Springtime! Seedling time!

It's springtime for real now, or so it feels - getting warmer, more and more flowers opening up, and I sort of feel the slight pressure to get some of the spring gardening things done, such as planting peas.

I'm also sorting through the seed stock, as there are a few packets of seeds that are probably too old to be viable anymore. Some of them I've seeded out of curiosity to see if anything will still come of it (though I'm not expecting any luck with 10 year old tomato seeds), some I've scattered in the garden (either they sprout, or get eaten by something, either way it's fine) and some are not sorted into either category yet. There were some tomato seeds that had no year with them, so I've seeded those, too. 

I've also tried something new this year, seedling-wise: 

I've used trays in the past, but they only worked semi-well; this way, I can have an eggshell for each variety and put them somewhere else if necessary (like out into the wintergarden once they have germinated, so they won't grow too tall and lanky for lack of light in too much warmth - which they need to get started). If you're thinking of trying it too, I found that the shells should be a minimum size to work nicely. We usually have L eggs, and the shell should really be split in the middle or above; if it's less than half the egg height, it's a little to shallow for me to feel comfortable. (I always think that it will dry out too quickly then.)