Sad state of my garden

Alright!  Second post, so I'm going in the right direction.  I think its partially because I'm so rammy to get started, at least if I'm writing about my garden then I feel like I'm involved with it.

  It's depressing looking at my garden right now in it's transitional state.  I never was able to get it completely ready for this spring before winter closed in, so I have a wheel barrow full of mel's mix waiting for new boxes. It's got quite a thick layer of ice over it.   There are also remnants of the snow peas that I was trying to grow for a fall harvest but started them too late.  Garden tools still laying out that are just getting rusty under the snow and ice.  Some baby lettuce in the table box frozen solid..... It makes me sad to look at everyday.

  The good news is my Rutgers seedlings are just starting to poke out the soil filled egg carton.  It gives me hope.  I broke down and ordered a seedling heat mat last week, just waiting for it to get here.  There is no way my tomato starters will survive in my basement without it.  Right now they are still on top of my fridge, which is still probably a bit chilly for them at 68 degrees, but they are going to have to get downstairs into my flourescent lights in the next few days.  I'm not convinced they will make it, but I have to try.  The way I figure if these starters survive and can keep them alive and thriving, I'll have tomato plants in the ground by late march.  That's a good 4-6 weeks earlier than they should be for my zone (6b).

  Another highlight of the weekend is that my new "paste" tomato seeds arrived yesterday, although the San Marzano's are on back order, and the Lemon Boy seeds are completely out of stock.  The seed company was kind enough to send me another bi-color heirloom at no charge.  It's called Virginia Sweets.  Never tried it, but frankly I've never met a tomato I didn't like!  I think they will at the very least look pretty next the Cherokee Purples.  I really hope they all do well, I have dreams of canning zillions of jars of salsa and tomato sauce!  I also got seeds for an ornamental hot pepper called "medusa".  We shall see... I still haven't figured out the magic it takes to get hot peppers to grow.