Prepping: Continued

Aaron and I braved the cold/rain yesterday to work on sifting grass roots from the newly turned garden space. This is definitely the most labor-intensive aspect of setting up an urban garden (don't get discouraged now!). Luckily we have relatively good soil to work with (i.e. very few rocks and no major roots from the nearby hedges). We still need to sift about half of the new area, which will have to wait until more amicable weather presents itself. Here are some pictures of vegetable seedlings we have under way:


Seeds-eye view of brocolli (left) and tomatoes
(at right) planted 3/5/09



The seedling station in our basement. Seedlings are fragile so it's important to keep them warm (70 degrees or so) and under plenty of light. Seeds germinate best at the same temperature. Our lights are kept on 18 hours a day. At left is my GlowPanel 45, an LED grow light that uses only 45 watts and seems to be giving the plants just the right spectrum they need. The fixtures to the right are compact fluorescent bulbs rated 5000K (2 at 13 watts and 1 at 30 watts). Underneath the table is a two bulb (40 watts each) T-12 shop light fixture with regular cool white bulbs. As long as your lights don't produce too much heat, you'll want to keep them as close to the plants as possible (usually within 6 inches or so) to prevent them from becoming spindly. If you're planning on starting an outdoor garden this year, it's not too late to start planting seeds indoors. Carpe Diem.