Edible Garden Project: Planting from Seed

I really only began planting from seeds last year, when just for the heck of it I threw a bunch of chard seeds in a pot - and the we had chard from last fall through the whole winter. 

This year, I'm experimenting.

I've already planted two varieties of carrots, calendula, parsley, nasturtiums, and kale. With our glorious warm weather we've been having, I've picked up a couple of other seeds to experiment with. So in addition to our original planting list, we've now got seeds in the dirt Cinnamon Basil, Echinacea, Genovese Basil, Thai Basil, New Zealand Spinach, and Dill. 

We've now got all three raised beds in and built - and we're just waiting for the dirt to finish planting the third one. Since I'm not trying to be too technical about anything, I've planted the seeds directly in the beds or containers. Someday I'm sure I'll move more towards growing all my plants from seed and growing my own starters. But I'm just not there yet.

Do you plant from seed? Or from starters?