The second year I planted a garden in our back yard was the third summer we spent in our house. Kaitlin turned 2, and we were anticipating the arrival of our second child. We named her Hannah Rose Karl when she was born in October.
I tried starting from seeds ordered online. Reading about how to germinate the seeds indoors to get the plants established, we bought a plastic shelf and placed it in the South-facing window of the master bedroom bath. It was great to watch the little sprouts emerge, and start to grow. But some of, or most of those did not survive being transplanted outside. The most successful were the chamomile, hyssop, and the purple cone flowers (echinacea purpurea). Vegetables started indoors did not do well, except for the tomatoes, and even in that case, the ones planted outside from seed did almost as well, or better due to being tougher from the start. Perhaps it's better to avoid the starting mixes sold commercially. They seemed to have too much fertilizer for the good of the seedlings, which grew amazingly fast for a week and then turned stringy and weak.
