I just started lettuce, spinach, and parsley indoors last week in a
plastic green house (My mother-in-law, who has given me some very
strange gifts in the past, gave me a four foot high, three shelf,
plastic green house for Christmas last year - and it works great).
After a few weeks I'll move the plants outside on nice days for a
couple of hours. Once the plants are used to being outside, I'll move
them to the garden. I built a little 4x8x4 greenhouse out of pvc and
plastic. I'll put the plastic cover on when there is suppose to be
freezing temps.

As for tomatoes/peppers, here is what I do:

I start the seeds indoors in those black plastic seed trays at the end
of Feb. I put the trays in my green house (before the green house, I
put the trays on top of the refrig). When the plants have a few leaves
(4-6 leaves) I tranplant to clear plastic cups carefully only touching
the soil and not the plant. I put a couple of holes on the side near
the bottom of the cups for drainage. Once the plants get big enough and
the days are sunny, I move the plants outside for a few hours. Once the
plants are big enough and the days are warm enough (usually around
beginning of April), I transplant the plants the black plastice pots
that you get from garden centers. I leave the plants outside. The one
thing I learned is that tomatoes and peppers love warm soil. The black
plastic pots do the trick until the garden soil is warm enough - I need
to water them just about every day. Around the beginning of May, I move
the plants to the garden. Once in the garden, I cover the soil with
something. Last year it was newspaper with grass clippings on top. That
worked well until the grass clipping started to decompose and my grass
stopped growing. This year I might try leaves or black plastic.

Hope this helps,

Bill


wrote:
I am starting my first garden season here in NC. I want to start some
seeds indoor (flowers, herbs and some vegetables like peppers and
tomatoes). When is the best time to start them? Should I have already
started my tomato and other seeds that say to start them
6-7 weeks before last frost date? Do I need to use grow light for
this
or it is not necessary?
Thank you,
Genya