| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| mydakota |
Posted - Jul 26 2011 : 08:27:38 AM
Or as my kids call it "Moms magic box"  I posted a little about this on my thread that was just a general tour of my little farm. As I said, we live in a very arid climate with HUGE temperature swings from day to night. It can literally be 90 during the day, and then have frost at night. Last year I did some clicking around on the interwebz, and read about cold frame gardening. I decided to experiment with it a bit. Most folks use them as places to harden off their greenhouse plants, or as season extenders to get just a bit longer into the fall, and then to start plants just a bit earlier in the spring. Cold frames work very well in this capacity, and have been in service this way for years. But if you are willing to work them a bit, they can take you oh-so-much farther! I live in the high desert of Central Oregon. Fully 2/3 of our state is arid high desert. Most people not from here only are familiar with the land that is West of the Cascades (where most of the population is), but most of Oregon is NOT in a mild climate or fertile farmland. Where I live we get 8 to 10 inches of rain a year. It can freeze (and does) any month of the year. (Well, August is usually pretty reliable, but not always frost free even then.) Wintertime average nighttime lows are 10 to 20 above, but there is usually some below zero temps every year and this last year we had several snaps like this. The coldest it got was -14 (BEFORE windchill) and that held on for nearly a week. So, while not the coldest part of the country, it is definitely a challenge to garden here. Last year, I had my DH build me a cold frame. He is a contractor by trade, and remodels a lot of bathrooms, so we re-purposed an old shower door for our glazing and built the cold frame to fit that. The plywood was also from a job, as were the handles and hinges. The only thing we bought new was the paint. Since part of your frame will be submerged in the ground, it is important to paint it to help protect it. Also, color matters. If you live where you need to maximize heat, you will want to paint the outside very dark (brown or black) to absorb heat. You will want to paint the inside white to reflect light. Heat and light are both scarce in the winter, so you need to maximize both any way you can. You will want to build your lid on a slant, and orient it towards the South to maximize the energy of the sun. Because of our winter temps, I submerged mine several inches into the tilled soil. I then put old 4x4's about a foot out from it on 3 sides and then stacked green manure from my horses from the 4x4's toward the frame,as high as I could go. For aesthetics, I then covered this with grass clippings. All winter long, as the manure/clippings broke down and composted, they gave off heat and provided insulation. On the 4th side (the front) I just used grass clippings, as this was where I would be kneeling to pick and didn't want to kneel in manure! On nights it was supposed to be colder than about 24, I covered the frame with an old 6 lb sleeping bag, and then covered the bag with a tarp to keep it from becoming sodden. I DO have a light bulb installed, but have experimented without it all the way down to 6 degrees and it held on its own without it. I admit I plugged it in during the -14 though, at least during the night. I made the first planting in my frame around the 1st of August and continued new plantings up until about the 1st of November. After that, there just wasn't enough sunlight to get the seedlings (which DID sprout) up to harvestable size. Even so, we regularly ate salad out of this thing until the 22nd of February! Every morning I would tip-toe out there to see if the plants made it and every morning I would uncover a happy, smiling box of greens inside warm and happy as bugs in rugs! I finally tore them out (past their prime but still alive and producing) at the end of Feb and let the box stand open to the cold for one week (to kill off the aphids! Can you imagine? Aphids in Feb in Central Oregon!!!?) I replanted the first of March, and had salad again by the middle of April. So, we were without home-grown salad greens for just about 6 weeks out of the entire year! Lettuce was high last winter too, so we really saved some money and it was so good!  Just thought I would share that in case some of you might want to try it (and free yourself from the produce department during the off season when it is expensive) Here are some pics. These are from last year. Some of them are from around Christmas--no kidding. The frame is resting now and empty. I will replant it in about a month. We are also going to build a second one so that I can grow a little wider variety of things.
HearthCricket Farm. Where the door is always open, and the coffee is always on. |
| 10 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| camiesmommy |
Posted - Jul 28 2011 : 7:11:39 PM
Kristi, thanks for all the info. No worries about measuring it. I think we got enough info to know how we need to modify it. I'm excited to see what we can do this winter.
A.J.
Work is love made visible. ~ Kahlil Gibran |
| mydakota |
Posted - Jul 27 2011 : 9:45:31 PM
It is inset into the ground about 4 inches, but then compost is piled up the sides almost to the top. The back is about 4 inches higher than the front. I know that when we build the second one before this winter, we are going to make it about 4 inches taller than the existing one. Then I will plant the lettuce and carrots in the existing one, and chard, kale and spinach in the taller one. If I remember correctly, the back wall of the frame is about 20 inches and the front wall about 16. I can measure it for you tomorrow if you like.
HearthCricket Farm. Where the door is always open, and the coffee is always on. |
| camiesmommy |
Posted - Jul 27 2011 : 8:32:08 PM
Kristi, my DH loves what you have done. So we have a couple more questions. How deep are your sides, and are they slanted or straight? Ours are cut at an angle, 6" in front and 12" in the back. Also, how deep did you set it? We sit in a bit of a sink and so our temps can drop really low and stay that way for days on end. Two years ago, even with heat tape on our pipes we had 5 break. Even the one underground that goes from the well to our pump house.
A.J.
Work is love made visible. ~ Kahlil Gibran |
| laurentany |
Posted - Jul 27 2011 : 8:29:40 PM
That is so COOL! I have been thinking of building a cold frame so this was very helpful and interesting to me! Thanks so much for sharing! I Love your posts!!!!!
Smiles,
~Laurie
"Little Hen House on the Island"
Farmgirl Sister#1403
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.. |
| mydakota |
Posted - Jul 27 2011 : 08:57:56 AM
The light is just an old pendant light fixture that hubby salvaged off of a job. It was actually too much. One 40 watt bulb would have done the trick. The larger fixture with 2 bulbs actually cooked everything I had growing within about 8 inches. One thing I have found is that you are more likely to cook your stuff than freeze it. You MUST remember to vent when the temp is above freezing. It will handle extreme cold, but even moderate outside heat can make temps way to hot inside a closed up frame.
HearthCricket Farm. Where the door is always open, and the coffee is always on. |
| embchicken |
Posted - Jul 26 2011 : 5:53:32 PM
Kristi~ I love the pictures. I always need to see something before I attempt to build it. think I am going to try to build one before the end of the summer. I would love to not be aslave to the produce department this winter. Last year when prices got so high we just did without lettuce. :( I love the idea of the sleeping bag on top also. Thank you so much for sharing!
~ Elaine
Farmgirl sister #2822
"Find yourself a cup of tea; the teapot is behind you. Now tell me about hundreds of things." ~Saki
http://embchicken.blogspot.com
http://gusandtrudy.blogspot.com |
| camiesmommy |
Posted - Jul 26 2011 : 4:19:24 PM
Kristi that was amazing! My DH and I built 2 last summer using old sash windows. We live in Northern Nevada, but don't have the temp. Fluctuations at night. We did however, have snow on July 1 this year. We have only used ours for starting plants early and they have just sat ont the ground. Looks like we will be doing some modifications over the next few months. What type of light did you use? Thanks for sharing.
A.J.
Work is love made visable. ~ Kahlil Gibran |
| kristin sherrill |
Posted - Jul 26 2011 : 2:20:51 PM
That is a good idea tohave all that mulch-dirt around the box. I have one also. I was just looking at it. I had kale, mustard and spinach in it in spring. And now since I have let the chickens back out, they are really doing a great job composting it again for me. It's got some really good soil in it, thanks to them. I am thinking about planting some more beets. I think they will do great in the good soil. Thanks for sharing all your good pictures. That lettuce looks really good. I am going to plant some in the winter.
Kris
Happiness is simple. |
| natesgirl |
Posted - Jul 26 2011 : 09:07:16 AM
I've been wantin a cold frame. I think I might see about makin one this year. I like the idea of the shower door. I know a family member who is talkin of remodelin their bathroom. I might be able to get my hands on 2 shower doors!
Farmgirl Sister #1438
God - Gardening - Family - Is anything else important? |
| mydakota |
Posted - Jul 26 2011 : 08:30:50 AM
This is after we installed the light. Forecasts for that weekend were for -20 and I chickened out and put in a light. It only got to -14. Later, when the plants were past their prime, I experimented with how cold it could hold without the light and it held all the way down to 6 on its own. I didn't get the chance to test it any further than that, but it might have held. This thing is pretty amazing.
Check out this lettuce! It had been 0 degrees by this time!
HearthCricket Farm. Where the door is always open, and the coffee is always on. |
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