Strawberries, slugs and chillies

I pulled another half-dozen one-inch slugs (and a couple of fingernail-sized snails) off the young shoots of my strawberry crown this evening, which they are busy stripping bare. They have also paid repeat visits to a mystery seedling which appeared in the middle of the marigold seedlings I'd potted up, and was clearly something quite different -- I thought it might have been some kind of pea (a gift from the squirrels), but we shall never find out now, as first the growing tip and then the remaining seed-leaves have been eaten out. Luckily they don't seem particularly interested in marigolds, but there has clearly been a great hatching or emergence from hibernation.

I bought six 'official' Demon Red chilli seeds from Unwins, specifically because it is billed as a "dwarf compact" variety with multiple small fruits, suitable for container growing -- my home-germinated seeds were surprisingly successful, but having half a dozen large chillies per plant and then having to cut them up and use them a half or a quarter at a time isn't very convenient! Unfortunately the germination requirements are a temperature range of 65-75F, followed by a minimum temperature of 60F for the seedlings (this may be why the tomatoes are slow to germinate...) which I simply can't provide at a time when the normal indoors temperature is 60F -- I don't have a hot-water tank or airing-cupboard to incubate seedlings in. So they may take some while to emerge, i.e. not until the weather warms up a bit. I hope they don't just rot in the soil :-(

I kept back the last two seeds in the packet, and have planted up a fresh section of the tomato towelling and balanced it on the narrow kitchen windowsill, which is probably the warmest place on average -- the bathroom gets quite warm now when the sun is out, but it also gets cold on the tiles at night.