This story was originally published in May 2020. You planted your seeds indoors. They’ve been growing for some time now, and with the weather turning you are ready to get them outside. But when you do so, you’ll need to perform a crucial step: hardening off. Hardening off is the process of gradually bringing seedlings outside in order to adapt them to outdoor conditions — colder temperatures, as well as increased light and wind exposure — before you transplant them into your garden. “It’s really worth doing,” said said Kate Garland, horticultural specialist at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension.