I’ve been spending a fair amount of time leafing through the seed catalogs that began showing up in the mailbox a few days before Thanksgiving. I dutifully tossed them into a pile as they arrived, with the expectation that once the calendar turned to 2003 and I had a new gardening season clearly in my sights, the catalogs would make interesting reading.

In coming weeks I’ll be talking about what’s new in vegetable seeds and what’s not, as well as the best vegetables to grow from seed and how to develop a planting schedule for this spring. We may be scraping frost off our windshields in the morning, but the best-laid gardens are conceived this time of year.

For starters, however, I want to make a few observations about the massive amount of merchandise that catalogs market to gardeners who want to bypass the local greenhouse and start their own seeds. As the years have gone by, seed catalogs have been displaying more and more of this stuff, and for good reason.

The people who sell seeds have a vested interest in getting more people to grow their own transplants. Not only do they get to sell more seeds if people start their own plants, but the profit margin on the equipment for starting vegetable plants is much greater than on packets of seeds.

The seed companies are playing to an eager market. Starting your own transplants can be an enormously rewarding component of home gardening for several reasons. First, there’s that intangible that gardeners know so well — the satisfaction that we get from doing it all ourselves. We also get to jump-start the gardening season about six weeks before our neighbors are even putting in their spinach.

And finally, by starting our own seeds, we have the option of growing varieties of vegetables and herbs that aren’t available in local greenhouses.

What the catalog companies don’t tell you is that you don’t have to invest a small fortune to grow your own starts.

If money were no object, you could easily spend $1,000 on a multi-shelved light stand with thermometers, heated propagation mats and a timer for the lights. An impressive selection of such equipment is available from Harris Seeds, for example. Check out www.harrisseeds.com or call (800) 514-4441.

Most catalogs also peddle seed starter kits, and these also are available locally in garden supply stores. An upscale version of this setup is sold by Park Seeds for $19.95. Park Seeds can be found by clicking on www.parkseed.com or calling (800) 845-3369. This model has a “bio-dome,” which is a plastic cover with adjustable vents.

Let me cut to the chase, though, and point out that what these kits consist of is a basic seed flat and an assortment of transplant containers. This is the same stuff you carry out the door every time you buy transplants from a greenhouse. All you have to do is save the trays and wash them in bleach, in order to reuse them the following year.

As for the plastic dome covers, they’re really useful only during germination. You can achieve the same effect by covering the flat in a sheet of plastic wrap until the seeds sprout. The domes, when left on too long, create their own little biosphere, which makes rain. This keeps the soil too wet and can encourage mold. Moreover, once the starts grow to a height of two inches, they butt into the top of the dome.

An electric seed propagation mat is helpful to encourage germination, but isn’t necessary. The smaller ones generally start at about $39.95 and are available from many sources. I have one, but in years when I have started seeds, I have had no trouble germinating without a mat.

In short, if you’ve saved the plastic six-pack forms and seed flats from your greenhouse purchases, you will need to spend money on just two things: a bag of seed-starter potting soil and some shop lights. These two items are indispensable.

Seed-starter potting soil is disease-resistant and will help guard against damping off, a mysterious affliction of transplants that kills them quickly. Most mixes also have nutrients specifically for germinating seeds and establishing young plants.

Adequate lighting is essential to growing transplants, and it won’t be found on most windowsills. However, it’s not necessary to invest in actual grow lights. Instead, buy basic shop lights at the hardware store and fit each hood with one red fluorescent tube and one blue one. Two five-foot shop light hoods hung parallel to one another will give you enough lighted space for five full flats of transplants.

You’ll want to set up your lights in a warm, draft-free place. The height of the lights must be adjustable, because they must be positioned an inch or two above the transplants to keep them from becoming leggy as they grow. An easy way to do this is to attach rope to the shop lights and thread the rope through hooks in the ceiling. As the plants grow, simply cinch up the ropes.

This isn’t rocket science, and it doesn’t have to be a major investment. If you follow my lead, you easily can set up a transplant growing system for less than $50.