Home-made heat mat for seedlings

I got a link for a homemade light box to start seedlings in my http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/11658/diy-heat-mat-speeds-seed-starting email this week but it used expensive rope lighting that I did not have on hand and many of our local stores did not have in stock due to clearance sales. I also was not sure I wanted to construct a box of plywood right now as we are redoing the kitchen and that takes priority. I did have a heavy cardboard box the right size and several strings of mini-lights that are not LED  to make a try. 

1. After cutting the box to size for half my windowsill  I added a 3" wide box in the center for stability and possibly to set transitional plant on top of. 
2. Next the lights were divided between the 2 halves and mostly  positioned under the lids of egg cartons. This give a good surface to set the plant trays and keeps the light a bit subdued. 
3. Next I secured enough plastic to make a cover and added a couple of pieces of styrofoam to insulate near the window. The plastic keeps in the heat and humidity pretty well. 
4. I added a tray of seed for the first trial. The temperature at top of soil level is an even 70 degrees which is perfect for the tomatoes. We used the top of the  freezer last year but some of the seeds need light to germinate or shortly after and the hotter and cooler cycles probably weren't the optimal either.

I  made my own starter cups using a clear XL egg carton with its top as the drip tray. Of course I did use the organic seed starting soil I have used in the past. Next week we'll see how things are actually progressing.

Construction of Greenhouse no small task

With the weather being a bit more favorable this fall the tomatoes and peppers were setting like crazy but not quite ready to pick. I put them into much larger containers which probably helped with their growth but presented a real problem moving them into the sunroom area for the winter. many were very heavy and there would be no space for seed starting. So off we went to Lowe's for 6 mil plastic sheeting and to the garage for scrap wood. We managed to make the entire 6'x7' structure with what we had on hand or could re-cut. I even made a door out of the old sliding door we do not use any more. I didn't move the water barrel out as it is full with 55 gallons and should help keep the temperature a bit more stable this winter.
 It heats up pretty good radiently which may be a problem on warmer days (not many scheduled any time soon!) but isn't keeping much over ambient by the end of the night. I pulled the oil radient heater and the red Xmas lights out of the sunroom and was able to keep the greenhouse about 10 degrees over ambient at 40-42 so we'll see how it does. I have put in more buffer (cardboard) around the pots too. My reading says to add bubble packing wrap to trap more heat from sunlight but not sure how much it retains over night. 
We did get the frames for the last 2 rainbarrels built and installed last week too. They are now full too. George is building lattice type screens for them as the blue is not as attractive as we would like along the front walk.

Tricking the squirrels out of the seedlings

Not too pretty but it is being effective in keeping the squirrels from eating all the lettuce and spinace before we can. Each seedling is getting transplanted into a plastic collar made from 1/3 of a 2 liter soda bottle or used styrofoam cups with the bottoms cut out. The nicest side effect is they are acting like mini-terrariums so the seedlings are growing well. I have moved any trays of starters inside to keep them growing until I can transplant them (now if the cats will leave them alone!)
I have tried interplanting the lettuce with the carrots in their bins too and so far, so good.
The spinach, chard, broccoli, and caulifower are growing great and not being attacked. None of the peppers or tomatoes are being targeted either so we are slowly picking those.
I need to plant a bed of peas soon, just need to figure out which place to put them. I hope to use them as both a food and cover crop this year. We will see. It is still not very cool and it is mid November.
We will get enough NZ spinach for a quiche today--next year I will plant 2-3 times as much of this as it has been a real producer!