Cold frame, seeds, and garden stuff
Feb 22nd, 2009 by Amy
It has been a busy week in the garden. The sun came out for a few days and inspired us to get outside. I am most excited about my Christmas present that Matt finished yesterday - my very own cold frame. It’s a perfect place for our newly started seeds to go before they are planted. We will also use it to extend the growing season of basil and other heat loving vegetables. It took a few hours to put the whole thing together, plus a visit to Bring Recycling for a used window and to Jerry’s Home Improvement for wood and hardware. Matt used this site as a guide to build it.
While Matt was constructing my coldframe, I weeded and put a rotation of french breakfast radish, arugula, mache, and mesclun mix in our warmest, sunniest bed. The germination will probably be a little erratic, but that will actually work to our advantage.
As mentioned above, we also started two trays of seeds indoors. The trays include onions (red and yellow), leeks, eggplant, romanesco broccoli, fennel, brussel sprouts, and several different types of lettuce. We don’t have a flourescent lamp setup yet, but they are in a south facing window. I also put a large desk lamp over them to supplement the natural light. We will know in a few days whether I did everything right. I am realizing more and more that gardening is about making mistakes, learning, and adjusting.
Our next project will be prepping spots for the eleven fruit trees that we ordered. We ended up ordering 3 apples (Gravenstein, Spartan, Golden Russet), 2 pears (Shannon, Comice), 2 plums (Italian Prune, Mirabelle), and 4 cherries (Ranier, Lapin, Danube, Montmorency). They will be arriving in the next couple of weeks and should go in the ground right away.
Looks great! I have an old door I was planning to use for a cold frame, but seeing yours, I think the door will be too heavy. Darn.
Can’t wait to hear more about the fruit tree adventure!
This project came out looking a lot better than ours. My uncle and I put together something similar to this, but it looked a lot less professional. We’re big on home improvement. Good luck with your “planting adventures.” I am quite excited to see pictures!
Eugenia - definitely lighter is better. I don’t think I would use a window much bigger than the one we used.
GutterRoof - Thanks for visiting. I take no credit for the professionalism of the construction - completely Matt’s
What a great find at Bring’s! Matt definitely deserves a gold star! This is by far the nicest looking cold frame I’ve seen.
Thanks all. You are making me blush. I am primitive Pete when it comes to building stuff, so this was a major undertaking. A small miracle I finished it, it works and I didn’t hurt myself in the process.
Am i ready to build a chicken coop now? We will see.
Just wanted to share some cold frame info. If you look at the picture on my site you can see a black plastic tote. All three hardware super stores carry these totes for around $12. These tote are tough and are 8 inches high which fits great in a cold frame made out of 2×10. Plus the fit three planter trays “flats” Totes make it easy to move all your seedlings indoors with “ONE TRIP” Thanks for sharing your info.
Kochs - thank you for the coldframe ideas!