Many gardening books and blogs and seed starting tutorials will tell you that If you’re going to grow things from seed, you really must have grow lights if you want to avoid ending up with sad little spindly seedlings. In the past I’ve been pretty successful with seedlings grown on my south-facing windowsills without the help of grow lights, so it certainly can be done.

This year there are so many things I want to start from seed that I probably don’t have enough windowsill space for everything. Still, I didn’t really want to spend a whole bunch of money on grow lights, and I don’t know where I’d put them in my little house anyway, so I decided to go with a low-tech solution. Scott found an old window at the dump and some old boards in his attic, and put together a nice little cold frame. It cost zero dollars and took maybe an hour. Continue reading →