When should I start vegetable and flower seeds for spring planting? Should I use lights or is putting them in a windowsill all right?

First you will need to determine the average date of the last frost in your area. You may find this information by calling your county cooperative extension office or by talking to others that garden in your area. Talking to others is always a good idea because frost dates can vary by a few days, even within counties. Generally, the seed packet will give you information about how many weeks before the last frost date you should start your seeds. You simply subtract that number of weeks from your particular last frost date and you will have the date that you should start the seeds. If you do not have a seed packet, you can look up various kinds of seeds at the Web site below to find this information. As to the lights vs. windowsills, my preference is lights. There are many opinions about lights, but I have had perfectly satisfactory results using inexpensive shop lights with regular fluorescent bulbs. You can certainly try more expensive grow lights. I have tried them and haven’t noticed a difference that would justify the added cost for the purpose of starting seeds. Seeds can, of course, be started on the windowsill, but with more variable results. The seedlings may be a little leggy if they do not receive enough sunlight, thus not producing the strong, healthy seedlings you would get with electric lights. For more reading about starting seeds, try the following Web sites: The “Weekend Gardener” is an interesting Web site that includes start times for various flowers and vegetables www.chestnut-sw.com/seedhp.htm. This site is primarily a link site, so if you would like to read on, you can connect to several other sites. There is also an informative article about starting annuals at http://www.penpages.psu.edu/penpages_reference/29401/2940110.html