Cabbage is starting to Grow

I saved these cabbage seeds totally incorrectly. I planted some, then folded over the packet, put it in a plastic zipper bag, and placed it in a brown mailing envelope on a shelf through the hot, humid summer, near the kitchen. I did not store them near the back of the fridge with a dessicator as I know now to do. But guess what? They're germinating anyway! Slower, and with less efficiency than seeds bought this year, but growing.

I read a story in one of my old gardening texts (I think it was from the 1700s) of a gardener who threw a bunch of seeds that had been on a shelf for years (he didn't think any of them would still be viable) into a fire, then had to put the fire out. Imagine his surprise when several of the seeds germinated, producing robust plants! He said that most garden failures occur because we do not LET plants do what God designed them to do. We intervene too much. Maybe he is right. I'll try to be less fussy and just let things grow. Though I will pick off the cabbage worms if the mint and marigolds don't repel them.