There are multiple ways to plant seeds. They can be germinated indoors with grow lights, hardened off and planted in your outdoor garden. You can directly seed them outdoors, grown them hydroponically (in water only), or about any way you choose.
For most of the school and afterschool gardens I have helped create, we have worked on the idea of creating a scientific variable for the garden. That means we have a control plot of a raised or sunken bed with enhanced soil. We enhance the soil with fertilizer, organic matter of compost and/or horse or chicken manure, and then sift the soil to get any rocks out. To determine how much fertilizer to use, we purchase a soil testing kit from the local gardening center and follow those directions.
For directions on making a sunken bed garden, see this video we made in 2009; http://extension.arizona.edu/4h/content/video/sunken-bed-gardening
The variable we use for our gardens becomes our straw bale gardening beds. Yup, straw bales are used as garden beds. The idea is simple. Arizona has poor, rocky soil. It requires a huge amount of digging, tilling, and soil enhancement to grow anything. There are lots of weeds in a traditional garden that require quite a bit of bending. By using straw bales, you can just place the straw bales on the ground, treat them with a fertilizer solution to increase decomposition, plant seeds or bedding plants, water, there are few weeds, and you can even garden from a folding chair so folks in wheelchairs or with back problems can easily enjoy gardening.
For directions on preparing a straw bale garden, see this video; http://extension.arizona.edu/4h/content/video/straw-bale-gardening
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