It's all about the seeds

I've been spoiled. I usually order my seeds from a catalog, selecting varieties by experience and recommendations. It's been over two weeks since I sowed my tomatoes and peppers, and I've got only a few plants, which tells me that my seed was old. We decided to reseed, so we went to Home Deposit(that's where our paycheck gets deposited) to replenish the seed supply. Now, I did not expect HD to be Totally Tomatoes or Seed Savers, but I expected a bit more than what I found. There were 5 slicing tomato varieties, one canning tomato variety, and one paste tomato. ONE. I like Romas, but I was hoping for a bit more variety. I suppose I will have to make a big seed order next year. Anyway, instead of nice varieties like Caspian Pinks and Mortgage Lifter, I will have Burpee's Brandywine(Red-how original!), Beefsteak, and Romas. The only canning type tomato they had was Rutgers, and Skyguy feels that they are a bit too acid for his taste. I explained that acidity was the key quality for a good canning tomato, but in the end, we left the Rutgers at the store. My other option is to buy transplants next month or in April-whenever they come in. Sometimes they get a good variety of plants, sometimes it's only Better Boy and Jalepenos.

Here's the gardening backstory:
Everything I have personally sown has had poor germination(except the marigolds). Everything Skyguy has personally sown has had great germination. I think it is beginner's luck. Luckily, I've let him plant most things, for the practice of course. His basils look great. He has a few lettuce plants in his mesclun container. He has borage, sage and parsley seedlings...PARSLEY!! I always have poor luck with parsley, but his germinated in 20 days....popped right up. What can I say---it has to be beginner's luck. Seriously, I'm glad that he is having success. It will keep him hooked on growing.

The peat pots are okay. I'd like them more if my tomatoes had germinated. The basils are in the little peat pots however and they look fine.

I'll post a few pics of the herb bed under construction tomorrow. It is going to be awesome. Now, if I can get some seedlings to transplant.