I’m excited to say that my tomato plants have done extremely well under the AeroGarden’s lights. So well, in fact, that they have quickly outgrown the little stand! After re-potting several of the larger plants, I was left with the problem of figuring out where to put all of my growing tomatoes.

I put two of the plants out in the cold frame to see how they would do, but I forgot to open the lid to ventilate, and the poor seedlings were quickly scorched and reduced to dust! Oops. No, the cold frame is not a good idea for every day usage. It will come in handy later when I’m ready to harden off the plants.

So, I asked my husband if he had any extra fluorescent shop lights out in his workshop. And what-do-ya-know, he did! Unfortunately, he didn’t have any bulbs for it. Drat. But then I remembered the two fluorescent lights over our kitchen sink, and since I’ve unscrewed a ton of light bulbs around our home, I knew these weren’t being used.

My husband went right to work. He found two little hooks, and screwed them into the bottom of the kitchen cabinets. After placing the bulbs in the fixture, he carefully hung it by its chain and plugged it in. Perfect! And I love that it’s adjustable, so I can raise it as the plants grow. I also love that the counter is higher on one end, which is great for my smaller plants! The lights are supposed to be about 3 inches from the plants, so this works out really well.

I’ve got 15 Brandywine tomatoes, and 14 Amish Paste tomatoes. We’ll see how many survive until planting time! Com’mon last frost!!