January Blues Turned Green

I love winter in our desert. It is the best time of year with the blue skies, red rocks, and especially the mild temperatures. But for every gardener, the lack of dirt under the fingernails can cause withdrawals. My solution is to start some vegetable seeds indoors.

I would love to have a greenhouse someday, and truly garden year round, but for now I am content with a couple of seed starting trays and some old benches set up in my kitchen. I purchased a shop light from the hardware store, and replaced the fluorescent bulbs with grow lights, then Mike built me a stand the length of the light, which stands about 20″ high and stretches the length of two standard seed starting trays. The stand has hooks which allow me to hang the shop light at different heights as my seeds grow.

This set up allows me to get a head start on tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, and even pumpkins for our garden plot. Our summer temps really get unbearable, so our growing season is best in the late winter, early spring, and fall, and having my own little plot of green in the kitchen is a great blues chaser besides.