Organic Gardening - Seed Starting in the Basement

If you have been reading my blog posts you will know I LOVE organic produce.. and there is no better way to get it than to grow your own.  That is why I am SO excited about the project I have started this month!

I have always had a little garden in the back yard.  Even in suburbia you can grow food for your family organically.  We have a little plot the size of a bedroom and another little plot the size of a large closet.  Every year I end up buying tomato and pepper plants to go into those gardens to the tune of several hundred dollars.  When you buy plants, you can spend a good deal of money on them and if you know me, you know I don't like to spend money when I don't have to.

That is why I saved seeds last summer and this fall.  Saving seeds used to seem so complicated but now that I know how and have watched a few of them actually grow, it is so exciting!  When I had a good organic tomato, pepper, squash, or any other vegetable, I would take the seeds out, rinse them, dry them in a windowsill for a while on a paper towel and then put them in a marked envelope.  So in essence, I have a bunch of free seeds!

So what do you do with seeds?  Plant them!  I converted a corner of my basement to be the "greenhouse".  A few weeks ago I started with a flat of some of the tomato seeds I saved.  My hope is to have a few dozen (or hundreds) of plants up and growing so that I don't have to buy plants for my garden this spring.  I did a bunch of research on all the vegetables I want to grow and have a plan all written out.

So then I had to have supplies for growing.  I bought a few seed starting trays and a bag of seed starter, a bag of potting soil, and a bag of vermiculite.  Then we bought some fluorescent 48 inch fixtures and full spectrum fluorescent bulbs to go in them and hung them from the basement rafters on chains.  A used ping pong table does the trick for a sturdy plant table and the chains on the fixtures allow me to keep the lights the proper distance from the plants.

Here is my set up so far:

On my table are several plant starts.  In the bigger pots are some of my herbs.  In the small flats I have managed to get some tomato plant starts, some stevia, a small asparagus plant, and a leek.  In the 2 flats I have planted lettuce and spinach in hopes of having my own salad garden in a few weeks. 

To plant seeds, I simply put them on top of some seed starting soil and put a seed down and cover it with vermiculite.  Then I carefully wet it thoroughly with a spray bottle and purified water and put a cover on it until it germinates.  When the first signs of little green plants are evident I move the flat 2-3 inches from the grow lights.  I did not know that plants need air movement to make them strong so I have a fan blowing on the seedlings.  That helps them build strong stems.

So today I planted another flat with cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, and more heirloom tomatoes.  When they begin to sprout I will make room under the lights for them and when the danger of frost has passed they will move to the garden outside.

I also have a flat of pepper seeds started in the family room on the bar.  Peppers are harder to sprout and need some heat so that flat is sitting on a heating pad in the family room where they can be undisturbed.  Once they sprout I will move them off of the heat and under a grow light. 

Sitting in my dining room window is another little greenhouse with some growing plants. Right now I have 2 avocado trees and some herbs there. Soon it will be crowded with more vegetable plants and flats of germinating wonders!

So that is the start of my greenhouses.  The fluorescent fixtures $20 each.. bulbs 2 for $9.00.  The table and fan are things I already had around and the dirt was not that expensive either.  So instead of shopping Earl May every year for my plants I will use these lights for years of seed starting to grow my own.

Mike is already prepared to dig up another big chunk of yard this spring.  We have an old wooden swingset in the middle of the yard that will be the center-piece of my new garden with 5 grape plants growing up the posts of that swingset.  We are also planning on 3 blueberry bushes this year in the southern edge of the yard along the fenceline.  And somehow we managed to fit 8 fruit trees in the yard as well.

I am excited about my gardens this year!  What are you growing in yours?