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Starting seeds lets you begin the gardening season in the middle of winter. Learn your zone, pick your packets and find the estimated last frost. If you're careful, alert and responsible you can grow a batch of beautiful plants on your first try. My first tries were failures but I learned from them and now I've got a system down that saves me all kinds of money.

Starting seeds:

1) The right containers. I like the sort of containers that are all connected, thin plastic, reusable, and come with their own cover. They're neat, efficient and therefore convenient to starting seeds. Some come with less slots and more room, others with more slots and less room but the best ones are all pretty much twenty four inches by twelve inches.

2) The right soil. Go to your local nursery and ask if they have a good home made mix. Chances are it will work better later on for your transplants than something you buy from a factory. If they don't go for that bag of seeding soil and mix it in with some of your local dirt. Get that soil good and moist to free it from the strange bag-soil water repelling. Swish it around, drain it and then tuck it into your containers.

3) Planting. Now you're ready for the seeds. Follow the instruction on each packet you've chosen. Don't try to thin them yet to spread them further. If it says to drop a pinch into the hole you've made, do it. The seed packet knows best at this point. Save the packets so that you'll know how to thin them later. Tape it to the side of your container so you don't get confused by multiple crops.

4) Routines. Establish a good routine of watering (don't you dare over water- this happens much more than you'd think). You don't want the soil to be damp every day. You don't want it to be dry every day either. Again, follow the directions on your packet.

Another important routine will be rotation. Once your seeds grow larger rotate that tray so they don't learn to lean too much to one side. Keep them active, strong and guessing which way to send that cell water and bend. You'll end up with sturdier stems.

5) Transplanting. Once they outgrow their mini container you're going to thin them and move them to their final holders. I like to use biodegradable planting cups. I can put them right into the ground later on (no waste!) and they'll even act as fertilizer down the road as the plant grows to full size.

6) Slow shift to outdoors. The slow shift is important. The first few years that I attempted to seed indoors I burned my plants up in the last stretch of the race. I didn't understand that after last frost I couldn't just pop my babies into the soil. What you've got to do is work them outside gradually. They can't take the sun right off the bat. If you want to know the sick truth of the matter they'll turn white and droopy with just a day of too much sun too quickly. All those months of care will be for nothing if you don't ease them out a few hours at a time over a number of days.

7) The last frost. The last frost is only estimated as the last frost. You've got to be careful and vigilant about this until mid summer. Seedlings cannot take a frost and roll with it. You've got to be ready to cover them with a light blanket, burlap or straw in the event of a surprise late frost.

Learn more about this author, E. Rae Fallesen.
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