Growing Flowers and Vegetables from Seed

You can start vegetable and flower seedlings indoors now - no greenhouse required. Either grow seedlings on a sunny windowsill or beneath a fluorescent light fixture containing one cool and one warm bulb.

If you are impatient to start gardening or want to grow varieties not commonly available from garden centers consider starting your own vegetable and flower transplants from seed this year. You do not need a greenhouse to grow healthy transplants and many varieties can easily be started indoors over the next month to transplant outside in spring.

Many summer vegetable and flower seed can be started indoors 4 to 8 weeks before the last average spring frost, which occurs around April 15th in our area. Flowers and vegetables with large seed are the easiest to grow. They also tend to grow faster than small seeds and only need to be started indoors three to four weeks before planting outside. Easy to grow, large seeded vegetables and flowers include cucumbers, zucchini, squash, melons, okra, cosmos, marigolds, nasturtium, zinnias, and sunflowers. Wait until mid March to sow them indoors. These large seed are also easy to grow when sown directly in the garden and can be seeded outside in mid April. 

Learn more! Read the rest of the story here: http://pender.ces.ncsu.edu/index.php?page=news&ci=LAWN+118 on the Pender County Cooperative Extension website.