Here is what I have started doing for just this sort of time constraint:

I place my plants on the north side of the house out just far enough that they get morning sun and evening sun, but shade from the highest point on the house between about 10 and 3. They also get almost no wind there when out of the south. It seems to work well, but I always start after I have had at least one day to give them about 2 hours of light total.

So far so good.

The main concern I have when I start hardening off is limiting the bright/direct sunlight. I work also so not around to move them around ect like some. I have used several methods. I've put them on the east and also the north side of the house where they get direct sunlight in the morning only. Last year I used cold frames. Had a screen door with the black type screen on it and the other I placed greenhouse shade cloth. Both worked well. I'm one when I move plants out they stay out unless a cold spell with temps lower than the upper 40's at night is approaching. That is one reason I built cold frames and now building a greenhouse. I will place shade cloth over part of it too place plants when I first move them outside. I'm sure you will receive lots more information. This has been my experience. And these methods have worked well. I have my light stand in the utility room. I do start leaving the windows open at night to acclimate them before I move them out. On nights above 50. Jay

I like for mine to get natural light when it is possible to do so. We actually reached 70 degrees today so I put mine outside for about an hour, then covered them with a floating row cover and left them another hour or so. As others have said, about the only thing you can do when you work is put them in dappled shade or in a place that only gets morning sun and is somewhat shielded from the wind. In my climate, mine will likely make many trips out and back in at night.

I love the greenhouse with shade idea. I plan on building cold frames, I just didn't think I need to now! But some kind of "low tunnel" and put shade cloth over part, I was worried that with the days getting up to 70's the heat would be too much. But it seems like a very "workable" solution. I really don't have an appropriate place around the house to set them or I would just do that.

Ezzirah,

Back when I worked, I'd start hardening my plants off on a Friday afternoon...rushing home and carrying them out for 1 hour on that first afternoon, then 2 hours on Saturday and 3 hours on Sunday. When I left for work on Monday, I'd put them in a spot sheltered from wind that faced either east or north so they'd get morning sun only. I could leave them out like that all week and if I got home early enough on a weeknight, I'd move them out to a brighter west-facing spot so they could get another hour or two of late afternoon sun. When the second weekend arrived, I would put them out for about 5 or 6 hours on Sat. and then 6 or 7 hours on Sunday. By that second Monday, I could move them to a south-facing location where they got full sun while I was a work. I only carried them inside at night if it was going to be dangerously cold--40 or below.

Nowadays, since I'm home full-time, it is both easier and harder to harden off the plants....easier because I can mostly plan my schedule around what the plants need and move them in/out of sun/wind as needed, and harder because I'm gardening on a much, much, much larger scale so I have many flats of plants to carry out instead of just a flat or two like I did when we lived in town and I worked full-time.

For me, the wind is harder on the plants at this time of year than the sun. I can control their exposure to sun fairly easily, but if the winds are strong, there's not a lot of homes or buildings out here in the boonies to block the wind so I have to be really careful where I place the plants. In my part of OK, most of the winds are very strong out of the south/southwest this time of year, and most of the places where it is convenient for me to harden off the plants face the south/southest, which isn't a good thing.

Today, we're expecting winds out of the southwest at 25 mph so I'm going to haul the flats (currently 17 flats, each containing 28 plants in large paper cups) around to the north side of the barn to try to block the wind. I hope it works because the wind was outrageously strong yesterday and beat the poor plants up so much that I moved them inside the barn after 4 hours even though they are now up to about 7 hours per day of sunlight.

I always have plants in various stages. The sugar snap peas have been in the ground about 10 days, as have the lettuce and cabbage. The broccoli plants, started fairly late by me, are on the back porch and are in the early stages of hardening off so they're getting filtered sun only and minimal wind. They'll maybe go into the ground sometimes next week, weather permitting, so beginning today or tomorrow they get to leave the porch and go out into sun for an hour or two to start exposing them to more sunlight.

The tomato plants are much farther along than anything else, of course,...some of them are hardened off enough that I could leave them out in the sun all day, but they aren't ready to cope with the rowdy March winds 24/7 yet, so I move them inside the barn as needed to get them out of the wind. Technically, I could start planting tomato plants any time now, but I'm not finished with the potatoes yet, so I won't start transplanting tomatoes this week...but maybe next week. Here at our place, the soil temps are fine now for tomatoes and the temperatures are mostly fine, but there's still a night or two each week that's a bit colder than I want for the toms to be exposed to.

The pepper plants remain inside on the light shelf where they are making good growth and looking really healthy. I don't move them outside until the nights are staying in the 50s, because once they are out, I don't want to carry them inside again and cold nights can stunt their growth permanently.

Here in OK, hardening off is often a "one step forward, two steps back" type of process because just when you think your plants are about 100% hardened off, a 'late' front will bring very cold winds and snow or sleet, and you have to move all the plants back inside....which is a colossal nuisance. Depending on how many days they spend inside, you can find yourself almost having to start over with 1 hour of exposure a day, then two, etc. because when they're back inside for several days in a row, they lose some of that hardening off you've already accomplished.

Remember that when you're hardening them off, you are trying to simultaneously expose them to stronger light in gradually increasing doses, stronger wind also in gradually increasing doses and colder nighttime temps. Be patiend and don't rush them because a failure to harden them off properly can lead to plant death.

Dawn

If you don't have an appropriate place for dappled sun, you can create one. Put your plants under an upside down laundry basket, cheap to acquire at Big Lots or Dollar Tree. In Oklahoma, of course,you'll have to weight it down with a rock or gallon of bleach or whatever you have. The holes in the laundry basket allow exposure to sun and wind without getting the whole enchilada straight out of the shoot. This year I have a large collection of stacking crates. I'm going to load the tomatoes in them, then set another empty crate on top. I'll add a rock to keep the top crate on and also to provide additional top shade. I'm hopeful that moving them in and out in stackable crates will be easier and safer than the cafeteria trays where they've been growing.

In light of the "commercial" status of the Cub Scout tomatoes, I'm trying to decide whether to harden off this week in the rain. Any thoughts?

Here is a link that might be useful: Forecast