It has been a very long winter!

I can't remember ever wanting winter to be over as much as I have this year. The snow came early, a lot of it came, and it is still with us! I am sick of winter. I am ready to be out in the garden!

Since that is not a possibility for a couple more months, I will console myself with starting my seeds indoors.

The last couple of years I have had a problem with some of my warmer weather seeds germinating in my cold basement. I decided to invest in a heating pad for some of my seeds. If it works, I may buy another one next year.

Starting my seeds in egg cartons last year worked so well that I decided to do the same this year. I just love getting one more use out of thing that I can't recycle (my recycling company does not take any egg cartons). When the seedlings get a little bigger I will transplant them into bigger pots. I used Eggland's Best cartons and poked a hole in the bottom before filling with dirt.

And here are some of the egg cartons filled with dirt. I cut some of them into 2 sections if I wanted to plant 6 of something instead of 12.

I wrote on Popsicle sticks to mark my plants.

After everything was planted, I watered them well and covered them with plastic. I will remove the plastic once the seeds sprout. I lowered the lights down to just above the plants.

I planted Roma and Golden Rave Tomatoes, Sugar Baby Watermelon, Assorted Sweet Bell Peppers, Hot Peppers, Brussels Sprouts, Broccoli, and Cabbage.