A Nursurey for Sprouting Seeds and Growing Seedlings

In an effort to grow plants more economically than last year when every vegetable I grew started in some advanced state, I have decided to grow everything from seed. I planted 3 different kinds of tomato seeds on the 19th and they began to sprout yesterday. It is cold and rainy outside, so I decided to continue growing them inside under some Fluorescent bulbs.

I build a rig to hold the florescent bulbs at a constant 3-4 inches above the plants with some chain from home depot, some wood I had left over from building the raised beds and fluorescent lights that were leftover from a remodel. As the plants get bigger, I can shorten the chain length.

I am going to plant carrots, broccoli and peas tonight.

I am planing on taking a time lapse or two of the tomato sprouts, I will post pictures if it turns out.

The Beds get Built

I have decided to start a vegetable garden in the backyard this year in raised beds. Yesterday I built 3 boxes of wood to fill with dirt and then plants. I setup my Nikon P7000 to take a picture every 30 seconds while I built.

The Build:
With the help of a friend's massive truck, I picked up 27 8ft Pine 2x6's and a 5lb box of 3 inch screws. I cut 9 of the 2x6's in half leaving me with 18 8 footers and 18 4 footers. I built my first box by screwing the 2 of each together and put it where I wanted my first bed. I then built 2 more on top of that one to use as templates for the other beds. Then I had to level the dirt so the beds would sit flat. The best way i found to do this was to set the box down in the dirt with a bubble level and using a shovel dig out dirt from underneath any high points. It was much easier than trying to eyeball it or level the whole area. After everything was level I built two more boxes on top of each of the 3 others.


The final exterior dimensions wound up being 99 inches long by 48 inches wide by 16.5 inches tall. The internal dimensions are 96 inches by 45 inches by 16.5 inches leaving a total of around 71,280 cubic inches or 41.25 cubic feet or 1.5 cubic yards.

By the way, 5lbs of screw was way too many, at least I have enough to build that deck I wasn't thinking of building.


Next Steps:
1. Buy Compost/dirt mix from Armstrong Garden Center.
2. Continue to start seeds inside.
3. Make brick paths between beds