How to Start Seeds

This will be the third season I've attempted to grow plants from seed.  Last year I was able to get some nice results, but the first attempt was a total failure.  I think I've learned a few valuable lessons and I could qualify as knowing what I'm doing.  Of course, most of this is the same stuff you'd hear from Mike McGrath, but apparently I have to learn things the hard way.

1. Pick the right kinds of plants. 
• Some plants are easy to start from seed.  Some are more difficult, and some are just not going to work.  By doing some retroactive research, I've noticed a lot of herbs are not really good to start from seed.  Chives are super easy to grow but not usually from seed.  Rosemary seems to be better to propagate from cuttings.  
• If you just want one or two plants, just buy the plant at the nursery.  A packet of seeds is about $5, and a plant will cost about the same, maybe less.  I only have room to grow a maximum of 2 tomato plants, and if I grow a second plant, it's going to be a different variety.  Since I have a very limited amount of space for seed starting, it doesn't make a lot of sense to buy a pack of Tomato seeds, start a 6 pack or two and have that take up space for at least 8 weeks, and then only be able to actually grow one of them outside.  It would make a lot more sense to just go to a good nursery (not Lowe's or Home Depot) and get a tomato plant or two.  
• The plants that are worth growing from seed are plants where you want like, 6 or more.  For me, that's vegetables like lettuce, kale, arugula, Swiss chard, maybe radishes, and peas and beans.  For ornamentals, that's coleus, zinnia, morning glory and sunflower
• The bigger the seed, the easier it is to grow.  Examples: beans, sunflowers, nasturtiums
• Best Vegetables to Start From Seed
• Green Beans
• Peas
• Leaf Lettuce
• Head Lettues
• Kale
• Swiss Chard
• Best Flowers to Start From Seed
• Nasturtiums
• Sunflowers
• Morning Glory
• Zinnias
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2. Use a grow light.  
• In past years, I had tons of stupid little trays of seedlings on the floor in front of the glass doors, trying to grow them from the sunlight coming in the window.  As they sat there next to a window on the cold tile, a lot of things didn't germinate at all until it got warmer, and the things that did germinate didn't do so well.  I remember thinking, Oh great, they're getting so tall!  I didn't know at that point that I want my seedlings fat and happy.  
• I finally bought a grow light, which made me feel a little weird.  I was kind of worried I'd get put on some kind of a watch list for drug dealers.  I did this way out of phase, buying a light in like, August.  I used the built in shelving in the laundry room on the third floor and rigged up a very inelegant situation of a light hanging from some hooks shoved into the holes where you'd put the shelf holders.  This was great, I grew lots of greens like Swiss Chard and Bok Choy and then moved them to larger containers outside.  One of my neighbors commented on the ridiculous volume of plants on my patio with a mix of encouragement and concern.  She used the word "addiction" with a very serious tone.  The problem was that I'd gotten this amazing light at the wrong time.  I was using it only on these fast-germinating greens, so I was turning out plants faster than I could handle, and I couldn't really provide enough sun-filled space for all the seedlings I had.  I joked that I was the welfare mom of plants- I just kept making babies I wasn't able to care for. 
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3. Get real seed starting mix
• This wasn't really a tough lesson to learn.  I was never inclined to go outside, dig up some regular-ass dirt and bring it into my house.  Most of the early seed starting attempts were in the very early spring, when going outside wasn't that appealing.  And of course I'd just go buy a nice bag of soil. 
• The first time I tried this, I got one of those big trays with a ton of tine cells and a little pellet that should expand like crazy when you add water.  Those are ok, I guess, but they don't expand all that much why not just buy the right stuff to begin with. 
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4. Use good containers
• Those trays with all the cells and the little plastic cover are terrible.  They are so damn tiny!  They hold, like, a fluid ounce of soil.  I like the plastic cover, but once the seed germinates and grows for a little while, if everything goes well, it will be root bound within a week or 2.  Then they have to be transplanted, but they're so tiny and delicate they get totally destroyed in the process. 
• Peat pots are even worse.  They dry out like crazy.  The material pulls all the water out of the medium and then it evaporates instantaneously.  When I would go away for a week, everything died.  And these were usually too thick and tough to just plant the whole thing in the ground and expect the roots to break through.  
• I bought the plastic 6 pack trays from Burpee, and they've been great.  They have plenty of room, so I can just grow seeds in them for a month or two and they can develop plenty of roots, and they pop out easily.  They hold moisture well, but still drain, and they're very durable so I can reuse them over and over.  
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5. Start early
• A lot of things need to be started 2 months ahead of time.  You really can't decide you want to grow things from seed on April 1st and go to Home Depot and buy seeds for things you like.  I think it was around that time that I realized, if I could grow some of these annual flowers from seed, that would actually be very cost effective.  I was really interested in Coleus, but that needs to be started in February.  
• I was in Home Depot or someplace buying seeds, and there was a terrible couple arguing over what seeds to buy.  I think it was April.  They were trying to buy one of everything, pretty much.  I was kind of horrified by them, just because they were so awful to each other, but I wanted to jump in and tell them not to waste their money.  Maybe I should have.  Maybe this year I should just hang out near the seed section of hardware stores in the spring and intercede other well intentioned people. 
• Don't start more plants than you can handle.  Or, as E B White said, "Always count your chickens before they hatch."  He was actually talking about chickens, specifically, but I think the same lesson applies.  My proliferation of Bok Choy and Swiss Chard is an example of this. 
• This article from gardeners.com is the best overview of the timing of seeds that I've found: http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/when-to-start-your-seeds/5215.html