My Indoor Garden

People have asked about how I set up my indoor growing space. The area I use is above a utility sink and counter top that sits beside our washing machine in our laundry room. We never really used the sink much at all, but the counter top was too small, so I built a legged platform out of scrap lumber that makes a single flat area just above the height of the faucet. Above that, I rigged a $20 florescent shop light, with two plant grow light tubes. It looks like this:

Because the light needs to be 3'-6" away from the plants, it is necessary to have a light fixture whose height is adjustable. I solved this by rigging the light on a rope-and-pulley system, tied off with cleats. The nice thing is that I can raise or lower each end to make an angle, if I need to accommodate taller plants on one sides and seeds on the other. Here's a more detailed shot;

The gizmo plugged into the power strip is a light timer, which turns the light on for a 14-hour cycle each day. It seems to work pretty well.

Reminder: Plant in succession, not in bulk!
I transplanted 16 lettuce seedlings, then separated out another 12, and I still have a ton left over. I'll probably just harvest them as baby greens, but this is a good reminder to not overplant. It's hard to just pull up seedlings and throw them away, after all--far easier to not plant too many in the first place!

Seriously, if you want some, this whole panful is up for grabs...