5 Year Garden Plan: Starting Seeds Indoors

This year I decided to start my plants indoors so that I could save on money (since seeds are cheaper than mature plants) and so that I could get an earlier harvest. I wanted to create my own "greenhouse" in our basement so I knew I needed a way to keep the soil warm. I decided to use rope lights as a way to heat the soil from beneath....I needed something that was fire-resistant and could conduct heat to surround the lights in...

I decided to put down some leftover ceramic tile and layer the rope light in-between them...I figured it was kind of like in floor heating and after a day the tiles were nice and warm.

I bought seeds trays and put them inside aluminum foil pans, since they are fire resistant as well and conduct heat...this way the excess water that drips down would be contained. Charles hung a cheap light over and put grow lights in it to help keep the plants warm and since they aren't getting direct light in the basement.

I was excited when I saw a couple small plants start to poke up after only 10 days!