Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Lights and More Seeds


Ah, yes, J comes through again.  He built me these fabulous shelves for my seed starting.  There are 3 levels each about 20x30.  The shelves stack, so that I can move them relatively easily.  They are each electrified separately as well.  I can't believe how much space I now have to start my babies!    For the past few years I've been using 2 elevated grow lights, each about 30 inches long.  You should have seen the tin foil contraptions I made to try to grow more seedlings under my very small light space.  These will now be my back ups.  If I run out of space here, those will be put into use.  Since I had J put 2 lights on each shelf, everything will get plenty of light.

As you can see they are in my school room.  This is wonderful for a few reasons.  It is right off my kitchen, which is where I do all my seed sowing.  It is also right off my deck, which is where I do all my hardening off.  The room is full of windows as well, so that should help to further supplement the light for the seedlings.  It is warmer than the basement by a good 10 degrees as well.  Finally there is a good amount of traffic here, so the movement should be good for toughening up those baby plants.  It is certainly not what one expects to see in a school room, but it works for me and that is all that matters.  My house will never make it into House Beautiful.  (is that still a magazine?) 



I also received my seed order from Pinetree, which is actually the bulk of my order this year.  I'm a little sad, because my Cascadia peas were out of stock.  Hopefully they'll be here before March, so that I can get them into the ground.  I may be scrambling for a replacement though.  The last order to arrive will be Fedco.   My onion seeds are in that one.  Those will be the first things to be sown, as soon as they get here.

I'm in the process of a major reorganization project in the house right now.   I'm trying to get that finished in the next week, so that I can concentrate on the spring projects later.  I'll post pictures of what I'm doing when it's finished.  My friend S and I had a lovely field trip to Ikea for the project.  She is a wonderful help with all things shopping and organizing.  For those of us who are shopping phobic, it's nice to have some help sometimes. 

8 comments:

Daphne Gould said...

I got my main seed order yesterday. I'll have to post about it soon and get up my lights. So many things to do.

Karen Sue said...

Are these special lights for growing or just flourescent bulbs?

kiwi gomes said...

Sweet! H did a nice job! I can't wait to start either!!! It's so wierd, I just did 2 blogs today - the one I published and the one on building and getting ready for my seedlings!!! Glad to hear more seeds have arrived ;)

The Mom said...

Daphne, the list gets longer everyday.

Karen Sue, they are just flourescent bulbs.

Kiwi, he always does a great job. Be careful of the blogging, it can get addictive too! I'll try to remember some of the seeds tomorrow.

kitsapFG said...

Great set up! He's a "keeper" for sure for doing such a great job of building that for you.

On the Cascadia Sugar Snap Peas...I have saved seed this past year and happen to have more than enough to share with you. Dont' purchase any - just send me your mailing address info by email and I will get a package on it's way to you promptly. You can email me at lslyon@hotmail.com.

The Mom said...

Kitsap, thank you so much for the offer, email has been sent.

kitsapFG said...

The packet of seeds is packaged up and I will pop it into the mail today.

The Mom said...

Kitsap, thank you!