A couple Saturdays ago I left the house after lunch, headed for Lowe's with little more than a vague notion of how to build an indoor greenhouse. All I knew was that I was going to use the old dining room table, that I wanted to hang lights from the cross beams in the basement and that I wanted the lights to hang on chains so I could raise them as the plants grew. Being acutely aware of my (lack of) construction experience, I made sure to dress cute and fix my hair and makeup in case I had to ask for help. I really shouldn't have bothered; it would seem I'm as smart as I am cute. See for yourselves.
I took these items (discovered while shopping) and a handful of power tools . . .
. . . and made these:
I had to measure things . . .
I had to drill things . . .
I screwed things . . .
I mounted things . . .
And then I screwed things on the ceiling . . .
And then it was time to lay down some serious seed:
In all I planted about 800 seeds in over 200 peat pots that had to be rehydrated, opened, aerated and planted by hand - by tiny, tiny hand . . .
Let me tell ya, monkeys, this was TEDIOUS work and took hours (the construction part was much more fun). I spent so much time in the basement that day, I felt like a C.H.U.D. when I finally emerged (after dark). In the end, I'm glad I spent the time to plant in these pots because the seedlings can go straight into the ground without having to be repotted. Besides, the backache was forgotten when I woke up the other day to this:
Baby zinnias!
