Time to Start the Garden

 The weather's been kind of whack lately, last week we got a few inches of snow, yesterday it was 76°,  today it was rainy and the temps dropped all day, headed down into the 20's tonight.

Despite all that, today is 6 weeks from April 15th, which is our area's Average Last Frost Date for this year.
From what I read, I want to wait two weeks after that date for the soil to warm up (I thought the soil was always warm-ish, though) to do my planting.

(I plan to consult with my Great-Uncle who's been gardening his entire life and is very excellent at it to see what he says. Last year I waited to plant til after danger of frost was passed and his garden was pretty much already producing by then. He said he just covered it if it was supposed to freeze. He has a very big garden, so I need to ask what all he planted early, and how he covered it all.)

At any rate, whether I plant earlier or later, it's time to go ahead and start sprouting the tomatoes and peppers.

The tomatoes are Beefsteak, Cherokee Purple, and Black Russian.
The peppers are Datil and Sweet Banana.

I'm starting with the germinating process, to see if/how many of my seeds are viable before I plant them.
I did this last year and it worked out well for me, not planting "dud" seeds.

I tore open a coffee filter and wet it and put seeds on one half of it.

Then I folded it over and stuck it into a baggie with the name written on it.

I didn't last year, but recently I read to blow some air in the baggie, or leave it up-zipped for air circulation. I blew air in the bag and zipped them, to make them like little green houses. (Hopefully)

Then I laid them up on the high shelf over my kitchen door where it seems all my heat goes to do their germinating. They need warmth, but not light to germinate.