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I no longer have a greenhouse and space for an (expensive) grow tent is unavailable, so I have been learning how to germinate seeds directly in the soil without heat pads or grow lights.

There's more to this situation that meets the eye. Because we get high winds throughout the fall and winter (last year an unusual gust of wind lifted a low tent up and over the raspberry and grape trellises, damaging the cover). As with the tractor shed

As an experiment, I am sowing directly in the raised bed in November - only a number of plants that germinate in cool soil (about 45 degrees). I'll see if I can grow in the off-season!

• Spinach ()Winter Bloomsdale)
• Radish (Rudi and Champion)
• Cabbage (Promax)
• Carrot (Nantes Supreme from Burpee)

That early experiment reset my expectations about growing in the winter, even in an enclosed structure - but here I go again.

Surely, I didn't expect a different result (regardless of smaller tent and skylight maintaining warmth!

• Spinach and carrots didn't germinate.
• Radish and cabbage did germinate, but cabbages expired.
• No radish fruit visible after 3 months.

So, my desire for early seed germination must continue. I'm considering a small table-top grow tent. And:

• Which appears a good choice?
• Exactly what do I hope to accomplish?
• Where can I put it?

I've decided on a minimum of expectations:

• Spend as little as necessary for a starting tent
• Buy only the minimum necessary accessories (no ventilation fan, humidifier, etc.)
• Choose one that allows a lower level for two trays and a heat mat and an upper shelf trays under an LED lamp
• Sow seeds for only a few plants for early growing that require germination and allow transplanting
• Schedule planting for a good time to transplant when temperatures warm

Whatever, I want to have healthy plants growing in the garden as soon as weather allows.

As I was cleaning out dead plant matter one day in 2025 a neighbor stopped by and offered two skylights that had been at his house, but were removed because they were leaking. He wife is a gardener and she imagined their usefulness as clozes for plants in my garden.

I placed one of the skylights donated by a friendly neighbor at the edges of the raised bed several inches above the soil.In this version of experimental cold weather gardening I'm measuring and recording the average difference in temperature between the outside temperature and the temperature inside the low tent, day by day and throughout each day.

I have a data logger in the center of the garden to measure and log the ambient temperature. I placed a similar setup (at the far end of the bed) to measure and log temperature inside the low tent.