My last couple of posts in February were all about the seed and planting project I’ve undertaken this year in our basement. In year’s past, we always bought seedlings from local nurseries for our garden, but this year I’ve decided to attempt to run a booth at one of our local farmer’s markets! I’m focusing on selling plants – both vegetables and herbs – and also dried herbs and some other homemade items.
Growing up, my father had a huge greenhouse in our back yard. It was one of those arched-looking ones you see at nurseries made out of white PVC pipe and covered in plastic. He raised thousands of tomato plants. He sold some of the plants, but planted acres of them and then sold the tomatoes (and gave a lot away). I was too young, then, to really care about gardening, but it’s definitely in my blood. Since February 10th, I’ve spent several hours every weekend planting, transplanting, and preparing for the market.
Here’s how we started:
Those bottom shelves are packed with extra pots and other farmer’s market supplies. It was obvious, I was running out of space and fast. I ended up buying two more rolling racks – one for more plants and the other just for supplies. Soon, we’d collected enough extra flower pots that we added ANOTHER rolling rack just for other random supplies for the market. Yep, five shelves total. And I could probably use another, but it’s now spring so I can move plants outdoors instead.
Here’s how the plants looked after I added another shelf:
Having the extra space really eased some of the worry. I was concerned about where all of these plants were going to go because they were growing faster than I expected. Lesson learned not to plant so soon if I decide to do this again next year!
But the extra shelf required more lighting. The extra plants required more trays and containers. As you can see, I was also able to expand the growing space just by moving the extra supplies to the bottom shelves only. I would put plants down there too, but I have cats.
Here’s a pic of how the third shelf looks today:
It’s been a fun learning experience, and I keep learning more every day. When I’m not watching YouTube videos about how to make my own compost, I’m reading up on germination times for various seeds, or thinking about what I’m going to plant to sell in June and July. So, I thought I’d share a list of some of my favorite finds and other various items that I’ve used, including the lighting system and the shelving, if you are interested. All of these items were purchased from Amazon:
The Lone Writer: Shannon Yarbrough 