Cheapest and best tend to be mutually exclusive. I go for best and order from Johnny's Selected Seeds

Every locale is a bit different but as an example for our area the choices (and my opinion) would be ....

Local garden centers - some order (bulk) and repackage seed cultivars which have proven to do well in our area. They also carry multiple name-brand seed collections.

Lowes and Home Depot - general stock a collection(s) of name-brand seeds, one of which is Burpee. Both return the seed racks to the vendors at the end of the spring growing season. So plan ahead for fall seed planting needs.

Walmart - good collections of open pollenated seeds, inexpensive{{gwi:807}}, few hybrids... Might satisfy some of your choices, depending on your cultivar preference. They also send back{{gwi:807}} their seed racks.

Dollar stores - lowest prices but seed count is less. So similar in value{{gwi:807}} to Walmart but with far less cultivar selections

Mail order - lots of choices with many providing some targeted interest, e.g. heirlooms, tomatoes, melons, etc. You will definitely find best quality with this option but typically (meaning not always) at a higher price and with the usual shipping and handling charge. .. S&H is easily justified if placing a large order. Most mail order seed vendors will periodically offer discounts{{gwi:807}}.

So, my answer to the "cheapest and best" question would be all of the above...

I just returned from one of our our local garden centers with their repackaged Premium Crop broccoli seed. Mail order was the other option but this time I paid in gas vs. S&H to get the seed.

This post was edited by grandad on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 18:44

It depends. I go for Baker Creek (GMO free) and they are close by, but right now a lot of places (Wal Mart, thrift stores hardware stores) are deeply discounting seeds ( I've seen .10-.50)
I actually, for the most part go to the local seed exchange for stuff I start myself! These are getting very popular in our area. All the seed is from local gardens, so has been grown successfully in our area! There are also several seed libraries around. These are free, but might want a small donation to cover copying or envelopes for the seed.
They usually have a class of some kind for an hour after the exchange and ask for volunteer work in the seed garden beforehand.
I actually have an old organic farm in the middle of the city (they won't leave! YAY) that has the most healthy and cheapest starts, so if I don't get around to getting seeds started in Feb (rarely do!) that's where I go. Nancy

The plant long squash is easy to grow and is almost free from disease and insect attacks http://www.evergreenseeds.com/calgouropo.html

If you like long squash seeds, send me an email, I will give you my address, so you can mail me the self-addressed stamped envelope, then I can mail long squash seeds to you. No pickle worms, no insects control, no chemical fertilizer, I always used urine 10 to 1 diluted with water for fertilizer.

If you are not into some super rare finds and exotics, I can recommend "Sample Seeds Shop". Just google it.
Most seed are $1.25 some $1.00 and $1.50. Their shipping charge is also very reasonable. Their tomato seeds selection is excellent. They also have peppers, all kinds of vegetable, herbs.
It is a bargain place with quality seeds, especially if you are just a newbie..

PS. I am not related to SSS, in anyway. I also learned about them right on this forum. ...

FEDCO seeds, to me is the cheapest and the best. They are very committed to non GMO seeds first of all, an essential for me. And they are an organic coop so there are lots of organic choices for seeds, and they always have a lot of choices of some of the most popular varieties and some I haven't heard of. And they are less expensive than a lot of other companies. I order all my vegetable seeds from them.

In my opinion, starting from seed can be a PITA. I only grow about 7 tomato plants and like different varieties, and like to change them up from year to year. I also have a great area with many sales of fabulous organic sales! maybe 6 pepper plants, 6 tomatillas, 2 zuks, so most of my summer stuff I buy plants. I also don't have a good set up for starting them indoors.
With my long growing season, it's also hard to free up beds for my fall/winter stuff to grow from seed. I've just yesterday finally pulled my tomatoes and tomatillas. I still have the zuks and yellow squash and a couple of tomatoes going.
I do plant some things from seed. lettuce, radish, beets, chard, arugula, spinach (not much luck with), carrots and some things just re-seed themselves leeks, onions, broccoli, arugula. Anyway, look into the seed starting forum and plan ahead! You'll need lights, racks, maybe a fan and a couple of months before planting time to take care of your babies!
Have fun and happy gardening! Nancy

Your question about what to do to get ready for next year is the best and first question you asked. Pull out all the dead plants from your garden. If they had disease, put them into the garbage so they are hauled away. Otherwise, put them into your compost pile. (If you don't have one, this is the perfect time to start one. Pile up all the leaves you can lay your hands on.)

Hoe or pull the weeds from your garden. Then cover the soil with leaves, grass clippings, straw, or whatever organic mulch you can get. This will stop erosion and keep down cool weather weeds. But most important, it will take away insects' winter camping grounds. If they spend winter break there, they will be bigger, healthier, and earlier next year.

If you haven't had frost yet, sow some kind of winter cover crop rather than mulch. Then in very early spring, plan to till it into the soil. You'll be amazed at all the good it will do your soil.

You can contact your local Agricultural Extension agent for recommended crops that do well in your area. When you are just starting out it's a good idea to sow the tried and true the first couple of years. In my town, we have Agricultural Co-ops and Farm supply stores that carry the locally popular varieties of seeds. They are a fraction of mail order cost.

And finally, use your winter for learning and planning. Read a good basic book or two about vegetable gardening. You can check them out from your library for free. Get a nice calendar and make notes on it for seed starting dates, when to plant, prune, fertilize, start seeds, etc. This information is also available at the Ag Extension office, usually for free. Draw up your garden area on graph paper to scale and plan when and where you will plant your crops on it. Your gardening books and pamphlets will have valuable information about laying out your garden and rotating crops. In many ways, winter planning is just as important and exciting as spring planting or summer harvesting.

Finally, seed starting is a great way to jump start your gardening season and eventually is a money saver too, but in the beginning, perhaps not so much. You will need an area to start seeds that provides the right light and the right temperature, as well as being easy to get to to water. Assuming you have all this, most seed packets give good information on when to start seeds. Pay very close attention to required temperature and light requirements for germination. These items are crucial to success.

Hope next year's garden is better! It almost always is. :))

Seed starting via Winter Sowing is a great option for you or anyone who wants to start seed... relatively easy and the results are great.

see link for the GW winter sowing forum.

Additionally, there is a winter sowing.org site to look at!

Here is a link that might be useful: wintersowing

Before you decide starting things from seeds, please do some research, otherwise you may decide to stop gardening way before you can plant outside. Plants you starting need a lot of light - east-south window PLUS good amount of artificial lights. The planting soil is not just "seed starting mix" - this one gives you not more then a month of growing. You really need a good soil mix for good results, but you can't start seeds in it, so you will need to transplant into bigger post... The space that grown up plants will be taken and their height could be pretty big. Try to consider all these point before you buy and start your own seeds...

This post was edited by galinas on Sun, Oct 26, 14 at 6:57

Your questions are not unusual for first time gardeners.
During the winter months use the time for learning. The dea about covering your garden is an excellent idea.
Things to look into
1. What Zone are you in. This can be done on this site but verify it on the USDA site.
2. Once you know your zone you can determine what grows best in your area. An excellent sourse is the ''Farmer's Almanac'' There you can put in your zone and it will filter the results, Each result ie tomatoes will tell you when to plant, sowing vs transplanting, ph requirements etc,
3. one you have determined what you want to plant, you can also find instructional videos online. All are free,
4. any equipment you are thinking you may need the winter months are the time to buy them. The only suggestion I can give you on that is if you plan on buying a tillar make sure it has reverse, You will appreciate it later.
5. Go to your local feed store and ask them what grows well in the area. They will also have plenty of seeds, but do line 2 first.
6, when fighting pest you need to decide if you want to go organic or non organic. Assuming you want to go orgainic for example. There are a number of way to fight the critters attacking your squash, Wrapping the stem with old panty hose for instance will keep away the squash bores. 1 tablespoon of REGULAR Dawn soap ( notice the word Regular) mixed with 1 qt water in a spray bottle will kill the squash Beatles and the eggs they lay. Early detection is important. you have to spray the Beatles and the eggs. You dont want to transplant the Beatles to another location because they will come back. They make excellent fish bait by the way.
7. Have fun and don't get discouraged.

some great info already posted. I second Fedco Seeds as a great source. I also like Johnny's and Baker Creek. Keep your eyes and ears open for a group that is placing a group order to Fedco which offers group discounts. I went to a local lecture on gardening and joined their group order. One of my mistakes is trying to grow too many different things and not giving all of them enough attention so winter squash gets planted late and tomatoes don't get mulched. One of the things I enjoy about gardening is the fun of having an early crop. We like parsnips so they stay in the ground all winter until the ground thaws. Spinach can winter over here in NH so it starts growing very early (old leaves will die over winter but the plants aren't dead). There's garlic scapes in late June from hard neck garlic I plant in late October/early November.

Also check Craigslist for some local plant sellers. I get a great choice of locally grown veggie plants from a seller who lets people buy one each of different varieties so I can get 12 different tomato plants.

You might find a local gardening group on meetup dot com that holds plant and/or seed swaps.

I start some plants indoors so my husband made an indoor plant stand with fluorescent lights hanging on adjustable chains. I still make lots of mistakes. Go easy on yourself.

It's really nice to find some favorite vegetables you can't buy at the supermarket although maybe you can find at a local farmers market. Just bought an unusual squash at a VT farmers market and will order seed if we like the flavor.