Destruction of seedlings #1 (and a Burpee's Seed Starter review)

I killed my plants yesterday. They were already looking leggy and stretched, sad little transclucent white stalks stretching up for the grow lights I have above my dining room table. So I thought maybe they were getting cold and not getting enough light.

My solution? I put the plastic covers that the seed starter trays came with over the trays and put the grow lights closer to the seedlings, effectively steaming them all to a grisly, wilted death. My baby cilantro and basil? Dead. My little cabbages and lettuces and mesclun? Mostly dead.

I transplanted the survivors into a new window box to give them some breathing room, which will probably kill off whatever I have left.

I am not discouraged though. Instead of giving up, I planted a new tray of veggies. A BETTER tray, with Romanesco veronica and rainbow Swiss chard and cauliflower the color of an orange Post-It and golden beets and more lettuce/mesclun/everything I just killed. (But better, because now it's in a REAL planter, and not that shitty Burpee's seed starter.)

About the seed starter - Not impressed. The little magic dirt clods that came with it had to be particularly placed in order to expand correctly when water was added, and even then the hardest ones didn't expand like they were supposed to. Will not buy one of these again, but I'm going to go ahead and replant the two that I have, because hey - they're twenty bucks apiece.

I WILL learn to garden.