Tanya: Good for you! I'm sure you'll get addicted soon. That's how I got started and now it's just a year later and already I'm salivating at the thought of planting things in the garden.

I found cosmos the easiest to direct sow outdoors. I bought a dozen packets of seeds last year (which all said to direct sow) and only the cosmos came up. This year I tried the Winter Sowing method and have lots of sprouts.

Indoors, I planted a bunch of seeds several weeks ago. Almost everything indoors has sprouted: zinnia, bachelor's button, cosmos, petunia, 4 o'clocks, tomatoes, lavendar, cleome, and cypress vine.

It's a little too late to start winter sowing. But you can still start seeds indoors. Or just sprinkle some seeds in the garden outside.

Good luck and have fun!

Tracy

Here is a link that might be useful: My website

Hi Tanya,
Welcome to the wonderful world of gardening and this forum.Cleome , zinnia, alysum(basket of gold), nasturtium, marigolds, batchelor buttons and dianthus are some of the ones that come to mind.
Remember to look for plants hardy to your zone.Also, if it comes back each year it is a perennial.Some annuals will reseed and come back, others you will have to restart every year from seed.Biennials are just green the first year , bloom the next year then die but may reseed for future blooms.I would highly recommend the Winter Sowing forum on Garden Web, not much help for this summer but it will give you a good head start for next years plants.
Also you might find it helpful to shop the garden club plant sales in your area. The plants are usually grown by the garden club members and are usually healthy and inexpensive. You have a good chance of getting unique plants for a very reasonable price, and the profit usually goes back to the community.And last and very important, if there is going to be an Upstate NY forum plant swap in your area try to attend. Even if you have no plants to exchange you will learn a lot and probably someone will have extras to give you . Good luck and please keep us posted.

Here is a link that might be useful: Our pond and gardens

Greetings! You want easy? SUNFLOWERS!! Annual Helianthus can be really fun, and is a great way to try out your gardening skills. Sunflowers can be short (Teddy Bears) or very tall (Mammoth), Red (Chianti hybrid), White (Italian White), or Yellow. Many multicolored varieties exist. Transplant the seeds when they produce the second set of leaves (actually, these are the first TRUE leaves). Leave the flower heads on after the blooms fade to ripen the seeds, and attract Goldfinches, Chickadees and other Birds.

Other plants I usually grow from seed include Zinnia, Tithonia, Centaurea, and Cleome. All these attract Hummingbirds and Butterflies. My reason for being...

MattV.

I wintersowed the Chianti hybrid sunflowers this year and they were up in 7 days. They have been in the ground for a week now. Sunflowers are also very good candidates for direct spring sowing along with garden balsam, 4 o'clocks, snapdragons and marigolds. For climbers try cypress vine, cardinal climber, Hyacinth bean vine, scarlet runner bean, Mina lobata and morning glories. Before I learned about wintersowing I did all these from seed in the spring.

Penny

Penny