Planting

The promise of warmer days and the necessity of starting certain seeds - for me, tomatoes and peppers - led to my finally getting some dirt and seeds and seeing if I could get things started. I had some Red Dragon peppers that I dried last fall and cracked one open to retrieve the seeds to plant in a styrofoam egg carton. I still paid the price for handling them as the oils transferred to my fingers which were quite spicy for the hours afterwards. After this batch, I next planted green pepper seeds from a pepper that probably came from Mexico or South America, just to see if it could be done. These went into another egg carton. And lastly, in a moderate sized tray that I divided into two sections, I planted randomly Brandywine tomato seeds and cherry tomato seeds. (We like to oven dry the cherry tomatoes with a little hot sauce added and use them throughout the winter months.) Afterwards, I realized that in my house, the temperature ranges from 55 to 65 degrees, and it would probably take months for the little seeds to hatch. Twenty plus years ago, I used to have some low grade heating wire to would help to warm things up, but I no longer had it. So, I was trying to think of another alternative and finally figured out that I might try an electric heating pad with a thermometer to monitor the temperature. Right now, the warmest part of the soil seems to be staying around 87 degrees, so this might work. My other problem is that I have three cats of my own and also have my daughter's two felines for the next 2 weeks and I had to plan to keep them from either eating any newborn plants or using my started gardens as litter boxes. So far things are under control, so while waiting for something to grow, my outdoor plans this weekend will be setting up some raised beds, moving around the truckloads of seasoned horse manure - that my family chided me about - and seeing if I can get some broccoli plants going and peas, lettuce, and spinach started. My spirit yearns for warmer temperatures and some new greenery.