patandchickens
Deeply Rooted
I have a couple coldframes I use for seedlings in the spring, but they've always been frustrating to use for fall lettuce because it is just basically too tall for them.
I have a pile o wood from the rotting old back deck that I ripped off last month, and the more of it I can salvage the less I have to pay for disposal at the dump
So, this past Saturday when it was clear we were in for a prolonged cold spell, I knocked together this for the lettuce:
It is 2.5 x 4', and 3' tall. Plywood bottom, up on blocks so it doesn't rot the deck excessively (this is the warmest most sheltered location, so I pretty much *have* to have my end-of-season lettuce on the deck)
I just staplegunned white plastic feed- and shavings bags onto the frame, but will insulate it when I get around to it. The front window is an old storm window I got for free at the curb a few yrs ago that has cycled through various homebuilt coldframe structures around here
My plan is to reduce the number of boxes of lettuce in there, and raise the back ones up on black-painted jugs of water. I have not done this before in such a tall coldframe, so I will be curious to see how low a temperature it is good for. I cover it with that bedsheet there at night, but again, hope to make a foamboard-panel insulated cover for it one of these days Real Soon.
Took about an hour and a half, would have been faster if I weren't trying to use salvaged wood
Anyone else could do just as well -- it may not be pretty but could be *made* pretty by someone willing to buy new lumber and use something other than recycled feedbags, and it works just fine.
Pat
I have a pile o wood from the rotting old back deck that I ripped off last month, and the more of it I can salvage the less I have to pay for disposal at the dump
So, this past Saturday when it was clear we were in for a prolonged cold spell, I knocked together this for the lettuce:
It is 2.5 x 4', and 3' tall. Plywood bottom, up on blocks so it doesn't rot the deck excessively (this is the warmest most sheltered location, so I pretty much *have* to have my end-of-season lettuce on the deck)
I just staplegunned white plastic feed- and shavings bags onto the frame, but will insulate it when I get around to it. The front window is an old storm window I got for free at the curb a few yrs ago that has cycled through various homebuilt coldframe structures around here
My plan is to reduce the number of boxes of lettuce in there, and raise the back ones up on black-painted jugs of water. I have not done this before in such a tall coldframe, so I will be curious to see how low a temperature it is good for. I cover it with that bedsheet there at night, but again, hope to make a foamboard-panel insulated cover for it one of these days Real Soon.
Took about an hour and a half, would have been faster if I weren't trying to use salvaged wood
Anyone else could do just as well -- it may not be pretty but could be *made* pretty by someone willing to buy new lumber and use something other than recycled feedbags, and it works just fine.Pat
Maybe next year I'll go scavenging.
