What kind of seeds can you grow in the winter and how do you do it? This is my first year to have a garden. I have lettuce, broccoli and patio tomatoes started in my living room under plant lights.

Vivian there is a Winter Sowing Forum on GW that will help you a bunch. Their is also a a site at wintersown.org that you can use. You can WS just about any flowers or veggies that you can think of. I use 2 and 3 liter soft drink bottles, 5 lb. butter tubs and 1 quart Gatorade jugs. For the bottles and jugs, I cut them off about a third of the way down; poke a generous amount of holes in the bottom; fill about 6" deep with potting soil; sow the seeds; sprinkle a little bit of water on them; duct tape the tops back on and let 'er rip! For the tubs you follow the same process except you cut the center out of the lid and cover it with clear film (Saran Wrap). The cold weather will harder off the seeds and make them hardier than they would normally be. They will sprout when they know they are supposed to and the jugs act like mini-greenhouses so the condensation will keep them watered. Not everything will come up and not everything will make it to the transplanting stage but it's more of less idiot-proof other than that. A lot of us start to WS in the late Fall or early Winter but you can still do it now. Try a few packs of seeds and see how it goes.

Vivian,
I am far from an expert on the subject since this is my first time but I have started seeds inside before and so far I have to say this way is much easier. The biggest problem I have is in knowing when to stop. Inside you only have limited space to set flats of seeds, outside you can keep going until you use up your entire yard! As bigorange said, the Winter Sowing forum here on gardenweb will be a big help to you if you want to check it out. I'll try to post a link to the other website also. I am using gallon milk jugs for some things, gallon ziploc bags for others, and 1 plastic bucket I begged for at the bakery at Wal-mart. You can use just about anything as long as it is deep enough to hold at least 4" of soil and allow headroom for the babies and lets in sunlight. I just found a sprout in another container today, a Dianthus firewitch. This is such a fun way to play in the dirt in winter when you can't do much else. And since most people use recycled containers it is a cheap hobby, no electricity or special equipment needed. If you try it I think you'll be hooked.

Here is a link that might be useful: winter sowing basics

Thanks for all the infomation and that great link about winter sowing basics. That sounds like a lot of fun.