The Great Cold Frame Experiment

[Chickie'sMomaInNH]

Wife, have you been to Mother Earth News lately? i just saw a neat idea of using a ceramic pot filled with water, but it also has a bird bath deicing heater to help keep it just above freezing!

 

[JimWWhite]

Wife, have you been to Mother Earth News lately? i just saw a neat idea of using a ceramic pot filled with water, but it also has a bird bath deicing heater to help keep it just above freezing!

Now that's a great idea!

 

[marypboland]

Well I have messed around with cold frames for years, but was never too pleased with the results. This year I went a completely different route. I bought three 4' long grow lights with the fixtures for hanging on chains (to adjust heights) and got my husband to make me a 52" tall stand with three shelves. The first shelf is 24" from ground level so tomato transplants can get large before going out. Top two shelves are closer together and accommodate trays of starts. The lights hand on chains from hooks on underside of shelves and of course can be adjusted up or down.

I can have a huge garden ready to go out this way with no trouble at all. So instead of fighting the elements, I grow a lot when the weather is right and put up a lot in a freezer. I find this to be much easier gardening! And I am just now finishing the chard, beans, and tomato sauce I put up last summer.

 

[I'm A Gardener :)]

I had a cold frame until my dad filled it with soil and made it a raised bed.
This year, however, I made one with an old window for the light, wood on the sides, and then black roofing paper on the bottom to keep the weeds out. Haven't planted anything in it yet. I will be using the containers in it, though.... I was thinking of, over the winter, filling it up with straw and trying to grow a few cold weather plants in it over winter. However, I'm in zone 7, on the coast, so it might work!!!

 

[897tgigvib]

Who all has a cold frame? I keep putting it off Someone kick me in the rear and get me to making one!

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I have a couple of them. They really come in handy to get an early start and to extend the season for some plants. The one closest to the house has broken glass but I have a new (newer) piece of glass for it. It's on my roundtoit list.

 

[thistlebloom]

I've got the old glass for a couple, just haven't done it yet. Dh is waiting on a job to be ready for him, maybe we can dig the scrap lumber pile out of the snow and he can build me one while he's twiddling his thumbs...

 

[so lucky]

I was thinking about just putting an old window over four bales of straw, out in the garden area, to use as a temporary cold frame. But I was wondering if it would get enough sunlight inside it--guess it would. I would just have to orient it the right direction.

 

[Smart Red]

Who all has a cold frame? I keep putting it off Someone kick me in the rear and get me to making one!

I have one but will have to move it now that the new garden shed puts it in the spring shade. Or perhaps I won't need it with the new garden shed. I should be able to use the garden shed to start and protect most anything I could have put in the cold frame.

Love, Smart Red