kraftdee You'll also find your expenses going down as the years pass. There can be start-up expenses that you don't have later. Once your raised beds are built and paid for, and maybe a watering system, all you have to do is add to the beds with free organic materials as needed. Buy as few seeds as possible and begin saving open pollinated seeds and trading for them instead, for the cost of postage. The more you garden, the more cost-savers you'll discover. I do splurge each year and buy bone meal and a large bale of ProMix ($24.00) for starting seeds and my containers, but I don't have a lot of other expenses except for little luxuries, like a neat tool or some more rubber gloves, etc.

I planted 7 beauregard (spelling) sweet potatoes last year. I planted them in 2 rows about 2 feet apart. Those boogers took over the entire garden by the time they were ready to harvest. fortunately, the rest of my garden was done by then (except for a handful of peppers, which didn't seem bothered by them) They spread out and set roots about every 3 to 5 feet. I found potatoes over the ENTIRE space they spanned out. In fact I've now found new growth coming up in my garden at the very edges of the garden on 2 opposite sides where apparently potatoes were not discovered and left in the ground. I filled about 4 or 5 five gallon buckets with potatoes ranging in size. LOTS OF TATERS and they were sure good. I remember asking for advice on them last year and someone told me that if you sever the runners from the main plant as they spread that they will become their own plant and the potatoes will be bigger. (kinda like with strawberry runners) This year I took a bunch of the fingerling slzed spuds and cut them in half and rooted them and then took the slips from them and potted those up (I'm selling them) and I have a ton of plants now to sell or give away.

The pic didn't upload. here it is!

Like Kimmsr, I use compost for seed starting, and I also get lots of unplanned volunteers in the compost pile. As long as the compost is finished or mostly-finished, it shouldn't be a big problem. You certainly wouldn't want to use "hot" compost with your seeds. :-) As to the seeds themselves, as mentioned above a lot depends on the type of seed, soil temperature, and the age of the seeds. Many times older seeds take longer to germinate and have a less successful germination rate. It's my understanding that carrot seeds can normally take 2-3 weeks to germinate; longer if the soil is too cold and/or the seeds are old. This is based on info I've read, not on personal experience. Last fall I started a new compost area that was to be turned into a vegetable patch this spring. Having started it late in the autumn, there were only a few inches of organic material applied to the ground and it never got hot enough to fully finish. I turned it once or twice in April as the ground started thawing, and the grass clippings had very little deterioration; they were mostly intact and kind of mucky like grass clippings get when you pile them up. No additional material had been added to the area since last December. But that didn't stop the volunteers of cucumbers, lettuce, and, lastly, tomatoes from germinating -- thanks to those leftover, unpicked fruits that were thrown in from the garden last October. [I'm used to tomato volunteers, but the cukes and lettuce were surprises.] I can't really speak to experience with carrots (maybe I'll grow some next year), but there could be a number of factors that influenced low and slow germination. All the best.