To continue this saga, you can start any of your perennial herbs in containers outside right now - like lavendar, sage, thyme, fennel (bulb), rue, marjoram, parsley, chives, winter savory, rosemary, mints. I would think you could start onions, too. I use 2-litre soda bottles, washed with a very small amount of clorox to sterilize; fill with potting soil, soak and drain. Make sure after draining you have at least 4" of soil in the jug. Sow your seeds, put the top on the bottle (I cut mine so that there is about 1/3 for the top, and 2/3 for the bottom, poke holes in the bottom for drainage, make a slice in the top so you can fold over the edge of the bottom part of the top to fit it inside the bottom, and leave off the lid). Put it outside in sun or part sun. When your seedlings appear, if you haven't used fertilized potting soil, you will need to start fertilizing with a weak solution of fertilizer. Check your container to make sure it doesn't dry out, or that it isn't too wet (we haven't had to worry too much about that as of late). As it starts to get warmer, you may need to make additional ventilation slits in the top portion of the bottle. That's it. Other people use milk jugs, roasting pans with plastic covers, all kinds of recyclables. It's so much fun. Susan

You can sow seeds at ANY TIME OF THE YEAR. I sow something just about every month. Using the most basic logic, seeds are dropping from the mother plant with prolific enthusiasm, right now...but they have their own innate timing, so providing we avoid mucking about with bizarre chemicals, setting up complex lighting schedules or broiling them on heat pads, the seeds know what to do as long as they are in a sympathetic situation...ie, as close as possible to their normal environment...and experience conditions, including a winter chilling and cycles of warm and cool which they would expect in a natural state...and here lies the rub because we don't just want plants which grow in our climate or soil type...no no no - we want tricky divas which need coddling and protecting. Plants which turn up their toes with a hint of frost...although essentially, the same rules apply - to replicate the cycle and conditions of the plant's native range. I have absolutely zero intention of faffing with seeds to raise difficult plants. The germination is the first testing for plants under my neglectful regimen - which is... sow outside when I get around to it, water once and leave them to get on with it...or not. Attrition and winnowing really sorts out the feebs and fusspots, so preventing mucho disappointment further down the line after time and effort has been invested with watering and potting on (the actual sowing couldn't be simpler or faster). Sow shedloads and you will be grateful for the fails when the awful realisation of dealing with hundreds of seedlings finally dawns (sometime around late May...just as the season hits fever pitch with maximum demands on the exhausted gardener.

If the containers are placed where they get some afternoon or high shade, you can try a lettuce mix. You have to harvest early though. Same for basil - it can survive as long as the sun isn't beating down on it all day. 'Wild' arugula will grow during the summer - it doesn't die out after blooming like regular arugula. I used to grow it year round. Some chicories don't seem to mind the heat either. I have a variety that won't quit - it seems to be perennial, but I believe the seeds won't sprout in hot weather. https://www.superseeds.com/products/pinetree-lettuce-mix https://www.superseeds.com/products/rucola-selvatica-arugula-50-days Southern peas like it hot, and I love okra = )

Oh, Zach! It took me many, MANY years to figure it out, but I can tell you how to get the shells to come off of your hard boiled eggs!!! I boil some to take along on my trips every time--quick, easy meal when I need one--and high protein too! But I always had the problem you have, so I was finding myself eating less and less of the eggs I had taken with me--I'd be standing at the sink for ten minutes trying to get the shells off all the way--and still have some "egg left!" It wasn't a "quick" or "easy" meal! So a few years ago I spent an hour or so online trying to figure out "how to boil" eggs!!! When I tried this method--It Worked! (This is copied from the top of the document where I was keeping info about the different things I was trying! On my document it's RED!) This works! Place eggs in already boiling water! (x12x) 15 minutes and move to ICE bath! Don’t turn off heat after putting eggs in. Leave it on low to keep it just barely at simmer. What I found online said to put the eggs in the boiling water, cover the pan, and then turn the heat off! That didn't work for me--they weren't cooked all the way since our water isn't as hot when it boils "up here!" So I slightly increased the recommended time, and I leave the heat on really low to keep the water hot enough! (You don't want to "boil" them!) How I do it is to get "enough" water in a big pot to be sure all the eggs I'm boiling will be all the way in the water, then I get it boiling hard, then I "lower" the eggs--as quickly as I can--into the water using a slotted spoon so they don't break, then I turn the heat WAY down and cover the pot as it stops boiling enough that the lid will "stay on the pot!" I DO use a timer, and 15 minutes has been working pretty well for me! While they're boiling I fill up one side of the sink with cold water with a lot of ice cubes in it, and when the time is up I use the same slotted spoon to take the eggs out of the HOT water to put them in the ice water--and I do move them around in the ice water a few times to be sure they cool off as fast as possible. I generally let them sit in the ice water until they're all the way cold! (If you're only doing a few eggs you could just use a big bowl!) This has really worked for me! Every now and then I'll get one that doesn't peel quite "perfectly," but almost always they peel VERY easily. When I peel them I do also hold them under warm running water--don't know if that helps, but since heat expands things I figure it helps "expand" the shell a bit to get it off easier! I crack the shell and then "crack it completely" while holding it under the water, and usually the shell is "falling off" by the time I have the shell "crunched into small bits." That part wasn't in what I found online! All my life, going all they back to when I was a small child--yeah, since I'm "a girl" I was taught to cook my whole life!--the "common wisdom" was to put the eggs into COLD water and then bring it to a boil as fast as possible! That NEVER worked for me! Some people would say "add salt" to the water, some people would say "add a LOT of salt" to the water, and some people would say "DON'T add salt" to the water! NONE of that ever worked for me! Some people would say use NEW eggs, and some people would say use OLD eggs! Some people would say add VINEGAR to the water! NONE of that ever worked for me! Putting them in the "already boiling water" has worked for me! And, yes, every now and then I do still get one that "breaks" when it's put in the water--but generally fewer than when I put them in COLD water! Don't you have a couple old mayo jars around? If you do, put a piece of "folded" plastic wrap over the top of the jar before putting the lid on--to "protect" the cardboard in the lid! Short of that, I would recommend putting them in something that's glass, so possibly a casserole dish that has a lid, or one you could put plastic wrap tightly over--of a glass bowl with plastic wrap!??! Try it! See how it works for you! Digit! I'm glad your eggplant seedlings are doing so good his year! Believe it or not I still haven't gotten my seeds into soil yet! I wish David was still around here! He always had such good advice--and wisdom! Skybird Edited to add: in my copied part the "12" had a strike-through, which didn't "take" on houzz, and there were parts underlined--which also didn't come thru!!!