lisa2004 - I am zone 5 in Massachusetts. In my basement, I start mostly annuals and tomatoes and don't start my seeds under lights until 1st or 2nd week of April if you can believe it! I put my plant seedlings out in the garden Memorial Day or the week after depending on how cold the ground is. So I only keep the new seedlings inside for 6 or 8 weeks. If you start too early inside there are many drawbacks such as there is a chance that plants will be leggy, grow too large for your containers, you have to pay higher electric costs and monitor the plants for water longer etc. If you are starting perennials you could start earlier as they take longer to get going. I have been starting plants in my basement for 14 years now and used to start much earlier and have learned from experience later is better... Until then I get my labels ready which I print on my computer and organize my lists. I map out how many plants I need based on what happened the previous year etc. So there is somethings to do while waiting to get planting but I know what you mean about wanting to do something garden related. In the meantime, I try to go to some of the garden shows in the area or go to a gardening related lecture or class.

I just got my peas (and lettuce, spinach, radishes, etc. seeds) out of the fridge. No inoculant - where do you buy it? My great-uncle just soaks his, don't think he adds inoculant. But I'm thinking of starting them. School conference tomorrow, maybe Thurs? All my peas rotted last year - never came up. But half my lettuce rotted too, hope this year is better. Started my tomatoes Monday (a week ago) and they're almost all up, but won't put those out til Memorial Day (*maybe* Mother's Day but we've had late frosts...) so plenty of time for peas. Got some peppers going, but most still hiding -could take another week or 2 for chiles. Then again, it's going to be 80 tomorrow and Thurs - crazy weather! Should I wait til weekend when things cool off to 50's to plant?

I did a cross of Inniswood and Northern Exposure this summer, still waiting for the seed pod to turn yellow, I have grown inniswood seed in the past and liked alot of what i got, thought that i would try to cross it with another hosta that i like, supposedly they are both from the Elegans progeny line thing somewhere, we will see what happens, most green ones will be grown for a couple of years and then pitched( if they dont look like anything worthy) or given away. I only do one batch of seeds per year cause there just aint no room for all of them to grow!! as far as lights go, i use the cheapest shop lights that i can find, and suspend them from clothes line rope tide in slip knots so i can adjust the height. quite simple and cheap. all the growing is done on a short table that is 4' X 8' the size of a sheet of plywood, the lights are on for about or less than 14 hours per day. and they are only shop lights that cost about $12.00, and usually last about 3 years (some last for over 10 now!!). and that is what i use on my aquariums too!! so much cheaper than buying all those expensive and nice looking lights to hang over a tank of water that i will be the only one looking at!! (the aquariums are in the basement and you need a pass and special invitation (hopefully the watch cat wont bite you) signed by me to get down there!!) and you dont really need to invest in any special grow light bulbs, i use "cool white" bulbs. oh!! did i tell you? on another note!!,,,, talk about waste. I went to my local Taco Bell tonight, and bought 1 taco salad and 2 nachos bell grande (feeding 3 mouths on this episode!!) and they gave me 34 PACKS OF HOT SAUCE!! what am I going to do with 34 PACKS of hot sauce?? (yes i did count them!!) If i was buying hosta wholesale I could have got one hosta for the cost of what they just gave me!! The cheapest hosta that i bought for wholesale was paul's glory for $6.00 and my partner at the time went thru the roof!! (or i should say the high end hosta at the time, years ago, another story when i owned a backyard nursery) Uh.. there was a beer around here somewhere!! man uhhhhh... PHOEBE (the cat)!!! wheres my beer?? Darn, I left it on the kitchen counter and now it is probably warm!! Drat!! LOL Paul

When you say mild winter and transplanting early (March or April) is this just for areas with mild climates where they typically receive no snow (FL, AL, GA, etc.) The reason I ask is because I live in the northern part of the country and live in the northern part of my state. The whole not being able to plant in the ground cause of it being frozen, doesn't apply to me, because I use container gardening. The other things is what about transplanting early with areas where the main growing season arrives later in the year (end of May). This is in comparison to southern areas, such as GA, FL, etc. If I do stuff earlier, it would be hardy things that love cold weather and germinate and grow well in cold weather (spinach, lettuce, etc.) I'm not saying they would be direct sown, rather transplants. I might direct sow them earlier, depending on the weather.