This all started because Bryant starts seeds in school and wanted to do a little larger project at home, so he tried to start sunflower seeds, and it did not work. They were, after all, roasted. Missing my 1200 sq ft garden I had at our previous house, and since I usually do at least a little gardening each year, I decided to start plants with Bryant instead of buying and potting livestock. Hillery got involved too.
So we got the indoor greenhouse started, a little bit late in the season, but we’ll still have something to show for it. After unsuccessfully growing vegetables in front of our apartment last year due to lack of sunlight, we decided to stick with all-shade and part-shade annual flowers to help make the front of our house look a little more cheery.
Hillery, Bryant, and I went to Walmart and got lighting, seed starter kits, and seeds. Lighting was a cheap 48″ shop strip light and two new plant spectrum grow bulbs which added up to about $ 20 total. More than sufficient light for starting seeds and also keeps the containers nice and warm. Seed starter kits were Jiffy self-expanding peat cartridges, 2 packs of 72 per pack, $ 11 total including trays with lids. Then we picked out several packs of seeds based on what they had there: impatiens, pansies, daisies, cosmos, bachelor buttons, and special just for Bryant – small sunfllowers. Total investment for 144 annuals: about $ 42.00, so we could have bought flats later instead, but this project is much more fun, and now we own the grow lights to boot!
Stay tuned for more updates later!
