Planting out!

hello

Today we planted our spinach and little gem seedlings into large containers, do you think they will be ok to stay outside all the time now (except for frosty nights) or would you bring them in at night for a few weeks until they get used to it?

Also we bought some strawberry plants today and planted them into a large container, however when we were planting them we realised it said on the label that they should be planted in peat free compost and we only have peat based compost!! Do you think they will be ok in peat based compost because I don't want to use a soil based one as it is quite heavy and we are putting our containers onto our balcony?

Very exciting, feel like a proper gardener today!

My guess would be that it's still too early to be out with no protection for a few weeks yet.

But.... probably too many factors for anyone to be able to give you a definitive yes or no (i.e., your exact location in Leeds, whether you face North/South/East or West, whether your balcony gets prevailing winds, how much heat loss from your house warms the balcony etc etc). But I think the best way to learn is by making mistakes, as long as you don't get disheartened. So no harm in seeing how they get on - if they fail, you'd just need to re-sow.

But you could easily try covering at night with an improvised cloche - one of those semi-opaque plastic milk bottles would do the trick.

With regards to what you've planted your strawbs - am sure they'll be ok. Following planting instructions to the letter may give you the very best possible results, but not following instructions usually kinda works....

You might need to keep an eye on the weight though - even though you have used peat. Still gets very heavy when full of water.

Far too early to let spinach and lettuce out alone at nights, one good frost might be fatal 

so you can either bring them in at night, or cover them as others have suggested.

Not long before they can stay out all on their own 

Sounds like you've made a good start Daisy