"I did the indoor seed thing one year, but don't want to deal with all that work and all that "equipment". So I plan to just put some seeds in the ground outside, once the danger of frost has passed, and see what happens. I mean, isn't that how nature works anyway?" That's the basic premise of wintersowing. As for tomatoes, melons, eggplant needing to be started indoors. Not with wintersowing. I wintersow mine in early April and have never had a problem, even growing my tomatoes in pots that way. You should check out the wintersowing forum and enjoy starting your seeds that way. No need to start them indoors. Fran

The question really is whether you think you'll get a hard frost (e.g. the moisture in the soil actually freezes to any extent) or not. The tubers will survive in the soil with cool temperatures, just not frost. Remember, they are shallow root plants so you only need to freeze a couple of inches of soil and you'll kill or damage the roots. It would take several weeks of ground frost to kill the tuber (think about what happens at the end of the season.) I too am in Zone 5, and am on the side of a lake (which usually means our temperatures are slightly higher than others) but you are more daring than I. But my reason is that most of mine are 8" tall already and I don't want to have to bother with coverings for frost warnings. Most of my tubers took 15 days to go from nothing to a cuttable sprout. Were they in the ground, that sprout would have had a couple of sets of leaves above the ground and would have been highly susceptible to frost. The up-side of your plan, however, is that even if the above-ground part gets frosted, a root system should get established as well, so a new sprout should come up quickly. Good luck, and let us know how it works out for you. Cheers, Russ

The question on the bother of starting in front of a window indoors versus buying plants is a valid one. I might not be happy with an east-facing window. Seedlings have a few days in my good, south-facing window here. Then, they migrate out to a greenhouse. The last time I was keeping my plant starts indoors thru their first month or 2 of life, I was living in another house. It also had a good, south-facing window but it was a long, narrow thing in the utility room. Other than not having enuf room for my desires -- It was nearly perfect! I could heat that room separately from the rest of the house which meant, I kept it several degrees cooler. The window's shape was fine for a single line of flats. I think I could get 3 in there. The southern exposure was total and if it was too warm, I could either open the door into the house or open the outside door. Suitable windows are critical, I am sure. Before I built a little greenhouse at that home, I set up a plant stand in the stairwell so as to have more space. That was also a fairly good location but a little problematic because of the carpeted landing and the risk of me falling off the step ladder and down a flight of stairs while trying to tend the plants. Once again, I could close doors and isolate the stairwell from the rest of the house. That gave me a chance to keep it cooler. Most of the time, even south-facing windows don't have enuf light because of our typical, cloudy skies during that time of the year. Also, while we may have 16 hours of daylight on July 1st, on March 1st, we only have 11 hours. Subtract 2 hours in the morning and another 2 hours in the evening when a not-level horizon blocks the angled sunlight and you have only 7 hours on a perfectly sunny day. Seldom happens, anyway. To keep indoor plants from s.t.r.e.t.c.h.i.n.g to reach light takes cooler temperatures so that they don't get too rambunctious. So, we are talking about slower growth. It is a little difficult to find the balance. Steve

I'm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was thinking of not starting anything early this year and just plant all in the ground. This will be only my third summer of growing and still in the learning process of it all! I have started my plants indoors the last two years, but last year I did it too early and most of them got to leggy and almost all died after transplant. I had much better luck the first year I did it. Looking to plant Tomatoes, Butternut Squash, Carrots, Snap Peas, Cucumbers, Basil, Zucchini, Lettuce.