In the dining room window, this was the set-up I was resigned to. I’d lost half the space here that I used to have.
This is what we accomplished on Wednesday! Most of the work was done by my cleaning helper. I am delighted my idea of longer brackets really did work! I have doubled the space here to 12 trays. I now have enough space for Friday’s seed starting.
I swiped the nice lights from the office for the dining room. We got the two 4’ lights on the bottom. They just exactly fit. Then we put up the lights we’d made yesterday. I now have room for 7 trays on the bottom shelf.
When I checked the weather at 4AM, I thought it said 30’s at night. But when I checked it around noon, it said 53F for Wednesday night and upper 40’s for Thursday and Friday. On these shelves, once my general helper got the lights up, I had her put all the plants that would have gone to the cold frame. So for about 2 hours there were lots of big plants on these shelves.
But they all got moved to the cold frame and I put the 2 pots of the white roses I am trying to root out here instead.
So the cold frame starts to fill. There’s kale, mesclun #1, leeks, Swiss chard, storage onions, and Walla Sweet onions.
My general helper also got the light up on these shelves and they had onions on them briefly. We discovered we can get 2 trays on the top shelf just fine, but there can only be 1 on the bottom due to the light switch by the door. So I gained 1 more tray space, for a total of 42. I am waiting for more lights to come in, to use one on the bottom shelf.
At noontime when we were eating lunch out under the magnolia with the first flower open, we decided to clean up the mess we’d made and go outside and work in the gardens. It seemed a shame to waste such a gorgeous day inside. We could finish on Thursday morning while we waited for it to warm up.
So we headed out to the East Shed garden and got it all cleaned out. Over the last 2 years, I’d let the evening primrose more or less take over this garden. It ran from the edge of the 2nd trellis to the end under the clothesline. I left about 4’ of it down there and tore out all the rest. I hope to plant new plants in the cleaned out area.
While we were doing this, my son came out and dug out the clothesline pole. It had been hit by a falling branch three years ago and my husband had straightened it with the tractor. But it was loose in the ground, too wobbly to tighten the lines. The contractor had said he’d look at it if we dug it out. So hopefully he can make it stable again.
It was well into the 70’s on Wednesday and the daffodils in the 1st Fence garden all opened. With even higher temps forecast for Thursday, I should have a lot open by evening.
The violets along the south walkway also opened.
So we had a very productive day. My cleaning helper will be back on Thursday and we will do the finishing stuff inside for the shelves. Then we will go outside and dig up the iris and daylilies in the West Shed garden and move them to the Small garden. That will take care of the shed gardens.
If there’s time once that is done, we’ll clean up the Big rose, hibiscus, and mountain laurel area. It’s to start raining by mid afternoon, so we will see.
Your new light setup looks great. It really made a big difference to how many trays you can do. Great Job!
Yes, and it looks nice too, not the hodge podge I am used to. She did a wonderful job!
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