The weather is still cold, gross, and snowing, but according to the seed packets it's time to get some of these little guys started. After doing some Googling to find my average last frost date and getting rather frustrated with the vague and shady looking results, I found this site from the awesome folks over at NOAA. The information is very detailed and localized. Anyway, I determined that May 15 is the average last frost date that I will use for where I am in Old Orchard Beach, Maine. It's time to start the seeds that need 8 or more weeks before the last frost date. I'm planning on starting a mix of vegetables and annual flower seeds. I'm interested in growing veggies to get more fresh produce in my diet. The flowers will be used in a couple of areas of the yard: some will go in the veggie beds to attract pollinators and repel pests, while others will be used in some of the flower beds that I'm working to establish. My goal with these flower beds is to have them mostly perennials, but those are expensive and take time to establish, especially from seed. So the annual flowers will help fill in the gaps and provide some beautiful colors while I'm waiting for the perennials to spread and establish.