I started my pepper plants in mid-February and my tomatoes and basil in mid-March. I start three small cells of each variety and then choose to transfer to peat pots the two seedlings of each variety that look the strongest. I also only put 2 seeds in each cell to try and save seed. This year I easily had seeds packed for 2008 germinate. (I believe the oldest seed to ever be grown was found in an Egyptian tomb and was a few thousand years old - seeds really do want to do their job even if they are "old"!).

This year I am growing from seed ten tomato varieties, 4 pepper varieties and two of basil, all open-pollenated and heirloom.

Tomatoes:

Stupice
Black Cherry
White Currant
Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge
Paul Robeson
Souix
Green Zebra
Dad's Sunsets
Golden Sunray
Brandywine (which I always intend to give up on but can't seem to let go of)

Peppers:

Thai Hot
Patio Red Marconi
Jupiter
Baby Belles

Basil:

Lime
Thai

We are also planning on growing several things directly from seed in the garden beds which include Kentucky Wonder beans, Charentais melons (on a trellis, we'll see how it goes!), 4 kinds of carrots, 2 types of radish and lots of chard.

A couple years ago I posted about the construction of our raised beds in our previous house. We plan to make similar beds this time around too, but probably longer in length with a slightly narrower width. At the time we were following Square Foot Gardening to the letter but after a couple seasons of trial and error I really do believe that plants need more room, that intensive planting affects crop production and that tomatoes especially need way more room than the method directs. They need more air circulation in their leaves to stay healthy and free of diseases and their roots need to be able to dig down deeper than 6 inches. I hope to have four beds that are 3x8 instead of 4x4 squares. We'll see what Bob can figure out.

-Jess