Day 2 of 2011 Garden

I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. We just had record rainfall for the month of April. It's very wet here at the moment. In this region, we tend to start planting on Mother's Day because our last frost day is in May. I can't wait that long, so I'm starting my seeds indoors. I'll get to those in a minute.

I have big plans for my garden. But I also have a busy life, so I'm not sure which goals will come to fruition. I'm starting this thread for a couple of reasons. Mainly it's to keep me on track. Hopefully it will develop to inspire others.





Day 2 of garden efforts
Here are a few shots of what I am dealing with. I stood in one spot (facing south) and panned left to right.

^The hedges down the left side is one edge of my yard.^

^The fence along the back side ends up getting covered pretty well by foliage.^

^My yard slopes down to the west.^



In the future, I'll break down the different areas of my yard by projects. The pics above are just a starting point.



For starting some of my seeds, I had to do a bit of hillbilly engineering. I'm 30 and married. The wife has daughters in high school, and we had a son that's almost 15 months old. I have about as much spending money as I have free time. In other words, I'm busy and broke  ;) Hence the hillbilly engineering. I know it's not a pretty setup, but I just needed something functional. So here's what I got:


The seeds are arranged in columns 2 squares wide. I sowed some kind of bean, then peas, then a different bean, then I did only 3 seeds of zucchini in the white tray. The trays nest in a larger tray, and wick water from the bottom. The soil is a mixture of potting soil I found in the shed, and the clay soil that is abundant in this area.


I found a piece of clear plastic to drape over the tray to increase humidity and hold temperature. I know the picture makes it appear more opaque then it really is. This will come off as the plants start to establish themselves.


This is my "grow light". It's a construction light that I have clamped to the shelf above the seed tray. I has two settings (hi/low) and it provides plenty of light and heat for the plants.


My light is plugged into a digital timer. "Sunrise" is promptly at 6 AM, and sets at 10 PM for a total of 17 hours of light.


This is what the whole deal looks like. I know she isn't pretty, but it gets the job done.

I actually like several things about what I did. Having things somewhat take care of themselves is nice. I can just check in now and then to see how they are coming along. I don't have to remember to water all the time, or adjusting the light. Everything just sort of takes care of itself.

Total money spent on this=$0. Everything was already on hand.

I also started some June bearing strawberries in containers on the back patio. I just don't have pics of those yet.