Harden them off, beginning in full shade, under tulle or some sort of floating row cover like Agribon-15 or Micromesh. Water every morning and check them every evening to see if they need water again. I harden things off very slowly in summer--from full shade to dappled shade to part shade and eventually taking the route of 1 hour of full sun exposure the first day, 2 hours the second day, etc. When they aren't out in the sun, they go back into heavy shade. It is harder than it is in winter/spring, but I get around that by taking twice as long to harden off the seedlings and also by starting more seeds than I'll ever need so that some can die and we'll still have lots to plant.

Amy, I'm having the same problem. I'm getting ready to pot up my bigger plants like the summer squashes. I'll throw in some garden dirt in the bigger pots for them to become acclimated. Then, I'll water nearly every day. I hate watering. And harden them off when I think they're strong enough.

As for the cole crop seedlings that burned up, I've started more under lights indoors. I have some 18" cheapo deapo lights propped up by books on either end. I know these will need a good root system. I'll eventually pot them up, place on the front porch which is continual shade and ONLY morning sun. It's incredible that this is sufficient. I'll edge them out slowly and harden them off in the morning sun, then edge them out and harden them out in the afternoon sun.

such a pain.

It is a pain, Bon, but we still are so much better off than folks in cooler parts of the country where the approach of the August heat is a reminder to them that their garden harvest is about to peak in August and quickly decline because the really cold weather is not all that far away for them. For us, August is just the start, in an odd way, of our second spring.

Dawn

My front porch gets hot afternoon sun. The patio - back side of the house - faces south, but we only have the eaves and umbrellas for shade. East side is likely where I will put them, but they will need shade at first even there. The only places where there is "deep" shade at my house is chicken domain. kinda wish their house had a flat roof.

It took me a minute to wrap my brain around that. But, yeah, my front porch is facing Eastward. That's where my plant LOVES to be because the house shades in the afternoon.

Even most of the time when I leave plants on the porch under its shade, they don't get leggy. If I set them on the very edge of the concrete slab, the sun shines on them for ... maybe an hour? ... every day. Kinda gives me a clue how horrible our sun is.

But even with the porch scenario, they're protected from the wind and
bugs and .. who knows. They still are bombarded when placed in the
back.

LOL @ chicken domain

When we moved here, our house was built on the only clear, half-level spot that wasn't covered in trees. I promptly planted many tiny seedlings, dug from the woodland, to give us shade someday way off in the future. I'm glad I did it. The future has arrived, and our trees are finally tall enough to give us quit a lot of shade. I do have to be careful where I put things or the chickens will get them. The chickens need the shade in the summer just as much as the seedlings do. Today I noticed some chickens were in the shade underneath one of our vehicles.

On the other lot, where Bill's old house rests there are poplar trees. He planted them, I'm guessing, about 20 years ago? Some are 3 stories tall. It is unfortunate that they are close to structures, but they seem healthy and beautiful and surround the entire lot. It is very nice temperatures over there.

Shade does make a huge difference. It is too bad the tall trees are on the other lot. I have noticed that tall trees too close to a house make insurance companies really nervous here in OK.

I didn't get my tomato and pepper started so I will have to baby my plants along to keep producing all fall. They are doing pretty well so far. I have them all on drippers. I can't find any stores that sell any plants this time of year.

Grasshoppers are so bad I don't know about starting outside but it's my only option this year wish me well.

The stores here got their fall tomatoes and peppers in new shipments (compared to tired plants left over from Spring) around early to mid-June. I try to watch for them and get them as soon as they arrive because they usually clear out the plants right around planting time, so anyone who doesn't buy them early may not be able to find any when they want them. I don't know why they cannot hang on to the seedlings for a couple more weeks. It is aggravating, but it happens every year.

Grasshoppers are horrible here already. We've gotten hot and dry (despite 2" of rain two weekends back) and are starting to have more and more fires. The grasshoppers are full-sized and moving into the greener areas. I hate them. And, I'm not likely to do anything about them because anything that will kill them will kill all the beneficials. I expect to see a lot more grasshopper damage over the next 3 weeks or so, but then normally, the amount of damage starts dropping off around mid-August. Hopefully you can get your plants established in spite of the hoppers. In my garden they are not eating small, young seedlings. They are feasting on morning glory, lima bean, catnip and southern pea leaves more than anything else.

Good luck gettting the garden going despite the hoppers. They can make it challenging to get seedlings up and growing at this time of year.

What about the nolo. Does that kill beneficials

My daughter and her family moved to DesMoines Iowa two years ago for her husband to attend medical school. They have six children and when they lived down the road from us they had three huge gardens. One summer they (and we helped) tilled, terraced , and planted 600 sweet potato plants in their front yard! They ran out of sweet potatoes in mid March. Did I mention they are vegetarians??

Anyway, they live in an apartment up there and this year were given the option to have a vegetable plot in the community garden. They went to the nursery store the first week in June and were shocked to see signs the nursery would be closing that weekend. Their "season" was over! She got six packs of flowers and vegetables for .50. The apartment manager says she gets asked every week who has the beautiful garden!! Once a gardener, always a gardener ;-))

My seedling bug protector. Right now there's a pan on one end to protect them from the hottest rays today. They are on the east side and will be in shade soon. I think I need to put an umbrella over them tomorrow.

Kim, All the grasshopper baits that contain Nosema locuste affect only grasshoppers, crickets and any of their very close relatives like mole crickets. Nosema locuste is a singled-celled microsporidium protozoa that affects about 90 species of grasshopper family members and does not harm anything else---not humans, not other insects, not animals or birds or reptiles or amphibians. When the grasshopper family members ingest it, it causes a disease that kills them. It is not a quick kill, except for tiny early instar hoppers. It is a slow kill product, that will kill about half your grasshoppers within 2-4 weeks of the time they ingest it. Being a living organism, it works best in cool (but non-freezing) conditions, and can die if exposed to heat for too long, so I only use in in April and May. It also has an expiration date, so when you buy it, watch to make sure it isn't expiring too soon as the protozoans are very short-lived. It is most effective on the tiny hoppers at the 1/4-1/2" size.

The illness can spread slowly over time. For example, grasshoppers are cannabilistic, so often living hoppers feed on dead hoppers. If the dead hopper is infected with Nosema locuste, the disease spreads to the living hoppers feeding on it. Even the hoppers who ingest it but do not die from it are affected by it. First, they are now carriers and spread it to other hoppers. Secondly, they feed much less---up to 75% less, so that helps your plants, and they also lay a lot fewer eggs. It is most effective over a long period of time if you use it every spring at the right time, as it builds up a good population of the protozoa that will kill the hoppers.

There have been years that I used it and still had tremendous grasshopper problems and felt like it failed to work. But then I either visited friends, have visits from friends or went out on fires and discovered everyone else had many, many, many more grasshoppers than we did, leading me to understand that while it didn't kill off all our hoppers, it dropped their numbers significantly.

Patti, I bet that was a huge shock. At least now they know the timing of the planting season is significantly shorter up there than down here. I agree, once a gardener, always a gardener, and people who can garden successfully in our crazy OK weather can garden successfully anywhere.

Amy, It looks good and it appears to be working!

Dawn