Beginner Gardening: Absolute beginner with a million questions, 1 by FormerMermaid

FormerMermaid wrote:
Today I discovered this wonderful site, and I'm sure I'll be posting a lot so I wanted to say Hi! to all of you. Having just last month been bitten by the gardening bug, I think this site seems like a wonderful resource for answers to my many questions. I will try not to overwhelm you, it's almost shocking how little I know about this stuff. I am particularly interested in growing flowers in containers to decorate my deck, I live in zone 6, and I don't have a lot of cash to spend so I'm always looking for a bargain. I bought one of those Jiffy mini-greenhouses at Wal-mart and planted some herb seeds, so far only the sweet basil is sprouting after about a week. Yesterday I set it under 2 40W fluorescent bulbs in my basement, I'm worried that it needs to be warmer but don't want to spend the $$ on a heating mat. I would like to try growing geraniums, are they tricky to start from seeds? Finally, I have a hanging fuchsia plant that I thought I'd try to propagate by taking cuttings from it, is this a good idea? Any tips or tricks? Thank you all in advance for any help, I am really starting from scratch and truly appreciate whatever advice or info you can provide.