Some Background:

Having always wanted to garden, I finally decided that this was the year. I went a little crazy (novice's euphoria and over-enthusiasm, lol) and planted WAY TOO MANY plants. I started tomatoes, bell peppers, watermelons, zinnias, and morning glories indoors at the beginning of April. Well. I was in a for a surprise. I read about thinning and I think I over-did it with all my seedlings; I read about spindley or leggy plants and decided that my morning glories and tomatoes were ruined (even though they probably weren't); I read about transplanting and making sure there was enough room for the roots and such, so I moved most of everything into bigger pots, upsetting the roots; and to make things more interesting, I then planted spinach and strawberries! Last week, with much frustration, I looked at what I had (a few weak looking tomato sprouts, some healthy watermelons sprouts, a complete absence of bell pepper sprouts, some poorly-rooted zinnia sprouts, and a few very leggy morning glory sprouts) and decided that I had been a very foolish novice indeed and started over.

Here's my situation NOW:

1. I learned about soaking seeds in water to help them germinate; therefore, I dug up my bell pepper seeds (NONE of which had sprouted after TWO WEEKS) and soaked them. They are well on their way to sprouting (I saw some tiny shoots coming out of the seed shell!) I have them on heat to help the process.

2. Instead of planting 12 of everything (like I did earlier this month), I planted six tomato seeds, six spinach seeds, my six bell pepper seeds, 12 zinnia seeds, and a few morning glory seeds. None have sprouted yet, but I did this on Friday, April 15. I planted twice as many zinnias because I'm wanting to fix up the front yard. The morning glories will (ideally) wrap around the porch railings.

3. I have six healthy looking watermelon sprouts. I have them under a gro-light right now becuase we're due to have another hard frost.

**I have read SO MUCH INFORMATION about gardening and quite frankly I don't know who to listen to! Everyone has a different opinion! So here are my questions:

1. My watermelon sprouts look hearty. They are about four inches tall. When I went through my thinning frenzy I saw some of the roots and they look pretty good. They were planted on March 31. When will I see some more growth? They still only have one set of leaves!

2. The reason I grew leggy plants the first time is becuase I don't really have a good place to put the sprouts. They only have indirect sunlight and they stretched towards the window. To avoid this from happening, what should I do when my other sprouts come up?

3. Morning glories and zinnias: I live in the moutains of NC; will they come back next year or will I need to plant them again? If so, I'm just going to invest in some bulb plants. This gardening thing is getting expensive, lol.

4. Morning glories: After they sprout, when do I need to provide something for them to climb? I've read that I need to keep a gro-light on them from three inches away, and I've also read that it doesn't matter. What do I do?

Thank you for taking the time to read this LOOOONG post. I'm very new and I don't have anyone to ask about these kinds of things.

Many thanks! --Whimsy