Seed-starting project

An idea has been rolling around in my brain for the last several days... and idea for a project.

Because can you ever have too many house-related projects? Evidently, I am on the road to find out :)

In our basement, we have a "furnace room" which is basically a 9x14 room that has our furnace in it, our hot water heater, but also- some awesome shelves.
Here's a wonderfully accurate drawing of what that room looks like: -------->

Those shelves on the right hand side are built right along the wall. They're probably 8ft across and a total of 6 feet high, and I believe (describing from memory here) that there are either 4 of 5 shelves total.






 Here's what they look like(ish):
                                               

What I am hoping to do next year is........

make a seed-starting area on these shelves!

I've been researching indoor seed-starting to see what I would need, and I think these shelves might be perfect! Individually, they seem to be about a foot apart, and that might be far enough apart for certain types of plants if I rigged some florescent light bulbs under the shelves.

Then I could just buy (or save) seeds next year and start things in my basement! When the seeds have developed into little plants, I could transfer them out into my beds, under a cold frame, and I could have lettuce and other cold weather crops a lot earlier!

Here's a useful tutorial on About.com re: Seed Starting 

First raised-bed planting!

Today I picked up my seeds/plants, and planted:

• Red and yellow onions,
• Red and green leaf lettuce as well as a bit of arugula, etc.
• Allstar strawberries
• Ozark beauty strawberries
• Russett potatoes
• Red pontiac potatoes
• Garlic
• a Glacier tomato plant

as well as some sweet basil plants (in a separate planter)

here's a before picture:

lettuce:

strawberries:

garden!!!:

I still have to plant:

• carrots
• tomatoes
• zucchini
• cucumbers

and I have no idea where those things are fitting lol :)

I think I might be adding another little bed somewhere!

YES!

Look what I came home to today:

Finally!!!!!

 

We burned the 8pm oil a little bit, but we got it done by the light of the motion-sensor! It will probably rain tonight and then we'll have to put a bit more in. But we did end up with a bit extra- hopefully enough to fill the cinder blocks with so I can plant my Marigolds soon :) Mike was really helpful and patient, even through my uncontrollable impatience and perfectionism. So thank you, love.


I have some onion sets to plant and I need to go pick up the rest of my cold weather transplants this weekend! Woohoo!!

I little bit of progress can go a long way for your self-esteem :)

Springy pictures from our yard