14 WAYS TO EXTEND YOUR GARDENING SEASON

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Since plants go dormant at low temperatures, get your cold frame up and running well into summer so your cool-season veggies will be ready for picking in winter and early spring. Then, either let them go dormant or keep new ones growing by turning your cold frame into a hot bed with soil heating tape. First lay down a sheet of Styrofoam insulation, cover it with a layer of sand, add a layer of soil, lay down the heat tape (as directed on the label), add another layer of sand, and cover it with 6 to 8 inches of loam. Connect the heating tape to a switched outlet, and your cold frame will become a hot bed at the mere flip of a switch.

Next spring, use your cold frame to get a jump on the planting season. When you're ready to transplant seedlings to the garden, leave a few behind in the cold frame to mature earlier than the transplanted veggies; after the danger of frost has past, remove the cover and let the cold frame function as a raised bed.

11. Start seeds indoors.

Even if you don't have a cold frame, you can get a three-month jump on next year's planting season by starting seeds indoors. We find that seedlings we start ourselves take off like a shot when they're transplanted, compared to store-bought seedlings that fritter away, sometimes growing slowly and bearing poor fruit, and sometimes just up and dying (see "Starting Seeds Indoors," issue #136). You'll be ready for spring planting, while at the same time doing your bit for recycling, if you start saving empty yogurt containers, plastic cups, and the like to hold your seedlings.

Window-sill seedlings grow spindly and otherwise don't do nearly as well as seedlings started under a light. A whitelight fluorescent tube will cost you much less than a nursery grow-light, and you can save even more by watching for sales on tubes and fixtures during bargain seasons of summer and fall.

Set up your nursery about three months before the last expected frost-free date in your area. Continue starting seeds of different kinds (see "Starting Seeds Indoors." chart on page 60) until about a month before the expected last frost in your area. Transplant seedlings into slightly larger pots when they reach 3 to 4 inches, and again when they reach 6 to 8 inches. By the time your garden soil warms up enough for transplanting, you'll have sturdy plants with strong roots.

Start Your Own Seeds
Our home-started seedlings flourish while the store bought seedlings fritter away

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