Welcome to the forum! I am sure one of the veggie/ fruit experts will chime in soon! I have never grown strawberries, but don't usually put in peppers until about now. I'm close to Fort Worth so my temps may be different. It goes from freezing at night to 100 plus in the days in a short period of time here :-)

My experience with newly built raised beds is that they produce better the second season, but I have no explanation. Maybe too much compost (in my case) to support the plants. It sounds like you got garden soil, so your mileage might vary. What is sold as topsoil could be anything, there is no formula or specification and just could be the stuff left over when someone digs a pool.

The wind has been a beast! I would be tempted to protect new seedlings with something to act as a windbreak, like heavy lawn furniture.

Texas is quite large but allow me to make a generalization based on my area and it may match what has been happening to you (or help explain it). It's not quite the awesome growing season just yet. The cool temps are lasting a little bit longer than usual, so plants may germinate and grow a few inches but they may stay in that state until it gets warmer. However, there will usually not be a gradual increase to the hotter temperatures. it'll be kind of nice and cool on some days here and there, then suddenly may feel hot until late fall.

Your plants are making roots but even they know not to grow too fast yet, because the time wasn't ready.

But what's hot to us is exactly what the plants needed to really start growing.

That's when your plants that can handle the heat will really take off and the ones that can't --- well you'd better have some shade or water ready!

Because they are still small plants, I even would suggest to snip off the flowers for now. Let the plant establish itself with roots and stem/leaf growth. You'll have from about late April/early May to possibly late November for the actual garden growing season.

Alexandra, you really have to tell us where you are in Texas, because there is so much difference between the regions. I think it is just early yet for everything to take off. But as was mentioned above, it goes from Spring to super hot in a hurry!

Thank you! Sorry, totally spaced on the location, I'm in Waco! Do I need to put a diy greenhouse on the plants for the upcoming 40 degree nights? I also have two citrus trees.

Home Depot may still have tomato cages on sale. You can also grow sunflowers or put up a structure for green beans to grow on to protect your plants from the winds. The small cherry tomatoes are the easiest veg for me to grow but I'm still trying to figure out peppers.