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Roy and I have been talking a lot about the fact that my houseplant/propagation obsession has exceeded the carrying capacity of our windowsills. I have stipulated that if/when we move to a retirement home it must have a plant room -- a green house, a well-lighted sun porch, or a room that can be equipped with a heck of a lot of grow lights.
Slowly, a seditious thought has crept in: what's wrong with now to implement that third option? And who says it has to be done all at once?
So yesterday, finally, we settled on an interim plan: a four-foot fixture with special plant bulb, that comes with a stand so it can sit on a shelf or the top of a piece of furniture.
A second seditious thought then crept in: and who says I need to use my credenza as a catch all for things that really ought to be filed?
So, behold the cleared credenza. I have sent the Hideous Lamp to storage for the present (actually, Roy has decided he could use it in his office) and moved things around on my shelves so that the things that will be behind the fixture are things I'm less likely to want to look at. The grow lights arrive Tuesday, along with a timer and a soil heating pad for seedlings that need it. (It's generally in the low 60s in my office in the winter.) I have three plugs available on the power strip (left). I have pressed a trouble light into service in place of the Hideous Lamp, which will do for the few hours that I'm likely to be in my office without the grow lights on.
Before I removed the Hideous Lamp
After I removed the Hideous Lamp and installed the trouble light
Of all the places in the house to put grow lights, I think it's the best. I can keep an eye on seedlings and rooted cuttings, and there's a sink in the next room. The trouble with the basement grow light is that it's in the basement -- out of sight, out of mind. I actually did this so that I can give my H. mandonii the full "sun" I'm told it needs, but my parsley and milkweed will also benefit.
Slowly, a seditious thought has crept in: what's wrong with now to implement that third option? And who says it has to be done all at once?
So yesterday, finally, we settled on an interim plan: a four-foot fixture with special plant bulb, that comes with a stand so it can sit on a shelf or the top of a piece of furniture.
A second seditious thought then crept in: and who says I need to use my credenza as a catch all for things that really ought to be filed?
So, behold the cleared credenza. I have sent the Hideous Lamp to storage for the present (actually, Roy has decided he could use it in his office) and moved things around on my shelves so that the things that will be behind the fixture are things I'm less likely to want to look at. The grow lights arrive Tuesday, along with a timer and a soil heating pad for seedlings that need it. (It's generally in the low 60s in my office in the winter.) I have three plugs available on the power strip (left). I have pressed a trouble light into service in place of the Hideous Lamp, which will do for the few hours that I'm likely to be in my office without the grow lights on.
Before I removed the Hideous Lamp
After I removed the Hideous Lamp and installed the trouble light
Of all the places in the house to put grow lights, I think it's the best. I can keep an eye on seedlings and rooted cuttings, and there's a sink in the next room. The trouble with the basement grow light is that it's in the basement -- out of sight, out of mind. I actually did this so that I can give my H. mandonii the full "sun" I'm told it needs, but my parsley and milkweed will also benefit.
