How to Light a Three Shelf Indoor Herb Garden

If you can't get enough light to your indoor herb garden, artificial lights can help.

If you don't have enough natural light in your house to grow an indoor herb garden, there is a solution. Fluorescent lights, like the ones you may remember from your school days, provide enough light to allow indoor herb gardens to flourish. Mounting them under the shelves of a three-tiered unit allows for plenty of growing space.

Things You'll Need

• 4 2-foot fluorescent light units
• 4 2-foot fluorescent light bulbs, full spectrum
• Magazines
• Nursery trays

Instructions

1. Purchase four 2-foot long fluorescent light fixtures and full-spectrum light bulbs to fit into them. These units are available at home stores.

2. Attach two light fixtures, one in front of the other, to the underside of the middle and top shelves of the shelving unit. The third shelf, which is the top of the unit, can be used to hold supplies or, if the whole unit is placed under a window, can hold plants that will receive sunlight.

3. Stack magazines on the shelves to place the nursery trays on for seed starting. The tops of the plants need to be 2 to 4 inches from the light bulbs. Elevating the trays with magazines allows you to lower them as the plants grow taller.

4. Top the magazines with nursery trays planted with soil and herb seeds. Adjust the magazines as necessary to bring the top of your tray to between 2 and 4 inches from the light source.

5. Turn on the lights on for six to eight hours per day.

References

• University of Hawaii: Growing Plants Under Supplemental Light
• Progressive Gardening: Plant Growing Lights
• Organic Spring Time: Lighting the Indoor Garden