Hi Dragonkist,
Thanks for your detailed review! And congrats on having a great harvest last year!
We planted lettuce and carrots from seed last year as well and were also surprised by how easy it was! I was previously intimidated by planting from seed....didn't think they'd grow under my care ;)
Which type of peppers did you plant - hot peppers or bell peppers? Which varieties did you plant?
We used seeds from Burpee. Carrots were the organic "Short and Sweet" variety (photo below) and we tried 2 lettuce varieties - "Green Ice" and "Mesclun Mix". All grew very easily! :)
Regards,
Olli