Mistress Kari, how does thy garden grow?

I'm a bit impatient with gardening. I raised a great many plants from seeds several years ago, but I didn't enjoy starting them in tiny pots, replanting to bigger pots, and then planting them in the ground - too many died in the process, I didn't seem to get the timing just right, and I never found a properly-lit indoor space for them all (the latter was the biggest difficulty).

This year I decided to give it another go, but without the hassles of having an indoor-arium and without the repotting schedule. I bought some inexpensive packets of seeds and sowed them directly into the built-in planter that surrounds our patio. I covered the planted area with an old windowpane saved from an ancient remodeling project in our house (it's fused with chicken wire, so I feel fairly confident it'll withstand an errant bounce from a basketball). Voila - a cold frame of sorts!

I planted my first seeds nearly a month ago - 2 rows of carrots and 2 rows of peas. I waited until last week to plant again, as to [hopefully] spread out my harvest. Then I planted a row of lettuce and another 2 rows each of carrots and peas.

And look, they're comin' up!