Each year as I tour various nurseries or thumb through the many garden catalogs that come my way, the cost of buying plants creeps up in price.  If you're like most gardeners, you can't go to a nursery or look at catalogs without needing just one more (or two, or five, or ten) of your favorite plant or vegetable.  One way to save your budget and have some fun at the same time is to start plants from seed.  If you haven't done this before, it can be a bit daunting to know where to start, but I promise you'll get hooked and may even never have to buy another plant!  Your seed starting venture may even progress so far that you will eventually build a greenhouse, but that's another article.  Following are some basics you need to know before placing that first seed into the soil. 

Sources of Seeds
You can get seeds from several sources – retail nurseries and garden centers, mail-order catalog companies, specialist plant club societies, seed swap organizations, friends and family, or by collecting seeds from your own plants.  One important fact to keep in mind though is that seeds are "children" of their parent plant and just like humans, plants that grow from these seeds may have many similar characteristics of their parents, but will not be an exact replica. 

Collecting Seeds
If you are collecting your own seeds, how do you know when they are ripe?  A good rule to follow is that if the seed comes away in your hand readily, it is ready to collect (unfortunately, this is not the time of year to be doing this, but keep it in mind when your perennials and annuals are dwindling next summer; hopefully, you have a stash of seeds you saved from last year, maybe chilling in your refrigerator or stored in bags out in your garage, that you are anxious to get planted).  Seeds should be spread out and dried before storage; don't worry too much about separating the debris (what we gardeners call "chaff") from the seed – it will eventually come away on its own.  Seeds should be stored in any container that is not totally air tight – small paper bags are ideal. 

Seed Sowing
The first rule before you plant that first seed is that the correct planting medium must be used.  Please, don't go out to your garden and dig up a bunch of soil to put in your planting containers.  Garden soil is not sterile and can contain diseases like the damping-off fungus that kills many seedlings.  You can buy commercially prepared germination mixes suitable for starting seeds or you can sterilize your own soil by "cooking" it in your oven.   However, I almost guarantee the extra expense of buying already prepared planting mixes will be forgotten after you smell your kitchen following a baking session – it's not pleasant!  Your planting containers must be clean and as sterile as possible too; if you're using old containers, wash them out with a 1:10 solution of bleach and water.  I like using seed trays for sowing, but you can use just about anything – egg cartons, Styrofoam cups, etc.  Just make sure there are drainage holes at the bottom.

Fill your container with germination mix to about 1/4" from the top and lightly firm it, then place the container in a tray of water to allow the water to soak up through the mix until the surface appears moist.  Evenly space your seeds on top of the mix and lightly press down to make good contact.  Most seeds will germinate with about a ¼" covering of vermiculite or fine grit, but for seeds that need light to germinate, just press gently into the soil and leave them.  Place your containers under some sort of cover (plastic or special lids that come with seed starting trays) and locate them in a warm area with light – many gardeners use fluorescent light tubes suspended above seed starting containers.  Make sure you check moisture levels daily and if you need to water, do it very carefully with a fine misting spray.

Signs of Germination
The length of time for germination varies among plants, but the first signs will be some green specks on the soil surface.  They will then emerge to slowly resemble true seedlings and when they get to this stage, it's time to transplant into larger containers.  Remove them carefully by scooping them out and handling them by their leaves, not their stems.  They can be transplanted into a potting mix that contains more nutrients than the original mix and then, depending on the plant, eventually planted out in the garden.