Garden Tools We Use
The seed-starting, growing, and season extension supplies we use at Highland Oak Farm.
Seed Starting
1020 Trays
These are the heavy-duty trays we use for starting seedlings. After going through plenty of flimsy trays that cracked, warped, or needed replacing, we prefer trays that can be washed and reused season after season.
Best for: Seed starting, bottom watering, carrying cell trays, and keeping the greenhouse organized.
72 cell Trays
We use cell trays to start everything from herbs and vegetables to flowers.
For fall planting and overwintering, trays are especially useful for slower-growing herbs like parsley and chives that benefit from getting established before they go into the garden.
Humidity Domes
Humidity domes help hold moisture around newly sown trays while seeds are germinating. Once seedlings emerge, we begin removing the dome and increasing airflow rather than keeping seedlings enclosed indefinitely.
Seedling Heat Mat
We use a commercial-size heat mat when we’re starting seeds that benefit from warmer soil temperatures, especially when our seed-starting space is cooler than ideal.
The larger size allows us to warm multiple trays at once instead of using several smaller mats. We don’t use bottom heat for every crop, but it’s a useful tool for creating more consistent germination conditions when seeds need the extra warmth.
Best for: Seed starting, warm-germinating crops, cooler growing spaces, and warming multiple trays at once.
Season Extension
Low Tunnel Kit
This is the low tunnel system we're using at Highland Oak Farm to extend our growing season and overwinter cold-tolerant herbs.
The kit gives us the basic structure for creating a protected growing space directly over a garden bed. What I especially like is that the same tunnel can serve different purposes throughout the year. We can use insect netting while pest pressure is high, frost blanket as temperatures begin to drop, and greenhouse plastic when we need more winter protection.
Best for: Fall growing, overwintering, frost protection, insect protection, and extending the growing season.
Frost Blanket
When temperatures begin dropping, frost blanket adds a layer of protection over crops while still allowing light through.
We use it to help buffer cold-tolerant plants from frost and abrupt temperature changes. It can also be layered beneath greenhouse plastic when more winter protection is needed.
Greenhouse Plastic
Plastic provides more protection from winter wind and precipitation, but it also requires more management. A sunny winter day can heat a closed tunnel surprisingly quickly, so ventilation matters.
For us, it's another tool for extending the season, not a way to turn an unheated garden into summer.
Garden Protection
Insect Netting
One of the advantages of a hoop system is that it isn't only useful when it's cold.
Earlier in the season, we can cover the same hoops with insect netting to create a physical barrier between crops and common garden pests without blocking the plants from light and airflow.
Then, as pest pressure decreases and temperatures fall, we can swap the netting for frost protection.
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