Sunday, March 7, 2010

New Cold Frames

I never got around to blogging about it, but last fall I built a cute little cold frame. My intention was to try and have spinach growing and harvestable during the winter/early spring. I bought wood for 2 frames, made one (2.5'x2'), and put it into operation. I got the glass from old windows that I asked for on freecycle. (They turned out to be windows that were removed after the 2001 tornado damaged this person's house; they wanted all the windows in the house to match.) I bought the last spinach plants at my local nursery and what I thought was kale. It turned out to be broccoli :-) I stuck them in my cold frame which sat on top of my sheet mulched bed around the young blueberry bushes. They loved it. The broccoli pushed against the glass top until I encouraged it to do something else. The spinach (just 3 plants) was so small until a few weeks ago that I did not want to harvest it for fear of killing it.

But I did finally get brave and harvest some spinach for salads a week or two ago. I was then further inspired. I ordered spring seeds from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. This weekend I built and installed another larger (2'x5') cold frame. I plan on doing a second large one today. Yesterday I planted kale, spinach, swiss chard, and lettuce mix. I am trying to figure out how to track my efforts in the gardening arena so I can figure out what works and what needs tweaked. I'll let you know when I decide!

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