Gardening - Question on starting seeds

Get on a gardening forum. I've joined several, but THIS is the one I keep reading and posting with.
TheEasyGarden - Gardening Forum
There, I am "ducks4you."
You should soak your seeds overnight before planting. Those that sink are variable. If they are floating the next morning, they won't grow. If you are using cheap seed packets they could be 3 years old. If so, soak for 3-5 days for viability. Use seed starting medium, and buy a couple of those cheap, plastic greenhouses. Seeds need to be kept moist, or they'll sprout and die. There are very vulnerable as seedlings.
Most hardware stores, especially have these things one sale in February. Look for the best buys on the last full week of the month.
I'm in zones 5b-6a.

Hey there RunSlideStop

I just found a website with a really nice set of hyperlinks called the "100 best links 4 everything home and garden", and so I thought I would share it as it has everything in the list. The links are very well organized so things are really easy to find. There is a link in there about gardening "at altitude" that I noticed, and there may be more I didn't see.

In any case, in the Garden sections there are some good connections for authority sites on plant varieties, when to plant for your city or region etc., Major Farming University or College hyperlinks, "the plant data base" along with ideas for different kinds of farming methods, in conjunction with what is best to cultivate for each of the UNITED STATES regions.

Hopefully several links will cover your questions in great detail. I hope this will help.

Wonderful information, all! We really appreciate it!

Talked to some friends yesterday who have lived here for 6 years now and they say we can get snow in April or May even, just when we thought we were in the clear!

We plan to grow in raised beds that (until all frost threats are gone) will also be a cold frame/greenhouse type deal. Hoping this will give us a chance to have better soil content, less variation in temperature changes, and more accessability!

Should we start our seeds indoors or direct sow into our cold frame? Seems giving them a chance to get cozy and germinate inside will give them a better chance - then working up to spending more time outside, coinciding with rising temps. All the plants we want to grow can fair just fine outside all day at our current temps, but nights are still sporadically getting below 30F.

Thoughts? This is our first time gardening. I took a horticulture class ages ago during the spring in a very fancy greenhouse, so never really had these thoughts/questions about frost, etc. This was also in a state 2,000+ miles away!

Thanks all.