COLD FRAME GARDENING

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Secure one of the long sides of the cover by sandwiching the plastic between some nailer strips and the frame itself. This side will not have to be removed until the entire cover is put away after all danger of frost has passed. The other long side and the ends are arranged for ventilation, which can be achieved by turning back one of the long sides (a necessary step anyway when you wish to work in the garden). This "mobile" side should be secured to an opening wand, which is made of 1" x 2" overlapping furring strips that have been clasp-nailed together to make a continuous length of 24 feet.

Again, the plastic should be sandwiched between nailer strips (scrap lath, screen molding, etc.) and the opening wand so that the nail heads do not rip through the plastic. The cold frame can be opened entirely simply by rolling up the plastic onto the opening wand, which is then placed on the opposite or fixed side of the frame. But actually—no matter how hot the weather gets—the plastic hardly needs to be completely rolled back. Instead, it can be rolled up halfway, so it is sitting on top of the hoops, secured by placing the ends of the furring-strip wand into notched vertical 2 x 4s that have been nailed to the end of the frame. (The bottom of the notches are at the same height as the top of the hoops.)

End ventilation, which is almost always sufficient, is even easier. The ends are normally kept loosely rolled in a spare four-foot wooden piece sitting on the ground. To ventilate, just unroll the plastic from the piece of wood, roll it back up on itself, secure it with a clip or stuff it between the last metal hoop and the vertical support member. With both ends open you get good cross-ventilation.

No matter how high the winds or how fierce the spring rains and snow, this cold frame sits proudly. Most snow simply slides off as it falls, and any that attempts to accumulate soon melts away from the heat radiated by the dark soil within. Moreover, the whole thing is really cheap, averaging out at less than $10 per year.

Setting Up and Managing a Cold Frame

I always set up and plant the garden in the second half of March. Because my soil is so black, it is free of snow and has thawed out long before the surrounding area. I wait for one of those unusually warm days that we sometimes get in this area at the end of the winter when it is a joy to be working outside. (One March, I went cross-country skiing in a park just 30 miles from here in the morning and planted my garden the same afternoon.) With all materials on hand, I can construct the cold frame and plant the entire garden in a long afternoon.

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