Garage green house
Updated: Mar 15, 2019
(updated March 15, 2019)
After reading Hal Borland this morning, I was inspired to get started on our new adventure, even though there were piles of snow 6 feet deep outside . I became overwhelmed just thinking about the number of seeds I have to plant, what I would do if the wild flowers I planted in the fall didn't appear, and should I plant all flowers or set aside some of our garden boxes for fruits and vegetables. I am using the garden planner offered by Old Farmer's Almanac, but I keep changing what I plan to grow. I follow several flower growers and each one grows something that excites me so I order more flower seeds and change my garden planner. Then when they arrive, I wonder where am I going to start the seeds. I already grow microgreens in my kitchen using the grow light bought for the flower seeds which I will start 6 weeks before our last frost. I decided I need to turn my garage into a green house.
When I was in the hardware store yesterday, they had a 4x4x7 foot green house for a reasonable price. This could be my solution. I don't use my garage because it is easier to park outside then trying to get out of the garage with 4 or 5 inches of snow piled up behind my garage door. Sometimes I can't even get the garage door open because it is frozen shut. It is also quite cold in my garage. But this did not deter me. I got on line and saw the similar green house I had seen at the hardware store. I am now the owner of a green house to put in my garage.

The first thing I did was put a heater in the green house to see if it could bring up the temperature to at least 60 degrees. It passed the test and can get to 70 degrees. The heater goes off at the designated temperature.` But unfortunately it has continued to run all the time. Anxious to see my heating bill next month.
Since I was moving the marigold and cosmos seedlings into the green house, I thought it was time I transplanted the good ones into bigger pots filled with Happy Frog potting soil.







I had bought a lighting system with a single T5 bulb to use for my light source.

I soon realized that a single bulb didn't illuminate the number of plants under the lamp. So I decided that I would get a 4 bulb lamp for the green house, but I wasn't sure how to hang it in the green house. I decided to use the top bar of the single bulb system with the adjustment rope.




One disadvantage of the green house is that it doesn't really accommodate smaller plants that need to sit under a low grow light.


It has been a few days now and the temperature in the green house seems to stay between 65 and 70. I can even notice a growth in all the seedlings, so I think they like their new home. Hopefully the seedlings will grow into nice flowering plants by the time I need to plant seeds for the garden and I can move them out of the greenhouse to a sunny location near a window.
So a week has passed, the marigolds are growing well, the cosmos are struggling and the microgreens are ready for lights. I hung (by bungee cords) the single bulb light fixture that came with the stand (which no longer has the top bar) on the bars of a shelf. I can now put my microgreens on a shelf under the light source.

March 15, 2019
Marigold plants out grew their 3 1/2 inch pots and replanted them into 5 1/2 inch pots. However, the cosmos are not growing as quickly. I am not sure whether it is because I used terra cotta pots and paper pots and not plastic pots or that they are slower growers.


I bought a two light grow light to see how they worked.
