One sure way to brighten up the remaining winter days is to start flower and vegetable seedlings for beauty and delicious eating later this year. Some garden plants need a long season to complete their growth; others produce a much earlier crop if they are started indoors or in a coldframe. Enough seedlings for a good-sized garden can be started on a south-facing window sill.

By starting your own seedlings, you can have the varieties you prefer at just the right time. For good growth indoors, you need to mimic the outdoor conditions in the garden a month or two later. This implies warmer soil and perhaps extra light.

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, onions, leeks and celery are some of the vegetables which are frequently started indoors. Tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants are frost-sensitive and need a long period of growth before they produce. Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli like to complete their growth before the weather gets too hot, but they would grow very slowly here in Connecticut, if they were outside in March and early April. Onions and leeks also need a long season and must complete most of their vertical growth before the summer solstice, when the storage bulb begins to swell.

We'll start seedlings of onions, leeks, Brussels sprouts, celery and slow-growing herbs very soon. In early March, it's time to plant lettuce, pepper, broccoli, cabbage and parsley seeds. Toward the end of next month, tomatoes, basil as well as more lettuce and peppers can be started.

Lettuce needs about a month's growth before it can be set out in early April; broccoli and cabbage need 4-to-6 weeks growth before going outside in late April. The heat-loving Solanaceous plants - tomatoes, peppers and eggplants-need two months inside before they are transplanted outdoors in mid-to-late May, after the last frost.

Timing, growing medium, light, water, temperature, and spacing are all important considerations when we start seedlings. Vegetable plants like to grow steadily from the time the radicle emerges, until the well-formed transplant is set out. Attention to all of the variables is essential for good results.

We use our best compost for starting seedlings. Although a few weeds may germinate too, we believe the life in the compost is valuable for growing sturdy plants. If the compost needed more air, vermiculite or perlite could be added. Other growers suggest using a soil-less growing mixture to provide a medium free from weeds and soil-borne diseases. After the plants are growing well, I recommend feeding them with an organic seaweed mix.

Recycled plastic containers, or milk cartons with holes in the bottom make good seedling pots. Larger containers store more water and nutrients and allow ample room for roots. We've found that seedlings in "peat pots" or small styrofoam cells tend to dry out too quickly.

Optimum soil temperature for germinating most vegetable seeds is between 65 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit, with a cooler air temperature. Too much heat (especially in dry, centrally-heated homes) causes the plants to lose water more quickly. We slip a plastic bag over the flats to keep the seeds moist until they germinate.

Be careful not to overwater. Too much water can cut off the air supply to the roots and weaken the plants. It also encourages a destructive fungus disease called "damping off."

Once they have emerged, the tiny plants need plenty of light. With too little light or light from one side only, the seedlings will grow tall and leggy, and bend toward the light. In a south-facing window, in may be necessary to turn the plants regularly, or to use an overhead grow light or a reflector in order to produce straight, sturdy transplants.

Crowded plants will be stunted. Provide enough room for spreading roots by transplanting seedlings to larger containers or by thinning them. This facilitates better air circulation, too.

The plants that start out on a square foot or two of windowsill in February and March will fill 10-to-20 square feet in a cold frame in late April. By summer, they'll occupy several hundred square feet in the garden and produce hundreds of pounds of delicious, nourishing food.

Now that's productivity!

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