We always get into trouble when we take a trip to our local Rural King farm store. I don’t know if it’s the free bag of fresh-popped popcorn that is slapped into your hands when you walk in the door or the bottomless cup of coffee that aids in filling our cart and running up the tab. I think it’s probably more to the point it is just a fun store in all of its quirky ways. If you’ve ever been in one, you know there is nothing modern or glamorous about it.
Our Darling Daughters love pushing through the aisles while they happily munch (and spill) their bags of popcorn from one department to the next. Spring is always a hit when the baby chicks start arriving in their giant tubs. The sights and sounds of all those cheeping chicks is enough to quickly warm up what could be an otherwise cold and drab early spring day in southern Indiana. There aren’t any chicks yet but there were some baby rabbits which elicited lots of oohs and aahs from the girls.
A new grow light practically jumped into our cart!
While we always find something we don’t really need, we happened to score a great find this weekend. The Rural King was selling a Hydrofarm 4-Foot Jump Start Grow Light System
for right around 60-bucks. Other grow light kits like this will easily cost upward of $100 or more. I’ve also considered building my own in the past but have never really been able to convince Homestead Hottie of the need or where the darned thing would end up living most of the year.
We love to get a jump start on the gardening season but always have problems with seedlings getting too long and leggy before it is safe for them to move outside. Our sunroom/den has three skylights and three westward facing windows but the light isn’t always so direct. We’re hoping our new grow light will help correct that problem and get this year’s seeds off to a good start.
While our friends back in Phoenix are already enjoying their “spring” gardening season, it is hard to believe it’s time for us to begin starting seeds. I was able to plug in our zip code and get a handy little chart on what seeds should be started when based on our climate zone. Click here to head over to All Things Plants so you can punch in your own zip code and get your own list for free! It’s one of the few free customized seed starting calendars I’ve been able to find on the net and it happens to be sponsored by one of my favorite seed companies: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.
Happy seed starting!
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[...] another high: After about a week, our indoor seedlings have sprouted here in the office. With the tomato and pepper plants we saved prior to our first hard snow fruiting in the office [...]
[...] but not least, our seeds have started sprouting underneath that new grow light we bought for a song. The seedlings look really good. They’re definitely much stronger [...]