Growing Seeds on a Shelf in the Garage!

I love plants- flowers, trees, shrubs, bushes, herbs, you name it!  They are so darn expensive though.  Seeds, on the other hand?  Not no much...  Granted, you run into a likely higher mortality rate, but the odds overall are with you.  When your seed packet comes with anywhere from 15-hundreds of the little guys, you can afford to have some that never sprout, some that dye off somewhere between sprouting and planting, and you don't even feel quite as bad maybe if they don't make it once you've transplanted them (hopefully many of them DO make it, of course!).

So, in my own spontaneity, I pulled out Country Living Magazine's article on growing seeds, and started ordering!  My plan was to order 2 seed trays (50 cells each), the water trays to go underneath them and keep the whole thing nice and dry (while keeping the seeds moist), some type of planting medium, seeds, a light, light bulbs, and set it all up in a mostly unused bookshelf in our bedroom... then I received the lights in the mail.  Yikes, should have looked at the dimensions and measured the shelf, duh! :)  So that wouldn't work.  Trial and error, I suppose.  Fortunately, we had some hardware store buy shelves set up in the garage that were much wider, with shelves that should be large enough to allow enough room for a couple months growth.

Here is what I used:

Seed trays-  For <$2.00/ tray, I got my seed trays from this site (both the trays to put the seeds in and the flat ones without any holes in it for underneath (you could also use a large pan or something for this purpose.

Planting medium- for $4.95/ block, this coir was a nice, cheap, eco-friendly option.  The bricks are always a little bit messy, as you have to mix them with water and "watch them grow," but it worked out nicely.  I found that for 2 trays, it took about 1 1/3 bricks to fill the seed trays.

Shop Light- At $32, this was one of the pricier items.  Honestly, it's a regular old shop light, with an adjustable chain for hanging (it is important that it is adjustable, so that you can start with it close to your seeds, and then raise it up as your seeds grow).

Light Bulbs- For $3.49/ each (much cheaper than "grow bulbs!"), these were the recommended bulbs.  You need 2 of them for the light fixture.

A couple hooks into the upper shelf later, and I was in business!

Amazingly, after only 2-3 days, I was already starting to notice some of the seeds sprouting!  Some will take much longer to germinate, and my plan for today is to pick up a heat mat from the store to help out some of the seeds that don't enjoy the cold of the garage so much (I've heard ideally, you should keep it in the 70's for them).

I'm pretty pleased with this for now though, and may come up with something more permanent in the future! :)

Happy growing!!

Update, after just a few days: