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In a perfect world with unlimited funds my gardening adventures would be Instagram worthy all the time. I like to garden pretty. You can garden on the cheap, but often that means you sacrifice aesthetics. There’s nothing wrong with that if it doesn’t bother you. But for me, it does. Neat and tidy things please me (I can hear my mother laughing across the country. She might have a different experience of me…).
But here’s my problem. I don’t have a lot of money. And I don’t have a ton of natural sunlight shinging in any of my windows. Growing plants from seeds is extremely cost effective (and fun!). However, that can quickly be negated by spending a ton of money on a grow light setup. So when I started my gardening adventures a couple years ago, my main priority was to figure out a cheap, effective grow light setup that didn’t look terrible.
After quite a bit of trial and error (like, a lot of error), I finally settled on this setup:
I know it’s not the most beautiful thing in the world, but it’s also not distractingly ugly. And it works for me for several reasons:
- It’s cost effective. Compared to other setups out there, this is fairly cheap. The total cost runs about $250. But here’s the other neat thing! I didn’t need to spend that all at once. Really, to get started I needed the greenhouse (which costs around $40, but I got mine as a gift from Nick’s mom) and one lamp ($25). I bought the other lamps as needed. And when all my plants no longer fit on the shelf, I expanded again with the large, white grow light ($60). So you can easily spread out the cost over time instead of needing to pony up all the money at once.
- It makes double use of things I already had. This is obviously not the original intended use for the greenhouse. When I was ready to move plants outside, I just removed the Unifun lights and moved the greenhouse to my back patio. The white grow light is sitting on some wooden boxes Nick had sitting around. I re-purposed those as another plant surface and gardening storage.
- It’s flexible. I can use this setup to start seeds and keep them growing as they get bigger and need to be repotted. I can rearrange lights and shelves if need be. It’s light weight, so I can easily move it. Just so many options!
- It’s a great environment for seed starting. Of course, your seedlings will have plenty of light. But the lamps give off just enough warmth to eliminate the need of a heating mat. So if you’re starting peppers, tomatoes, or other seeds that could use some warmth to get going, this works great.
- It’s actually not horrible to look at. Especially when you have it loaded with full, maturing plants, it starts looking very pretty. It keeps everything organized. It’s an inoffensive color. The lights give off a pretty magenta glow. I think it’s stylish in it’s own way.
 If you’re at all interested in putting this together for yourself, read on.
What I used for the grow light greenhouse:
- 1 4-tier mini greenhouse
- 6 UNIFUN LED Grow Lights (although this would fit up to 8)
- 3 wooden dowels (you can pick these up at any hardware or craft store)
- 6 outlet power strip (I used this one)
How I set it up:
Assemble your greenhouse. You’ll assemble the greenhouse frame per the instructions (very easy to put together). The shelves are not attached to the frame, so this is where you’ll make a decision on whether to have a shelf on the bottom or lights at the very top allowing you to keep your seedlings/plants a shelf higher. You’ll notice at the very top, I use 3 dowels to create shelf support in order to hang the lights. I tried putting the metal bars from the greenhouse kit at the top there, but it made the whole unit feel very wobbly and unsupported. If you decide to leave the shelving in their original intended positions, that fine. Just note that your seedlings and plants will sit lower on the unit.
*You will not need the greenhouse cover if using the greenhouse this way. However, if you plan to use the same greenhouse outside, you may want to hang on to the cover.
Hang the lights. These lights fit perfectly side-by-side in pairs on each shelf. In fact, you could have up to 8 on this greenhouse. Make sure the adapter port is facing the back of the greenhouse so the cord runs behind. Each light has 4 hooks that you’ll want to clip to the underside of the wire shelf.
*Again, you’ll have some spare parts, namely the hanging wires for the lamps. If you think you’ll need them at some point, hang on to them. But if this is your lamps only intended use, you can toss them.- Plug ’em in and turn ’em on. That’s it! It’s really quick and easy. If you’re using all of the lights, plugging them into a power cord makes turning them on and off even quicker and easier.
*An important note about watering: The lamps, like most lamps, are not waterproof. I don’t even know if they’re water resistant, but when it comes to water and electricity, do not take chances. Remove plants from shelves when watering. Make sure plants are placed in trays when they’re on the shelves. We don’t want water draining through our pots onto the lamps. I use aluminum roasting pans and growing trays under my plants.
And there you have it! Overall, I’ve been really happy using this setup. The one con that I have found is that when you are starting seeds, you have to find ways to raise them up closer to the light. Otherwise, they’ll get leggy and floppy and just be no good. I use extra pots, trays, and containers to get them up where they need to be. As they grow, I adjust the height of the supports. It’s a bit annoying to figure out, but it’s not too bad.
Please comment down below about how you have your grow lights set up. And if you try this way, I’d love to see how it turns out!