Germinating- waiting

Day two of my germinating experiment, and I am surprised at the amount of heat the CFL's can put out. For the past two mornings I have needed to give the box of seed germination containers a hit on the heating pad for about 10-15 minutes to get the soil up to temp, around 71-75 degrees and the lamps seem to take care of maintaining it. I did give it a second hit this morning since it wasn't getting hot fast enough. My home thermostat, during the day, stay around 68 degrees on the top floor, which is not where the future seedlings are. So, I think they would stay too cool without the heating pad and lights. I've made many a moldy mess of germinating in the past from cold windowsills.
I found some more seedlings coming up in the spinach patch yesterday as I was covering them up with pine straw due to the possible snow.  Snow in Birmingham three days after Spring begins... I tell you! Not that I saw any snow, but it was very cold. So I'm hoping my seedlings stayed warm enough. I don't want to disturb the straw or the umbrella on the lettuce, so I can retain any heat this cloudy day can inpart. Tomorrow, they can strip their winter clothes, hopefully for good.

Germinating Peppers... and some Celery

As cheap as I am, I have spent the past few months trying to figure out the cheapest way to start my garden. Growing from seeds, is the cheapest way to get plants, but how to germinate. I've been looking at the clear egg carton each week knowing there has got to be another use for it besides the recycle can, and then I put the two together- an egg carton seed germinator. It sort of looks like the ones in the catalog, so I modified it to work. I cut off the inner part and cut holes in the bottom, the inner egg holder can now serve as the "saucer" and the clear plastic top holds the heat and moisture.
The heating mat- I didn't want to buy a heating mat, but I had a heating pad. So the kit was about complete, all I needed to add was some soil, lights, a place to set up and a couple of racks to keep the seed germinators off the direct heat. As luck would have it, I just got an order from Amazon in a nice sized box. In went the rack, heating pad, another rack, seed germinators, and some lighting from the top. And, the box went under the dining table, who's way would it be in there? And, then there is the question of how hot. I checked my Local extension office in Alabama and they have a chart for all vegetables. Prefect!
So, in my seed germinators are Pepper Giant Thai Hot, Pepper jackpot hybrid (both from Park Seed), Jalapeno M  Pepper from Ferry-Morse and Tall Utah 5270 Improved Celery also from Ferry-Morse. Some of these I have started a bit late for my area, but I'm hoping shade tents will keep the worst of the Alabama Summer Sun off of them.
In the pots outside I have a Radish mix and some Simpson Black Lettuce that I am picking from each day and I direct sowed some "Renagade" Spinach about a week ago. I have one spinach seedling up. And, we are expecting sleet ot snow on Monday. Looks like the lettuce will be needing a hat! if all this grows and fruits, I'll be finishing the Summer with my favorite canning recipes and drying methods. I should only be so lucky!