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Monday, March 26, 2018

New seed starting set-up

Last winter I came into possession of this:


It's an A/V cart from a local grade school. For over a year, I've been planning to make it into a seed-starting station, and couple weeks ago I finally did.

The cart is equipped with its own power strip and extension cord and is roughly two feet long on each side.


My plan is to be able to use the second and third shelves for trays of plants. To do that, D and I drilled holes through the top two shelves and attached 1 by 4 lumber to the undersides. Then I screwed little hooks into the lumber.


I bought four two-foot-long LED light fixtures, thinking I'd have two fixtures for each shelf. The light fixtures came with their own hanging cords, but they weren't long enough to get the lights close to the seedlings, so I added some chain extensions.


With the extensions, I can move the fixtures up and down as needed.


The cart can hold two seed trays on each shelf. I have a pretty small garden, so I may not need to use the bottom shelf for seedlings, but it's a great place for storage, too.


I now have one tray on the middle shelf with broccoli and pepper seedlings, and I planted some flower seeds yesterday in a second tray. It might be a good thing if I don't need the bottom shelf, because the light fixtures are pretty narrow, so I'm currently using two of them for each tray, instead of the one I originally planned.

At any rate, planting is underway, and I really like my new set-up. Maybe I'll remember to take pictures of it in use one of these days.

Sunday, March 18, 2018

Gardening season is back and so am I

After getting overwhelmed last year, and still having so many ideas and projects for the garden this year, I decided to make a task list. There's almost nothing I like better than to cross things off a list. It's still a little cold to get much done outside, but I have managed to complete a few tasks.

I wanted to add some compost to the raised beds this year, so last weekend I went to the garden center and bought 24 bags.


I bought three different varieties, so I had to do a little math to figure out how to divide them up.


I have to admit, I had some help getting them from the truck to the back yard. After that, though, it was all me.

One of the varieties I bought was mushroom compost. It had more worms in it than I've ever seen in a bag of compost.


It's not much to look at, but I know how much work went into this:


After a week of cold, wet weather, I was able to get back out there this weekend, and I broadforked the four smaller beds.


You certainly don't need a gym membership if you're going to haul compost and wield a broadfork.