Germination Round 2 - Cold Stratification updates

This post will mostly be for future review, as I'm keeping track of how my cold strat/ older seeds have germinated so far. Here is how I have been keeping track of everything so far:

Currently, no spinach, Brussels Sprouts, milkweed and lupine have sprouted from my first attempts. 

This is a little disheartening, as even though I know it's early (still only at 12 days) I would still like to know if any of these seeds are in fact viable. 

 I did read today that spinach doesn't last for more that a year, so even though I had poor luck with it last year and this year it hasn't sprouted yet, I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. 

Brussels Sprouts are more a cold weather veg, so again even though it's early this is why I did my experiment. I still want to see if and how long it takes so when I try again later I'll know what to expect. 

Milkweed and lupine are my biggest hopes. I'm trying for a butterfly garden this year, and would love to see them flourish. I've read that these are hard to start from seed, and I'm not sure my milkweed seed is viable as I collected it very late last fall. I'm tenacious like this. 

I'm also keeping track of several old packets of Burpee seed that I'm thinking of planting this year. Without cold stratification, here's my records of saved seeds and older seeds so far:

To me, this is more interesting. I love seeing that heirloom seeds I saved are sprouting earlier and in higher percents than others. I'm excited about all the tomatoes I'm gonna have this year! I'm thinking I might plant tons and either sell or gift them away. 

Going along with all those tomatoes- I really REALLY want the marigolds from last year to sprout. I've been reading a lot about companion planting, and for me I always have marigolds by my tomatoes. It's natural pest control!

For reference, here's my spreadsheet that I'll use for my records from year to year:

So all the plants listed on here I've already planted, and once they sprout I'm hoping to keep them alive until I can plant outside in May. I've forgotten Portulaca in this list, but if it agrees to stay alive, I will include it :)  ( the arugula I'm hoping to harvest as microgreens!)

As an update to the basil from the grocery store that I wanted to propagate- they both grew lots of roots and are doing very well in pots!

Tip for basil- never harvest the biggest leaves. These are the sun absorbing powerhouses of the plant. They won't taste nearly as good as the new tender leaves!

My impatiens are doing well- I'm trying to spoil them a bit as the seeds are few and expensive. Granted, not as expensive as already established plants. I can only 'spoil' my seedlings with the lights I have, as my grow lights are good, I feel uncomfortable leaving the house all day with them on. As they should get 12 (or more!)  hours of light a day- they get whatever comes through the window, and then at night when I'm home. I can only hope this will suffice!

This is also a good photo of the butterfly weed in the background that has sprouted.I'm 'spoiling' that too. 

I'm waiting for some petunia, zinnia and coleus seeds. The petunia and Coleus will be going in the window boxes. I'll upload some diagrams of my plans for those. Since two get full sun, and two are mostly shade, I'm diversifying them. If the impatiens do well, hopefully those and the dianthus ( maybe coleus?) will go in the north (shade) boxes while the petunia, coleus, and marigolds will be in full sun.