It's always easiest to just buy the small plants and put them in. Certainly nothing wrong with that. I just get all excited when I can find bargains on stuff that makes my $gardening go further. If you get interested in seed packages at stores, start looking where you don't expect to find much...like at WalMart and at hardware stores, even at Walgreens, believe it or not, where it's all seasonal. I also shop for specialty items at my local FS. I'm considering buying ladybug larvae there this year. LAST year I missed buying sweet potato slips. They were the ONLY place in town that carried them, and the sold out in 4 days.
There is also a local gardening store, "Prairie Gardens." I usually don't shop there bc of their prices, but they do carry things others do not.
As for ME, I try to garden smarter every year. For some stupid reason I have never saved seed packages. All of the information you need is on them. Yesterday I grabbed an old, 3-ring binder, and a new package of filler paper and I stapled the packages of the seeds I intend to plant, so far, each on a separate page. I find that I can hand write notes better than computer log them--been there, done that, didn't work for me.
I already have a diagram of my many gardens on my property. I'm patting myself on the back for some of the biggest jobs that I'm sure my super-critical mother would never have thought me capable of, had I told her of them. Last year I removed 8 huge stumps, underground. Other jobs include creating an herb bed from a little round existing one, creating a rose bed, double-digging 4/8 raised beds 3 1/2" x 12 ', 30 inches deep, no less!!, planting 6 fruit trees, replanting my smaller horse pasture (3/4 acre) last Fall, and putting in the 2 beds that flank my front walk's steps--I dug and tilled those before planting geraniums, then replaced those with mums last Fall.
Some years you make great progress, some years you just get by.
