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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

The Cold Frame

Where did those gorgeous radishes come from?  Why, I grew them myself - in our cold frame, which we built this year in one of our garden beds.  We surrounded it with straw bales, which began to compost as soon as they got wet.  Composting makes heat.  Heat keeps my greens warm all winter.  We covered it with an old glass panel from our screen door - the big kind, around 6ft tall - which lets in plenty of light.  I tucked some plastic around the edges to seal up holes.  Next year I'll use black landscaping fabric - the black will hold heat even better.  I'd have done it this year, but I lost it in the studio.  I just found it again yesterday.

This winter we grew spinach, radishes, lettuce, arugula and a big parsley that I transplanted into it at the end of the season.  A couple of things to remember:  You have to take the cover off and water things once in a while - a couple of gallons of lukewarm water is all I need every few weeks.  Also, if you get a lot of snow, you have to scrape it off every few days to let the light in.

This is a photo of the cold frame on December 7th.  It had survived several days of around 0 weather.   Things aren't looking so lush today - it is January after all, but I still have plenty of greens.  

More photos later when we get Adobe back up and running and a new battery for the camera.  Sigh.