As soon as I can get it together I will direct sow spinach, chard, kale outside. I have some of those in the garden, late planted that made it through our couple weeks of pretty bitter weather. Broccoli plants that were looking big and healthy and about ready to head up did not make it. Now a frozen mess.
These shelving systems with the plastic cover are available all over, pretty inexpensive. I had to look a little to find mine, because it is 4 feet wide (most of them are smaller). That means I can hang a 4' long shop light fixture in it. When I have more stuff planted, I have one more light fixture I can put in it. It's a lot less seed starting space than I used to have, but I will work with that. I start a lot more seeds directly in the ground than I used to and I grow mainly just for me now, not for sale.
The cover zips down all the way for night time and the front opens up all the way for ventilation and working on things. The trays are sitting on a heat mat. With the heat mat and the lights, with it zipped down, it stays quite a bit above ambient. It is in our garage which is unheated, but protected from wind.
Yay !! A bunch of little broccoli babies sprouted on the third day!
I've been starting things from seed for twenty years now and it still gives me an irrational amount of happiness to see all those baby plants where yesterday there was just dirt!
The first time I ever did it, twenty years ago, I was so in love with them I gave every seedling a name!
You beat me to it. Seeds arrived yesterday and planted today. It is mild enough for them to live outside most of the time. There may be some evenings when I have to take them in just for the night.
I'm not actually growing these indoors because I would have to. In fact I am about to plant some spinach and other greens outside. I may plant some more broccoli outside also. But especially for the slower things and the tiny seeds like impatiens, growing them inside on the heat mat helps me baby them more and keep better track of them. By the time I transplant them into the garden, they will be big enough to fend for themselves more.
I started planted out some seeds too. I have lacinato, curly and Nash's kale, curly and Italian parsley, sunflowers, cucumber (suyo and shio kyuri), fennel, cilantro, beets, basil, peppers, and some pollinator mix flowers for the pollinator garden.
Now, I still have to make room in the garden for some of this stuff. Some will be ready for the first plant sale of the year on February 10. It is still cold so some of my seedlings may not be big enough.
In the garden the lettuce and chard need to be harvested.
Yesterday, I planted out 2 of the lemon queen sunflowers, lavender multifida, santolina, gazania, crackerjack marigolds, salvia, and nasturtiums.
Today it rained, On Friday, if it is nice, I will try to finish working the compost into the bed and plant the buckwheat cover crop.
My broccoli babies are just about ready to open up true leaves. I moved them from crowded in the little cells to one per cell. They are still on the heat mat for the time being. Nothing else sprouted yet -- seems like some of them should have. Oh well, some were old seeds.
Today I planted cabbage, yarrow, nicotiana, annual salvia, dill, parsley, annual savory under the lights.
As soon as I get a chance, I'm going to start planting some cold weather stuff in the ground. All those things that say "plant as soon as the ground can be worked"? Our ground can never not be worked (unless it is too wet). Even though we had about six nights with temps in the teens and still have some more coming up with temps in the 20's, they are few and far between enough, with warm ups in between, that the ground never really freezes.
As usual, I’m getting caught up in the excitement.
I started a small community container of 4 kinds of lettuce — Black Rose, Marvel of the Four Seasons, Rosemarry, and Valmaine.
Lettuce should be safe enough and will hopefully keep me occupied. I do want to start the broccoli, cauliflower, etc.
First artichokes and impatiens have sprouted. Things may be being a bit slow because it is pretty chilly out there in the garage yet. They are on a heat mat and inside plastic, but still...
Planted carrot seed in the ground. The ground isn't frozen, but it is pretty cold. May end up having to replant.
Germination temperature: 50 F to 85 F - Will germinate at temperatures as low a 40 F. Will germinate in about a week at 75 F, with adequate moisture.
Days to emergence: 7 to 21
...maybe this technique that jal_ut have recommended in the past will help in the cold temperature, as well? Some other interesting tips in that thread, too... I think I’m going to need to review them
jal_ut wrote:The carrot seeds are small so must be planted close to the surface. The trouble here in hot dry Utah, the top inch of soil drys out quickly and the lil seeds will die if their root is not down into the moisture below. One trick I have used here is to plant the carrot seeds then lay a board over the row to hold the moisture in. After 3 days take the board off.
Dirt Man, I don't know about that 3 weeks thing. Ya I guess if you plant in cold weather it may take 3 weeks to see them? As with any seeds it takes a little time, some moisture and appropriate temperatures. I am thinking gardening in TN may require different techniques than here in High Dry Utah?
No, unfortunately. Here in the rural south it's been harder to find some of my ingredients. And my seed starting operation is so much smaller these days, I haven't worried about it.
Sometime I will try to get it back together. For the time being I have succumbed to the convenience of just buying a bag of stuff at the store.
Glads are popping out of the ground...so are the weeds. I have to take more cuttings of the rosemary, basil, and bay leaf. I might cut a few more of my mom's lime tree branches and make more cuttings of those. I have a pot of cuttings that are doing well, but I did not label it. It may be calamondin. I still have more kale to transplant I have to check to see if the rain damaged any of the seedlings. My mom said she had to replant basil since the rain ruined the last batch.
I have a lot of weeds popping up too. Fortunately a lot of it is chickweed, which our chickens love. So I can let the chickens eat the weeds and fertilize the garden and then plant it! Or I just pull the chickweed and toss it in with the chickens.
Season is getting by me very fast!! We have daytime temps in the high 60's / low 70's, night time no lower than 40's for the rest of the ten day forecast. By then it will be end of Feb and we will be only two - three weeks from average last frost. So maybe we have already had our actual last frost. (Or maybe not-- last year we had a very mild winter, but the worst freezes of the winter were around Mar 7-10. three nights in a row around 22 deg F. Killed a lot of stuff off.)
Anyway I've been planting! Potted up are broccoli, cabbage, artichokes, annual salvia. The broccoli has been outside hardening off for a couple days and will get planted in the ground pretty soon. Sprouted are impatiens, nicotiana, yarrow, dill, sunflowers, green basil, summer savory.
Planted under lights are coleus, lobelia, thai basil, purple basil, and today I planted four varieties of pepper! (donkey ears, Anaheim chili, early jalapeno, and Calif wonder).
Back to having seedlings that grow well, since I got rid of the LED's! But I needed two more fluorescent tubes. I got ones that said bright white for work spaces. (T8 tubes). They give off way too much heat! I have never seen fluorescent tubes that give off so much heat. I'm afraid my little plants will cook under them. I don't have a very good set up (yet?) for being able to raise the lights very far above the plants.
Seeds direct sown in the garden: kale, chard, lettuce, spinach, carrots, snow peas, and today I planted seed potatoes, Red Nordland.
Yay!!
Oh well, some were old seeds. 
Or I just pull the chickweed and toss it in with the chickens.