Mary, sometimes you'll find people selling transplants at Farmer's Markets and swap meets for less than the box stores are charging. I'm down in Sarasota, but I'm sure there are similar sources near you, too. Is there a Red Barn market near you?
But . . I got a 9 cell pack of broccoli at Home Depot for $3.95 so I didn't think that was too bad. What really gets me is the cost of the potting soil to fill up my Earth Boxes. I'm being frugal and only refreshing the top part of the soil in some of mine this year, to see if that works ok.
It's probably not to late to start your warm-season seeds like tomatoes and peppers though. Last 'dependable' frost date here is usually around the end of February, so they should be a nice size to transplant by then. I've got some on the go for my local school garden right now. I'm also still 'staging' the broccoli transplants so I don't get all 9 plants flowering in the same week.
We'll be planting snap peas at the school garden this week, too. It's not bad timing for some of the fast cool-season stuff like spinach or kale, either.
