While I'm on the subject of techniques that I consider to be overhyped, I can't resist a post about winter sowing.  According to the official website, "Winter Sowing is done outdoors during Winter using mini-greenhouses made from recyclables; there are no heating devices, no energy wasting light set-ups or expensive seed starting devices."

Just take a container and turn it into a pot by poking a few holes in the bottom.  Then put in your soil, drop in some seeds, and cover the pot with a clear plastic lid doctored with a few slits.  The container acts like a mini greenhouse and germinates the seeds a few weeks before they would germinate if sown directly into the garden.

Winter sowing is basically a replacement for the easy-to-do-wrong method of starting your seedlings on a sunny windowsill or under grow lights.  Beginning gardeners often fall into a couple of traps when using the windowsill method, both of which result in leggy seedlings that transplant badly --- they usually can't get enough light to their plants, and they start the seedlings too early.  Damping off is another potential problem since moist potting soil tends to grow a nasty fungus that will kill your seedlings.  Then, when you bring your remaining seedlings outside to plant in the garden, they have a severe shock --- they're used to the climate-controlled conditions inside your house, so unless you slowly harden them off, many will die.

But while winter sowing is preferable to starting seeds inside, I think that a cold frame is even better.  Like winter sowing, it gives your seeds a few weeks' head start, but the cold frame provides more protection from freezing temperatures since the seedlings are in direct contact with the temperature-mitigating earth.  Your seedlings have more room to spread their roots through the soil, ensuring a healthy plant, and the permeable row cover fabric I use to cover the frames ensures that you don't have to water your seedlings or worry about them overheating.

Over the last few years, I've tried starting seeds both indoors under a grow light and outdoors in these cold frames and I've decided that the cold frame is preferable for lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and tomatoes.  On the other hand, peppers are just too tender --- they came up no sooner in a cold frame than when directly sowed in the ground, so I'm starting a few indoors this year.  Read my post about how to build a cold frame for a couple of dollars worth of screws and give it a shot --- I suspect you'll never go back to either windowsill starting or winter sowing.