Start Your Seeds!

It is that time of year again!  The snow may still be thick on the ground (well, at least until this weekend's warmer temperatures arrive), but inside, the lights are up, the peat pellets are soaked, and seeds are getting ready to shake themselves awake.

After the past couple of years struggling with a set up that either was too humid (causing mold issues) or too dark (not enough light from teeny fluorescent strips), I think I may have hit on the next greatest solution:

Two inexpensive greenhouse racks (roughly $22 each, but one I had already so I just had to buy the other), four inexpensive 4-foot plug in shop lights (about $10 each), and eight "daylight" bulbs (on sale for $6 per two pack--waaaaay less expensive than the fancy grow-light bulbs, which were on sale for $9.95 per bulb, sold individually), and one surge strip with built in timer ($15).  So that's just around one hundred bucks spent to make what should be one heck of a grow station. 

As you can see from the picture, it is really bright.  The rest of my house is really dark, or so it would seem from this!  Once my little seeds start poking their heads above the soil, I'll turn on these bright lights and we'll see how fast things grow. 

I'll be planting onions first, followed by tomatoes and peppers in another couple of weeks.  After that, it will be some flowers, possibly some kale or lettuces that I want to have a jump start on, and just a month before I put them outside, my watermelon.

This will be the year I get watermelon.  I mean it.  It's either this year, or never again.

(I think I said that last year, too, but this year, I really mean it.)

My heart is so happy to have these little spring rituals to observe!  There is nothing quite like the scent of fresh growing things in the house, either.  It gives you hope that soon, the snow will melt and the ground will thaw and I can once again be up to my elbows in soft, warm dirt, spending the days in my lovely garden.