My Little Seeds are Growing Up!

Actually, all my plants are pretty small still but I didn sucessfully grow sprouts and small seedlings from the seeds. This was the part of the gardening process that I was most concerned about since I've never started seeds indoors. The process went something like this...

1. Purchase from seed catalogue without noting that some plants would have to be started indoors in early spring.

2. Realize that some seeds would need to be started earlier and think "no big deal, I won't be very busy in March."

3. Take out a book on seed sprouting and read that seeds need a constant temperature of 68-74 Farenheit to sprout. Think, "holy crap! it's 55 degrees in our house!"

4. Attempt to devise a growing area that will provide the right heat, not pose too much of a fire hazard and be completely inaccessible to cats who have the amazing ability to jump up to 10 times their body length.

5. After much trial and error (space heater in the closet deemed to risky, discover cats can jump even further than I originally thought) I put together a system on the top of the refrigerator that combines a heating pad (used only at night) and three florescent lights to achieve the correct temperature.

Voila!


Overall I'm pretty pleased with my setup. I can't start too many seeds at a time, but I'm quickly getting through the broccoli and brussel sprouts that needed to be started in March, rotating them out to a spot by the window once the sprouts have become little plants. Soon I'll be able to begin rotating in tomato and lettuce seeds.

Also, greenhouse starter kits cost $50+ and this was altogether maybe $25, since I already had most of the equipment. And the heating pad can be used for things like raising bread dough and making yogurt.