Starting Plants indoors? Also, Moonflower growing tip - and Morning Glory info and Gathering for Gardening

 I am not a professional gardener by any means. However, I have had a great deal of luck with shade gardens (will try to get up some photos sometime, still a bit early in the year now) and I always like to have a combination of Moonflowers and Morning Glory plants twining around my mailbox. As for starting plants indoors, I'd like to know when I should do that for Zone 4-5. Also, how do you keep any critters (mice) from eating the seeds? I don't think we have mice but one year, a cat discovered an industrious one in our house trying to dig up my seeds! My living room curtains were nearly shredded as the mouse ran up them and so did the cat. I had to replace the curtains and it was a HUGE MESS in that living room - dirt-covered cat, dead mouse and ruined plants. The next night a bat got in the house and we had even MORE fun. Ack!

Here's why I grow both Morning Glory and Moonflower plants around my mailbox: As many of you gardeners out there know, Morning Glory plants open in the morning and Moonflowers open at night. This way, I have the joy of having something blooming nearly all day long and there is usualy a brief overlap if I am up early enough to catch it, in the morning, where both types of flowers are open for a bit.

Here is my moonflower tip: I gently crack the shells and soak them overnight. After that, getting them to grow is simple. The tough, outer shell of moonflowers is really the only obstacle. I have tried simply soaking them but have to say that a slight crack in the outer shell first gives me more plants. Of course, with moonflowers you only need one vigorous plant for a mailbox and even that can be too large or hard to control. You also have to make sure moonflowers and morning glories don't choke one another, just takes some watching and managing now and then.