I want to grow some things from seed this year. What do I need?

[Murtette]

A combination of having lovely wide window sills in my porch, only working part time & having a 2yr who would love to "help" means that I want to grow some things from seed this year. At this stage, I'm just thinking of a few things like sweet peas. Despite having done this every year myself as a child, I've completely forgotten what I need. Seeds obviously! & compost. Some sort of wide tray to put them all in to start with? And then do I prick them out & transfer them into small pots? Can little yogurt/fromage frais pots be used for that.
What have I forgotten/got completely wrong?

Seeds, multi purpose compost, and some kind of container to put them in about covers it! Recycled yoghurt pots or the like are ideal, just remember to poke some holes in the bottom for excess water to drain out.

Maybe you might want some saucers (proper plant saucers - or charity shop small plates!) to stand your pots on on the window sill to keep things clean?

If you are going to be sowing lots of seeds, it might be worth investing in a paper potter (available on Amazon) to make little pots out of newspaper.

If you're raiding charity shops for little plates (I use cut glass dishes - you can get them in charity shops for about 50p each) also get an old fork and spoon, as they are much handier for transplanting seedlings than proper gardening tools, which are too big.

The main thing you need (and the reason I usually fail with seeds) is to Be Organised! Leave them a few days too long before repotting and they go all lanky and keel over .

Oh, and you need Plenty of Space for the explosion of little pots.

Yes, StopRainingPlease has the best advice of all!

DS is made to make newspaper pots using an aerosol can.

Don't start tender things off too early or you will run out of space when they turn into triffids and take over the house.

If tomatoes go leggy you can plant them to their leaves in a pot and they will grow new roots from the buried part of the stem.

Always label them as you will forget what they are. Chop up a milk bottle to make labels and use permanent marker.

Clear plastic tomato etc punnets can act as mini propagator lids.

Warning, it can be horribly addictive and your windowsills in spring will never be the same.

Ooh. Can you give us instructions for the paper pot making without the paper potter, WynkenBlynkenandNod?

Maud. Great usage of bored children.

I thought this looked like a good idea for strawberries, though haven't actually tried it yet.

Forgot the inside of loo rolls for things like sweetcorn, peas, broadbeans. Fill with compost using cut off end of milk bottle as funnel. Tie a few together with string and stand in old ice-cream container. Plant entire loo roll out when ready so don't need to faff and disturb roots.

Thanks! And to think I paid a tenner for the paper potter which dh has now mislaid. Grr.

I don't usually do the loo roll thing for sweet peas as I bought some root trainers a few years ago and they're still going strong (although I've had to replace a few of the inserts as they become brittle and split after a while).