Today, I excavated the grow lights and heat mat from the gardening stash in the basement, cleaned them, checked if they still work, and set them up. I still have to find a lid to cover the tray. I started six plants each of Thai hot peppers and Meadowlark kale.

The Thai peppers will go in a large container on my back porch, but I might add a plant or two in the plot. I really only need 2 or 3 plants, but the seeds are two years old, and I want to be on the safe side. For me, peppers and eggplants grown in containers have always been doing much better than those grown in the plot. I think it is because the soil gets much hotter in a container, which those plants seem to love. It can’t be the sunlight exposure as such, as my plot is full sun, and my porch faces south/southwest.

It is my first time growing Meadowlark kale. High Mowing tells me it is a “German specialty with impressive frost-tolerance”, and it is apparently very pretty. All sounds good to me.