Today, finally, we had a day with no rain (so far anyways, it’s staring to look like rain might be coming any moment now).

So I took the opportunity to plant out 8 lettuce seedlings to this spring’s first earthbox.

Indoors, the pepper and eggplant seedlings were moved from under lights in the garage, but kept on their heatmat, since the garage is still pretty cool at night, and they do love their heat.

The empty cells contained sponges were either the plants had not germinated and were replanted, or they were JUST emerging. I moved those sponges over to another cell block, and left them under the dome for a little bit longer.

Today I got a 60 plug Bio Dome flat planted with Hot Peppers, Sweet Peppers and Eggplants.  They are now on the heat mat, at about 80ºF.

On the 4th, I planted Tomatoes along with a just a few hot peppers. Many of the tomatoes have sprouted and have already been moved off the heat mat and under lights. A few still have not sprouted, or are just emerging, so they are still on the heat mat, next to the Peppers.

Since I have a few Bio-Domes, I am able to move the sponge-plugs from one planting block to another, which allows me to move only the plants that are ready to go under light while leaving the rest on the heat mat until they are ready to move.

I am trying a few new varieties of peppers, eggplant and tomatoes this year, along with the tried and true “must plant” varieties of years past.

It is good to have some planting to do when the weather is as miserable as it is right now. As I plant the seeds, I visualize the plants grown and ready to harvest. It is almost like having a little bit of summer right in the middle of the cold and rain. I can almost feel the warmth of the sun, and almost feel the smooth touch of the ripe eggplant or enjoy the beauty of the ripened pepper as each seed goes into it’s little planting sponge.