| Author |
Garden Gate:  Cold frames  |
|
|
MustangSuzie
True Blue Farmgirl
634 Posts
Sarah
New London
Missouri
USA
634 Posts |
 Posted - Oct 17 2006 : 06:49:48 AM
|
Does anyone use cold frames? Or have any ideas how to make them from things on hand that wouldn't be alot of expense? Someone had mentioned they didn't can much anymore but gardened later in the fall and earlier in the spring. That sounds like a great plan.
Sarah |
|
|
Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Oct 17 2006 : 08:45:07 AM
|
| Hey, Mustang Suzie! I have a cool mini coldframe built in the shape of a greenhouse my ex husband built me from seeing a photo in Country Living Gardens mag years ago.....he used wood and plexiglass and it perfectly fits a large flat of seedlings; more for show than practicality if you have lots of seeds to start or young plants to shelter. I have also seen on the Victory Garden show several years ago the idea using hay bales for the walls and an old storm door or windows for the top, which can easily be propped open for ventilation with a branch, brick or terra cotta pots, etc. Heck, maybe even an old styrofoam cooler with a storm window for the top? Weight it down with bricks on the bottom or put it in a sheltered spot. Anyway, good luck and happy gardening!! Nance |
 |
|
|
bramble
True Blue Farmgirl
2044 Posts
2044 Posts |
Posted - Oct 17 2006 : 09:07:23 AM
|
We have a salvaged wood frame with old windows dh hinged so I can ventilate as needed. Not much expense, but definitely gives you an extended fall season and an early start in the spring.
with a happy heart |
|
|
|
OregonGal
True Blue Farmgirl
511 Posts
Chris
No. IL
USA
511 Posts |
Posted - Oct 17 2006 : 7:45:54 PM
|
| I start my plants for the garden in a cold frame - its rectangular, the size of a sliding glass door (got two for free at a garage sale). The back of the cold frame are two bales of hay, as well as the sides, and the front is a 2 x 6. Works out ok. |
|
|
|
MustangSuzie
True Blue Farmgirl
634 Posts
Sarah
New London
Missouri
USA
634 Posts |
Posted - Oct 17 2006 : 8:26:23 PM
|
| So when do you start your plants? Do you keep things in it all winter long? Can you put any kind of vegetables in it or just the cold hardy ones? |
|
|
|
ThymeForEweFarm
True Blue Farmgirl
705 Posts
Robin
An organic farm in the forest in
Maine
USA
705 Posts |
Posted - Oct 18 2006 : 04:23:00 AM
|
I'm the one who grows earlier and later than I used to. There's a picture on the main page of my website of seedlings inside a cold frame. http://thymeforewe.com. The plastic is in the bottom because I didn't want roots to grow into the gravel floor of the greenhouse. My coldframes are made of boards with glass doors for covers.
I need to add a second later of boards to this frame. For my zone, and I think yours is probably as cold, I need a 2" thick wall to help hold in warmth. A good deep layer of snow around the cold frame helps a lot. Snow is an excellent insulator.
http://fourseasonfarm.com/main/photos/greenhouse.html# This is my source of inspiration. There's a photo of greens growing in a coldframe surrounded by snow. This is Eliot Coleman's farm, which is absolutely incredible. There's nothing complicated at Eliot's. When I first got out of the truck I thought, "This is it? We drove three hours for this???" Not only had we driven three hours, my friend Sarah had flown from KY to ME to come with me! Then I started looking at it in a different way. That is it. It's really as simple as being able to grow food in a coldframe, and that's a good thing.
What to grow - there's a good list in one of Eliot's articles. http://fourseasonfarm.com/main/articles/articles/mother2.html Start the seeds immediately. You might not have a lot of success with such a late start but seeds are cheap and you'll start learning. Knowledge alone makes it worth it. Anyway, starting the seeds indoors now will give you some time to get a frame built. The plants need to get established in the frame before it gets much colder. A lot will stop growing by late December (not sure what parallel you're on, here on the 45th we stop growing just before Christmas) and become dormant until after Ground Hog's day. Soon after that the days get longer and those plants start to break dormancy.
Eliot's book Four Season Harvest is great. It's well worth the price.
Robin
www.thymeforewe.com
|
|
|
|
Horseyrider
True Blue Farmgirl
1045 Posts
Mary Ann
Illinois
1045 Posts |
Posted - Oct 18 2006 : 06:12:26 AM
|
| We used to have a hot bed and a cold frame made out of old windows. Our house is very old, and we had some windows that were HUGE. They worked very well. I got out of gardening for awhile in the nineties due to too much horsey stuff, but now I'm trying to fit it back in. And this time I'm going to get one of the fancy ones from Farm Tek. There's only the two of us now, so I don't think I'll need a greenhouse; and I worry about them in the prairie winds anyway. But the hot bed/coldframe idea suited us very well. We used the lights inside for sprouting, then moved them to the hotbed when they had a a few leaves. Then we hardened them off in the coldframe and then set them out. It worked great! |
|
|
| |
Garden Gate: Cold frames |
|
Cold frames
