Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Seed Box




This is the seed box I built about two weeks ago from scraps (pine, acrylic, cedar) found at school, and all a bit cockamamie because my instincts for functional design were overrun by the limits of materials on hand. It is now, finally, and at least a week late by my count, filled with soil, and broccoli, parsley and leek seeds.

A box of simple construction -pine boards glued with waterproof wood glue, handles glued on, cedar legs to keep it out of the water. The floor is 3/16 thick acrylic, with holes drilled for drainage. Slots are cut into the box sides for acrylic sleeves -the weird part. I could have simply filled the entire box with soil and seeds, so why partition at all? Honestly, I was thinking I could make it more like a traditional seed starter tray, but it probably has more to do with my sensibility for order than any practical consideration.

If I insert all the sleeves, each 'cell' is 2.5 inches by 10 inches by 4 inches deep. I imagine pulling sleeves to make larger bins for certain plants. I also imagine, with great sense for practical fantasy, that the removable sleeve will make it easier to extract the seedlings for planting, but it will probably require a knife. 

I am glad to not purchase a plastic cell-tray, and also glad to have 4 inches of depth so I don't have to pot up. I think that was what this was all about. In the off-season, I'll wash it, then store my seed packs in its orderly rows. The size was built around my cold-frame, but I gave no thought to the drip pan. It's too big for anything but our old aluminum bake sheet, so bake sheet it is.

Three weeks till beach farm.




2 comments:

  1. Good luck with the season to my gardening neighbor just across the bridge. Hope it's a fine day down by the beach in three weeks. We know it's gonna be windy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This will not have effect as a matter of fact, that's what I suppose.

    ReplyDelete

I do still post here from time to time, but do not check comments regularly...but please, comment!