Gather your supplies

Our story begins with a random whim to have a vegetable garden. Each year I've wanted something really bad and absolutely *had* to have it. Last year it was a fish pond, of which 5 of 6 fish are still alive and well. This year it happened to be vegetables.
I begged my parents to take me to home depot and buy me some seeds and things to get started on gardening. After about a week of asking, they did.

This is what I ended up purchasing from my local Home Depot. If you can't see the picture, I bought bell peppers, sunflower seeds, chives, basil, and a package of heirloom vegetables. The packet included green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, and carrots. Heirloom veggies means you can take seeds from this years crop and use them for next year.
In addition to buying the seeds, I also bought a starters kit, which was about 20 dollars. It includes everything, and I mean everything you need to start. All you need is seeds and water. The kit includes some wooden lables, but I decided to get some plastic lables as well.
As seen in the picture, there are also two plants. These are two tomato plants, which have been doing very well in my front window. [I decided to see which produced more, the seeds or the established plants.]
It is important to know that you must plant the seeds several weeks before the last frost. Fortunately for me, down in southeast Texas, are getting a blast of cold air with the potential for snow, so I didn't plant these *too* late.