On towards Winter

While out shopping with my wife, we stopped into a thrift store just to see what they had. The store - 2nd Avenue Thrift - is a very large store with a wide selection of items. As my wife was searching through the women's clothes selection, I naturally migrated over to the appliance and housewares area. As I went through the aisles, I saw a three level plant stand that caught my attention. I wasn't quite sure where I was going to use it but I decided to buy it and figure that out later. As seen below, It was a substantial metal piece that I hadn't seen before. Once I saw that it was priced under $10.00, I was convinced it was going home.

I may repaint it but for now, I am going to leave it as is.

I have been working in my greenhouse getting the shelves set up for seedlings which I have been growing. I decided to use Terra Cotta pots. I was able to get most of these pots through an online auction during the summer. I bid $ 3.00 for the garden tools and pots lot and actually won. There were 20 pots of various sizes and a few other items that I am also using. I have the pots spread out among the established lettuce and spinach plants that I started mid-August.


I have staggered the pots so that each plant will get sun on them in the winter. Hopefully, that will result in healthier plants.

I have roughly 64 seedlings growing under lights in my basement. They are not quite ready to transplant but that should be happening in the next week or so.

The lights are red-blue grow lights which do not show well in pictures. I run the lights about 15 hours a day on timers and water the plants from below. So far, so good.
I am going to plant the seedlings into the pots and also in the grow bag system I have. After today, the weather will be turning cooler so the timing is pretty good as far as these plants are concerned.
There is much to do and I hate to say it - winter is right around the corner. I do believe this winter is going to be much colder and snowier for the mid-atlantic. That adds a lot of other tasks to winter preps. Gratefully, I have the time.
So, until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone!