Big $0 coldframe from scrap

[modern_pioneer]

Pat, I am designing my cold frame and I have a large 54w x 38h inch window that is double paned. So if I place the window at an angle, originally it slid left to right, should I use the double panes? or kick them back to singles and make two?

I would have to cut the runners in two in order to make two, that would be a pain. Also, should I consider placing some water inside or flat black pop cans to use as a heat source?

How deep should the cold frame be at the bottom? Do I place the soil directly into the bottom or line the bottom?

Thanks

 

[patandchickens]

Pat, I am designing my cold frame and I have a large 54w x 38h inch window that is double paned. So if I place the window at an angle, originally it slid left to right, should I use the double panes? or kick them back to singles and make two? I would have to cut the runners in two in order to make two, that would be a pain.

If it were me, I'd do whatever seems easiest

Also, should I consider placing some water inside or flat black pop cans to use as a heat source?

IMO coldframes pretty much always benefit from added thermal ballast, e.g. stuff all available open spaces with containers of water (only about 3/4 full so they don't crack open if they freeze). This will make it warm up a bit more slowly in the morning *but* will also decrease how overly hot it gets at midday and how cold it gets at night.

How deep should the cold frame be at the bottom?

Depends what you foresee yourself using it for. I mainly put windowbox-sized planters in mine (for lettuce), which are fairly deep, and I want lettuce growing in the front-most planter to have some headroom so it is not mashed up against the glass where the bottom of it slants down; so I think the front vertical part is maybe a foot (ish) high? If you will mostly use it for seedling flats, you would not need so much height.

Do I place the soil directly into the bottom or line the bottom?

There are a couple ways you can go, depending on your circumstances. The traditional way is to make the cold frame bottomless, and plant directly into the soil it is covering or just set your potted or flats of plants onto that soil. In many circumstances this is quite satisfactory.

I built mine with a solid plywood bottom, though, because a) we have an awful lot of mice and voles around here and a person can get real tired of losing seedlings to them, and also b) mine was specifically intended as a season-extending device to run in the 'heat trap' location of my s-facing front deck, so I wanted an enclosed air chamber and one with its own bottom.

I would not advise using the version like mine with a bottom directly on the soil -- in fact on the deck I have it up on blocks so it doesn't rot the deck boards. But just b/c you are on a deck or paving does not necessarily mean you need a bottom on your cold frame. My other cold-frames, which are just for hardening things off and for starting fall lettuce, are bottomless.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

This makes me kind of excited. I have an old glass french door, and several old old old glass windows that were in our barn, and will have some from the house soon too.

I suppose I could make a pitch roofed little greenhouse with windows and sun tuff or something for the roof..

 

[cknmom]

DH is making me a cold frame out of french doors he replaced at DMIL's. He is building them into the southfacing hillside by the garden. The link for the hotbed looks like the type of frame he is going to do.

I think I will put an ad on freecycle for old windows! With the wind we have here we cannot have anything with plastic sheeting. I like the looks of those window houses!

Pat, thanks for mentioning about the mice and voles!! We hadn't thought of that-we have a terrible problem with ground squirrels and gophers. If we don't line the coldframe with chicken wire, we could lose everything!

Monica