McMichael turns MacGyver for her seed starts

I hung up the phone totally devastated.

That morning back in April 2023, I was ready to spend $800 for an item I'd wanted for years, and I'd just learned shipping to Alaska was impossible. I don't spend much money on myself and now that I was ready to, ironically, I couldn't.

I wanted to replace my 1950s era Gardener's Supply brand grow light shelf system. My old system was so big and heavy, it was a two-person job to drag it (the tiny wheels were not much help) from storage across the sometimes snowy, other times icy driveway into the garage and then up three steps into the house. My husband, Gary, graciously let it take up room in his office every spring for two months...and then it was back out to storage. With him living at the Palmer Pioneer Home, I no longer had a second person to help me drag it into and out of the house each spring. On the other hand, I now had room for a grow system to stay in the house year-round.

A friend in Slana used it for years to keep dozens of different colored African violets healthy in those frigid interior winters. After her husband died, she decided to sell everything at a garage sale and return to her hometown in Texas. Finding no buyer for that hulk of metal, she told me she wanted me to have it for free. I couldn't refuse. It was 4 feet wide by 4.5 feet tall, had two spillproof galvanized tray shelves, adjustable lighting (that was too cumbersome to adjust) and was built to last. It was in rough condition, but Gary rejuvenated it.

I used it each spring 2017 through 2019 and then sold it at my May 2022 garage sale, fully intending to replace it with the same brand, only the modern, lighter weight version, with adjustable lighting that worked. Shortly after my garage sale, I went to the Gardener's Supply website, picked out what I wanted, and placed the website in my bookmarks, so I could easily order it when I felt the time was right.

That time came April 2023, and I sat down at the computer to place the order. Once on the website, a pop-up offered free shipping for orders over $127. There was a special notation that the grow light system could only be shipped by ground with an additional fee of $10. All fine. I didn't care how long it took, because it was already too late for the 2023 growing season.

I had completed all the required information including shipping address and credit card info, when it seemed the ordering process froze. My computer kept telling me to fill out the shipping but would not give me any additional options when I clicked on the shipping icon.

So, I called the company and got a guy named Bill. I told him about the shipping problem and that I lived in Alaska, thinking that had something to do with it. He didn't seem concerned, said they would ship it FedEx, and he would be happy to place the order for me by phone. I waited while he processed things at his end...only to have him hem and haw and finally say that he was sorry to give me bad news... "It can't be shipped to Alaska! Only to the continental USA. No way around it-company policy."

In the ensuing discussion, he asked if I knew anyone in Washington state, that I could ship it to and then they ship it the rest of the way to me. I don't, but I had shipped some things to my daughter in Colorado, which she then brought to me in her baggage on her next trip to Alaska.

But the grow light system weighed 66 pounds. And I didn't want to bother asking her help with this, even if I could figure out the additional shipping costs. I knew USPS had a weight limit of 70 pounds but didn't know their dimension limits. I had recently tried to ship a lamp to Florida by FedEx and learned it would cost a fortune, and it was light weight compared to this.

After pondering this dilemma for a few days, I went to a specialty garden supply store in Wasilla. When I explained what I was looking for, the owner said I should consider buying the components and building a system myself. I thanked him and left. I didn't want a homemade version. My heart was set on what I'd seen on the Gardener's Supply website. (An item no longer offered in 2026.)

A month later while working in the little room attached to my greenhouse (which contains all my gardening supplies) I realized that I already had a sturdy 3-foot-wide, 6-foot-tall metal shelf. I bought it when All I Saw Cookware in Wasilla was going out of business. It was overloaded with gardening paraphernalia, but that was easy to remedy. The next time my nephew dropped in, I asked him to help me carry it into the house. Perhaps it might work.

By the spring of 2024, I'd had a change of heart and decided a homemade grow light system would be acceptable. After researching the huge assortment of LED grow lights available and choosing and ordering some compatible with my shelf size, I was excited to finally be able to start seeds to sell at the annual Valley Garden Club plant sale- a Memorial Day weekend sale I've participated in for over ten years.

It took a while to figure out how to make the lighting adjustable. I used boxes of various heights to place the plants close to the lights until I came up with an acceptable design...using locally available, appropriate size metal chain, "s" hooks, and cotter pins.

Spring 2025 was even better. I started tomato seeds in mid-March...and then gradually filled all three shelves with various vegetable and flower starts. By Memorial Day, everything was either sold or moved out to my greenhouse.

Jeff Lowenfels, the weekly garden columnist in the Anchorage Daily News, insists Alaska gardeners need to have additional lighting for plants in the winter. Now I have that capability. Not just for a few houseplants that would enjoy a little extra winter light, but also for propagation experiments. This past winter, I've kept the middle shelf lit on a timer for seven hours daily. Spring is almost here and I'm excited to start tomato seeds soon.

I was so disappointed not to be able to order my dream grow light shelving system back in April 2023, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It forced me to use something I already had on hand. I ended up spending a fraction of what my dream system would have cost and am satisfied with the results.

Maraley McMichael is a lifelong Alaskan now residing in Palmer. Email her at maraleymcmichael@gmail.com.