As you read and view this board keep in mind that I was never into gardening except to till the ground in the spring for the past several years after dad was unable to. In early 2007 Dad's health was failing and Mom had incurred a leg injury. The garden was for the most part planted and I was left to care for it for two months as Mom's injury healed. If you never prepared, planted and cared for a garden start to finish, you would be clueless at how much work a garden really is. I was.
Here is what I decided to do for two pre-garden projects.
I built these grow lights in February. The two fixtures were old used 2'X4' fixtures I was given from a friend that is in the commercial electrical business (I actually took four fixtures so I could cannibalize parts). The fixtures were 270V wired with a single balast for two light strips. They were inner lined with mirror reflectors. After disassembling the units I gave them a coat of white paint. I then rewired them with two 120v balast and revamped them to hold four fluorescent light stips instead of two. I bought eight 85 CRI/6500K (CRI>Color Rendering Index and K stands for Kelvin, a measure of color temperature) fluorescent strips for in the fixtures. These light strips are the closest to natural sunlight that could be found in Home Depot and worked very well. I had calculated that one fixture electic consumption amounted to around $10/month if turned on 24/7. Most of the plants were already moved from the lower utility room to the greenhouse when these pics were taken. Mom and I raised 140 tomato plants, 50 bell pepper plants, 40 cucumber plants, 25 cauliflower, 25 broccoli, 20 cabbage and 10 pumpkin plants. The tomato and bell pepper plants were rotated to the greenhouse I built as the other plants were started. We used mostly 12OZ plastic cups and several small card board boxes lined with plastic trash bags.
The plants at this end are the cucumbers.
I also built a bridge and pully system to raise and lower the light fixtures. The bridge allowed me to adjust the height of the fixture as the plants grew.
My other project was a greenhouse. It started out to be a simple plastic covered wooden stand alone box but one thing led to another as little thoughts of neat things to do entered my mind. This little project took me over 60 hours, probably 5 to 6 hours figuring and shopping in Home Depot and Walmart alone, and nearly $400. Anything for the mom.
From Home Depot and Walmart: One sheet of plywood, 2x4s, 2 quarts of paint, 4 quarts of polyurethane, 4 wheels, thermostat, temperature guage, fan, various other electrical items, heavy plastic from Walmart, aluminum strips, chain, cable and turnbuckles, hinges, hooks, braces, string, bolts, weather proof staples and screws. Did I miss anything? Oh yea, a little swearing.
I built the greenhouse in sections for storage and it can be taken apart or assembled in less than a minute by one person. All of the wood structure was glued and screwed. The greenhouse can hold around 88 6" wide round plastic containers which were compliments of a local restaurant. Fully loaded the greenhouse held nearly 500 pounds of wet soil and plants. These pics were taken on May 4th 2008 and some tomato plants had many buds and flowers already. All these tomato and pepper plants were raised under the grow lights that I built and had been in the greenhouse for nearly five weeks. As of July 4th we had ripening tomatoes and enjoyed fresh cucumbers from the garden.
Here's Mom proudly pointing at a tomato bud/flower. She has been known to raise three pound tomatoes and nearly one pound bell peppers on more than one occasion.
To raise large bell peppers, I would buy the largest pepper I could find at the supermarket, usually 14/15oz green or red bell peppers. Mom would save the seeds, dry them for several months in a warm place and those were her seeds to plant.
I attribute some of my parents longevity to the garden. For over fifty years we always had fresh, stored, frozen or canned veggies nearly year round from the garden.
I made a hitch for the garden tractor and a tongue for the greenhouse for ease of pushing the greenhouse in and out of the garage on cold nights, all 500 pounds.
Here I have prepared the garden. Tilled, rows opened and tomato holes dug. Some plants have been planted. The garden area consists of two sections approximately 40' by 50' each, 4000 square feet.
I will post more pics of the gardens progress as soon as I have them. In the next post I have placed some links from the 2007 garden.