Okay, serious stuff

I think I'm going to clean up a big part of my garage workbench and install a seed-starting station. I've got seed beds outdoors for big stuff, like palms and loquats, but no really good place to start small seeds--peppers and cacti and such.

The bench has fluorescent shop lights overhead and they can be altered so they can be lowered and raised as need be.

The top of the bench is 2-inch by 12-inch pine/fir planks. I want to lay down heating mats or heating coils. What, if anything, should I put between the mats or coils and the wooden planks?

I think I will put something like cookie sheets, the kind that are shallow pans, on top of the mats/coils so I can control both irrigation and humidity. I do not intend to enclose the growing medium [some variation on peat pots, unless someone has a better idea] in a tent or one of those little "greenhouses" since the garage never gets below 50 degrees.

What else do I need to consider? What would you do differently? I've never started seedlings indoors before [bet it shows, eh?].

What say ye?

Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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