But wait, please, restrain yourself! It's too early to start those kinds of seeds. Unless you want crummy little spindly light-starved seedlings which are not a joy to see (or plant) come March when there is still snow on the ground, which I sincerely doubt.
Don't take my word for it - calibrate yourself with Shepherd Seeds handy dandy Timing and Temperature Chart for numerous commonly started seeds. Use it to figure out when you really should start those.
And when it is finally time, produce some good-looking healthy seedlings using the copious information from Shepherds and these detailed Seed Starting Tips from Gardeners' Supply -- excellent information with the minor exception that they seem to think a packet of seeds costs only "about a dollar". Hellloooo???
But in the meantime, you may plaintively ask as you twiddle your thumbs and flip wanly through the glossies, what's a poor gardener to do with a refrigerator?
The answer is simple: Put some dirt in it!
Certain seeds need prechilling (a cold stratification period) before they will germinate. This group includes many great perennials, wild flowers,trees and shrubs. Some require as long as six weeks or even several months of it, so this is the perfect time to start them. And the refrigerator is the perfect place to do it.
Antsy gardeners find great satisfaction in deliberating over the fresh new seed packages, deciding on the containers, gently moistening the medium, tenderly strewing and wrapping the seeds, labeling each batch, recording the date on the calendar and in the journal and of course, finding room in the refrigerator to keep them all for the requisite amount(s) of time.
After that fine and painstaking ritual, the most fun of all is the weekly look-see to find out if anything has happened yet. Besides insatiable curiosity and unbounded eagerness, there is another valid reason to open up the little packets every week. Air circulation is actually a good thing for the chilling seeds.
If you've never done this, it's fun and it's easy. Here's a hands-on how-to overview: Starting Seeds That Need Cold. For a little more about prescribed methods of apparent seed-abuse, see this thumb-nail description of cold stratification along with two more seemingly harsh
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