Gardening update

The space heater is now gone.

Wanna know why?

It DOUBLED my electric bill.

That's right. One little ol' electric space heater, the kind most people have on or under their desks at work, running periodically to keep the sunroom at 65 degrees, doubled my electric bill.

So maybe those heating mats would have been a better bet after all. I thought to eliminate the cost of special gardening heating mats for seed-starting by putting a space heater in the sunroom, but next year I think I will just go ahead and buy the mats.

I can safely remove the space heater at this point, anyway. The seeds have all been started, and at low 40s at night/50s-60s during the day, an unheated sunroom won't matter.

In the interest of conserving yet more electricity, I also removed two of the four florescent light fixtures and just shoved those seedlings closer to the windows.

Some of the seeds, particularly some older ones my sister sent me, never germinated, so I had to reorder/replant those. The tomatoes are going gangbusters; the peppers are all coming along nicely; and I started the basil. I moved the large containers of cilantro, kale, spinach and arugula outdoors onto the patio, as they'll thrive in the cool temps (and I freed up much-needed window/sunlight room for everything else).

The outdoor garden is a little more worrisome. I still haven't seen any seedlings out there. By this weekend, if that action continues, I may have to replant. (Beets, peas, chard, kale, spinach, arugula, and cilantro.)