Indoor Garden, Little Green Thumbs style

With enough ingenuity, you can set up grow lights just about anywhere indoors. To keep your indoor garden tidy and efficient, you may want to consider a dedicated growing area. There are many options to do this, but we find the Little Green Thumbs classroom set up to a particularly robust and productive system at a relatively low cost. You can assemble your own fairly easily using local sources. How much this will cost will depend on what your needs are. We've included considerations below.

If you decide to build a similar set up, make sure that when you source your wire stand that you're vigilant on checking shelf dimensions. A 24" by 48" shelf is ideal for holding standard grow trays and standard grow boxes efficiently. Alternative self dimensions may add unnecessary frustration and create inefficiencies.

What do you need to customize a similar set up?

• 1 wire shelving unit, 24" x 48" shelf size, roughly 6 feet tall. Wheels are optional
  • How many shelves you install will depend on your needs. Figure out what you need and plan accordingly.
  • In the example above, they've installed two growing tiers as they're growing full-sized plants year-round. The top shelf, which is empty in this diagram, could be used to store garden supplies.
  • In my own home, I need four growing tiers. My bottom tier is about 2.5 feet tall for lettuce in Earthboxes and above it I have four additional growing spaces for starting seeds. Each of these are roughly 16" apart. My extra garden supplies are stored on the top shelf. Picture below.
• LED lighting is preferred, though T5s are also good. Most tiers will need two 4 foot grow lights per shelf (or, alternatively, four 24" grow lights, which is more expensive but adds some flexibility).
  • Lights quickly lose effectiveness if they're more than a couple of inches away from the plants. Two 4 foot lights kept within a few inches of the top of the plant will provide enough light to grow most vegetables from seedling to maturity.
  • If you intend to grow fruiting plants like tomatoes to maturity, you will probably want up to four lights on that shelf.
  • Quality grow lights are usually compatible with timers, so if they're left in the on position, they will turn on when the power comes on. Be cautious when buying off-market lights as they may not be timer-compatible and will require you to manually turn on/off the lights daily.
  • See our Indoor garden vegetable page for specific growing recommendations LINK
  • See our Lighting video for tips on picking your lights. LINK
• Plastic shelf liners for every shelf (look for durable kitchen cupboard liners). These protect the lights below from minor spills.
• Drip trays for any self-watering containers. They tend to leak when you water them. If you have problems finding something, suitably sized boot trays work well too.
• Appropriate linking cords to connect the lights in each shelf in series (if they aren't already included in the box).
• A pack of S hooks to hang each light individually on seedling shelves (ie. shorter shelves)
• Light strip hanger that is compatible with your lights to hang multiple lights as a unit. This is important for larger shelf areas where you'll be moving the light rig frequently as the plants grow.
• A light chain or dedicated ratcheting pulley system to more easily keep the lights suspended a few inches above your plants.
• Lightbar timer. Ensure that your timer is plugged directly into the wall, and then your surge protector is
  plugged into the timer. You will then plug your equipment into the surge protector. This ensures
  that all of your equipment is working on your timer. There are several different models of timers on the market, each with specific instructions to set. Please look at your particular model of timer
  for instructions, as many timers are set differently. Set for 12 hours on/off per day.
• You may use an extension cord to connect your lighting units; however, ensure that the extension cord has a gauge of at least 18. If you are using cords, they must be placed so water cannot travel down the cord into the electrical supply. See video for details. LINK
• Zip ties to wrangle your cords neatly to ensure water doesn't flow down the cords into electrical equipment
• Growing supplies! To help you estimate, each shelf will hold four standard growing trays or three large Earthboxes. You may want to add netted trellis if you're growing peas or beans.

INSERT PHOTO OF REAL SET UP