When to plant seeds for transplanting to garden.

Hi I started my seeds way to early last year, any rule of thumb for planting vegetables and flowers????

Hi Tom and welcome to Dave's Garden! Try posting your question over on the Garden Talk forum - you should get lots of help over there :)

Here is a link to a thread that briefly discusses starting plants under lights:

http://davesgarden.com/showthread/photos/9388.html

This message was edited Saturday, Feb 24th 5:54 PM

Tom, here's another website that does a good job explaining when to start a lot of flower seeds. (Handy if you have traded seeds and don't have a "store" package with directions. It's fairly self-explanatory, but here's a few tips to get you started:
1. Make sure you have your last frost date handy - a quick web search will help you find any number of sites that will give you that information.
2. Have your flowers' botannical (latin) names - again, a web search with the common name will generally turn up the latin name if you don't have a gardening reference book.

Now you're ready to start using this website. The link below will connect you to the page where flowers are arranged alphabetically. Find your flower(s) and note the "method number" listed for each.

Now click on the link to the growing methods list. There you'll find the full growing instructions for each method number.

One word of warning: this site won't (can't) tell you WHEN to start your seeds, since everyone's last frost date is different, but you can figure out the weeks necessary for germination, and count backwards from that date with the number of weeks this website indicates are necessary.

Most seeds fall into method 1 (quick germination) or method 2 (slow germination). As a general rule of thumb, I start "quick germination" 4-6 weeks before my last frost date, 8-12 weeks if they're slow germinating seeds.

Happy growing!!!!

http://home.online.no/~asles/sowing.htm

If you get a book like Seed starter or Seed to seed, they give guidelines on this. I have the seed starter and I use it all the time. I use that and The Complete Garden Guide and I am able to answer most questions that I have about plants.

I'm moving this thread over to GardenTalk.

Tom1953: I am a zone 5 gardener. I have a seasonal greenhouse. I open it up the last of Feb. or the 1st. of March. I start perennials first, petunias, pansies, cabbage, broccoli. I have always been told that around March 10 is the date to start Tomatoes in our zone. Then after them I start the annuals. In April you start fast growers like Basil, dill, fennel.

Tom I's a zone 5 gardener Last frost date may 30th. What exactly are you starting from seed? I have some seeds I started last month. Some I will not start until april.