Hi Sunny and welcome. The best place to start is by reading all the FAQs here that cover all the basic information. Growing from Seed FAQs

Then we need to know exactly which vegetables you are going to do as all have different requirements and timing. Many vegetable seeds are planted directly in the garden and others need to be started 6-10 weeks indoors before planting outside.

<I usually buy the baby plants, but have heard they aren't as healthy as growing from seed>

That's not necessarily true. It all depends on where you buy your plants. Since most for-sale transplants are grown by professional growers they are often much more healthy than anything you can start at home unless you invest in the necessary equipment for doing it right. The big advantage to growing your own from seed is the bigger selection of varieties and the fun, not the health of the plants.

As for free seeds, check out the Exchanges forum here at GW and Wintersown Project

Hope this helps get you started.

Dave

I've read recently that Trudi at Wintersown has had to discontinue her free to individuals tomato seeds project. Someone linked the offer in a magazine article and the results overwhelmed....

The requests and mail became an unmanageable burden. Offer is now void after many years.

http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/Your_Choice_Tomato_SASE.html

Appreciate the welcome. I will probably just continue to buy the starter tomato plants then. Do you know what I can spray pests with? I don't like using chemicals. I may as well buy my veggies from the store if I'm gonna do that.

Thanks morz for letting me know that. Haven't talked to Trudi lately so didn't know things have changed.

Sunny - not sure what I said that changed your mind but the choice is yours. If tomatoes is all you are interested in then there are some good tomato varieties available as transplants, both hybrid and heirloom. You just have to live with the limited selection available.

Spraying for pests is a whole different issue and best discussed on the relevant forums. For tomatoes that would be the Growing Tomatoes forum. For other plants, the Vegetable Gardening forum here.

Pests are very plant specific so no such thing exists that covers all things. Nor should it. Since the vast majority of bugs in a garden are beneficial insects, broad-spectrum pesticides kill far more beneficial insects than bad guys. So the first rule of effective pest control is first you ID the exact pest problem and then you use the least toxic control developed for that specific pest.

Rather than using the term "chemicals" which is far too broad a label since many of the organic controls are also chemicals, indicate your preference for organic controls rather than synthetic or man-made controls.

The Organic Gardening forum here has lots of info on this point.

Dave