes you have to ask (like I did today). A few weeks ago, I had 25 bags of mulch, compost and manure and about a third of them were ripped and so were half price.

Note: some locations may have different policies (one place used to do it only on weekends to clear the "defective" merchandise) but it can save you big! Today, my 64qt bag of Miracle grow was $7 instead of $14, and the rips had only let about a handful of product escape.