Seed swap calendar
I took photographs at every stage in a café near the moor, which turned out more useful than the notes.
This started as a dare from a friend in March 2026 and grew from there. Notes on this sit in the same box as a pile of offcuts and a folding table. Feel free to borrow any of the notes about houseplants from this site, no need to ask. Thanks for stopping by; everything here was made quietly, mostly on the train into Aarhus.
Materials came from the back of my own shed and the scrap bin at a local workshop, which made the whole thing much cheaper. A friend from Aarhus helped with the last coat of paint, and the result is better for it.
How it went
- Sketch it on paper first
- Gather materials and tools
- Fix whatever broke
- Live with it for a few weeks
- Build a rough first version
Notes
Halfway through I changed my mind about the colour, and never looked back. Most of the measuring happened at the kitchen table, with a drawer of string and tape holding the paper flat and the woman who runs the hardware shop offering advice. A second attempt, on a long weekend in 2026, went smoothly, for once.
There is a short list of next steps, starting with a sticky drawer and the glue-up. Pages here change slowly, usually whenever the weather allows, and that suits houseplants just fine. Funnily enough, the design of this page is plain on purpose so that it will still work on an old phone, much like a cheap desk lamp.
Some of the older notes about houseplants are out of date, but I keep them as a record of the mistakes. It took three attempts and one borrowed clamp before the result looked like something I would show anyone.
The cost was mostly time; the materials came to less than a train ticket to Aarhus, thanks to a neighbour’s shed. Admittedly, it still has two mystery screws, but I have decided it is a reminder of how it was made. I kept a short log in the small room above the stairs while working on it, mostly so I would remember how long each step took.
Late in 2024, I finally got it to the point where I learned more than I expected. I return to it on long summer evenings, fix whatever annoys me most, and leave the rest for later. Everything here was done with basic tools, mainly a garden trowel and a lot of patience. The plan changed twice, mostly because of the joints and partly because of the wiring.