Might be still a little wet for the sweet peas. I know if ground too wet and cold green peas will rot/

I start the annuals in small pots under a shop light and plant them outdoors in mid may. The summer plants can't take frost. If they sprout and temps drop below freezing, they're doomed.

Typically, smaller seeds need sunlight to germinate, so don't cover them.

Way too early to sow everything outside except the sweetpeas. It might be too wet for them now, but it will be too hot for them later, so you might as well try. The other stuff, you can try planting them in little containers and putting them under shoplights inside now, or outside later, in the sun where you can take them in if it freezes.

Congrats on the new house!!!

You might want to try two seed-starting methods, if only to satisfy your craving to get something underway: the indoor-under-fluoros method and the winter sowing method. If you're pretty new to seed-growing, doing a little of each should give you a satisfying success rate, and teach you a lot about growing things from seed that will come in handy in the future.

Shoplights (4') for an indoor set-up are pretty inexpensive---you can put one together for around $20. Easy to find at any of the big box home improvement places. YOu don't need fancy Gro-lights or the like. Fluoros will do the trick.

You'll find lots of info on using the lights, plus the ABC's of seed-sowing and germination, if you search this forum and the Growing Under Lights forum. (Don't let the technical stuff on the GUL forum throw you---some of those folks are super-serious about lighting systems. Stick to discussions about shoplights and you'll learn plenty to get you started.)

Some keys to successful indoor growing, I've found, are a good sterile seed-starting mix (not potting soil), air circulation (small fan), keeping the sprouted seeds really close to the fluoros to avoid legginess, and monitoring moisture regularly to be sure you're keeping things moist but not sopping.

For winter sowing info, check out the Winter Sowing Forum, especially its FAQs. Some folks are so enthusiastic about WSing they're doing hundreds of containers. That's more ambitious than I'm game for! But I am trying it this year for the first time with about two dozen containers, total, outside. No results yet, but in another two to three weeks I expect to be seeing sprouts. WSing lets you do your sowing outside, but in containers, and with a bit more control than simply direct sowing (e.g. using lids to make mini-greenhouses out of containers). You might want to err on the side of really easy seeds---cosmos, sunflower, cleome, zinnias---but wait another three weeks or so till the worst of winter weather is past.

For more advice on handling sweetpea seeds this time of year, check out the Vines forum where there are detailed discussions about starting them from seed at least a couple of times a year. I grow mine in big containers on my enclosed porch and haven't tried to grow them in the ground. (Yet!!)

GOod luck and have fun with both the house and the garden!

Your average last frost date is some time near Apr. 15, it's Apr. 10 around here in Richmond (I usually have an easier time remembering tax day). Most of you summer annuals should be started outdoors around then- the soil has to be warm. There may still be a frost after that- keep an eye out and cover what sprouts.

I'm trying winter sowing for the first time myself- with varieties that have a reputation for self-sowing.

My seed starting set-up is shop lights and Rubbermaid shelving units. With the lights on a chain, I can raise them as the plants go up. I store seeds in the fridge, and frequently get germination within a week or two once I plant indoors. Putting the seeds over a heat vent until they sprout helps, too.

I frequently set seedlings out earlier than Apr. 10 under row cover fabric. I bent some heavy hardware cloth to make a frame. If I'm careful with it, I can use the fabric for two or three seasons.

Hope some part of this is useful. I just love starting seeds! Good luck-

G'Day!
- Welcome to the MAG forum! And congrats on getting you bit o' land! We just got our wee "hobby farm" here in Southern Maryland (for our retired ASGRA rodeo horses) a half dozen years ago and it's been garden, garden, garden ever since!

- If you're just getting started on new gardens, the single best favor you can do yourself (OK, besides learning about no-dig "lasagna gardening;" thick layer of newsprint, then alternate layers of leaves, compost, and soil; "Search" to find details)) is to attend the MAG Spring Swap, May 14. (SEE the Exchange Page of this Forum for details.) Lots for freindly folks with great plants to trade. In prepairation, you might want to start extras of some plants; that way, if some don't do as well as you'd hoped, you'll be fine, and if some do really well, you'll have extras to trade. (If you really have no plants to trade, no problem; just bring something for the potluck picnic which follows the swap.)

- Also, on you GW page, even if you don't have a Have and Want list ready, you can describe what sort of growing conditions you have and what sort of plants you want. (For example, i'm wondering if i can offload - er, i mean OFFER - y'all some strawberry plants, of which i anticipate having a hundred or more surplus this spring.)

- Yup, i second trying two seed-starting methods; you never know which will work best under your conditions / weather / particular seeds.

- Check out the Winter Sowing Forum for details, but bascially, anything native to an area which gets snow can be planted now. Maybe not the best success rates, but "after last adverage frost" can be a very busy time! Most plants labeled "tender" (such as those zinnias yuou mention) will likely do best if planted as LATE as possible, after the ground has actually warmed up a bit.

- Be prepaired for successive seedings; sow a quarter of each kind each week or ecry other week for a month. That "last adverage frost date" is just that - an adverage - and we have never actally had that mythical adverage year.

- Indoor seeding: plenty of light, gentle bottom heat, starile seeding "soil" mix, soil damp but plants dry.

- Let's see, y'all are in Central VA? You might want to check out the Edible Landscaping Nursery in Afton VA (1-800-524-4156 for catalog and directions); they've tons of unusual plants already accustomed to VA.

- Happy gardening,
-vlad
- p.s. - check out my exchange page; i have major surplus of some kinds of home harvested seeds, just in case y'all need more!

Here is a link that might be useful: pictures from my gardens last year