first spring harvest - a bowlful of greens

I picked a bowlful of greens from my cold frame today. They made a wonderful salad, and I am happy that this is the start of a new season of garden fresh food.

My cold frame contents suffered a lot mid winter from very low temperatures. About half the plants were damaged (mostly bok choy and lettuce) and died. Survivors perked up as light and temperatures increased. Now it's quite full. After taking this picture, I pulled the bolted bok choy. I think probably bok choy is not a good crop for my cold frame. (Trial and error is often the best way to learn...)

By seeing my heavily reinforced cold frame, I am reminded how much snow was piled up on it this winter. Hardship has built quite a bit of character into my frame! It has also made me very appreciative of spring.

"If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant."

reinforced cold frame

The problem with my cold frame was mostly that the center front wooden support rotted and the weight of the snow crushed it. Once it was gone, the side bowed out and then the covers sunk in. I propped up the covers and used string to pull in the sides. Once my husband saw this, he got out tools and fresh wood and fixed it properly. Now it has a reinforced center post, reinforced sides and a brace running across the middle of the frame.

collapsing cold frame

Today I checked my cold frame and saw it is collapsing. :-( The left side of it has bowed out and the top panels are sinking in under a full load of wet snow. (I'll add a photo here tomorrow.)

It had 3 feet of snow fall on it over the weekend - and then we had rain. The frame is a few years old now and was not designed to bear weight. I should have shoveled a path to it and cleared the panels of snow right away - but I told my husband, "no it will be fine". (wrong...)

So, I am looking into new cold frame designs.

cold cold frame

My cold frame temperature is getting up to 27*F (-3*C) or so with the midday sun on it, but it goes back down to bitter cold at night. It hasn't gotten above freezing in several days now. The greens are wilted. I have broccoli, escarole, bok choi spinach, lettuce, parsley and rosemary growing inside it. I don't know if anything will survive. It hasn't gotten this cold since we built the cold frame.

december cold frame

My cold frame is full of greens. The baby bok choy is a good size for eating now, and I love the thought that it should hold at this size for months in the cold. The other plants are a bit small for harvesting. They'll grow more in March, when the sunlight increases.


There are a couple of pots of greens that I didn't have room to plant. I am reminded now that I juts left them in the center of the frame. They don't enough soil and are dying. I hate to throw out seedlings.

My cold frame is being held together with more and more duct tape as tome goes on. And the wood supports have warped a bit and so my husband stapled old towels to block the the cold air from blowing in the spaces.

I have visions of rebuilding it sometime. I'd like a brick base. But there are so many options to decide on. Plastic or glass panes? Walk in or lift up panels? Kit, custom, or homemade? Heated? Same size or bigger or smaller?

getting the cold frame ready for winter

Friday, I transplanted my winter seedlings to my cold frame.

Before transplanting, I removed the cucumber vines and eggplants that were in the frame over the summer. I picked lots of cucumbers and a few eggplants, then pulled out the eggplants and pushed the cucumber vines to the back. There is still a big tomato plant growing in the frame and some herbs (rosemary, oregano, parsley and basil).

The seedlings I transplanted are all greens: lettuce, spinach, escarole, bok choy, etc. I'd like them to grow to harvest size over the next few weeks, while there is still enough light for them to grow. Later, they will stop growing but will hopefully remain good for harvest all winter. What actually happens depends on the weather.

The weather has been perfect weather for the recent transplants - rainy and cool. They look really good today. I will give them some fish fertilizer soon.

The cold frame cover panels are not on yet, but with frosty weather predicted soon, I will likely put them on next week. (I wonder if I need a fresh layer of plastic on the frame before winter. Looking at the photo, it seems I might.)

inside my coldframe

My cold frame has a patch of greens, some herbs and a few cayenne pepper plants that are still growing from the summer. Lots of open space that I can fill in early spring/late winter. In late February, the sun will hit the frame nicely again. (Now its mostly below the neighboring house.)

This will be the second winter for my cold frame. My husband made it in March 2010. This fall, I mail ordered some green house plastic and we replaced the top panels, which had grown brittle and had several tears. The sides are all purpose plastic from the local Home Depot. In the spring we replaced the two large sides. I'm planning to replace the small front piece this weekend. This week, we duct tapped several tears in this section, but more come quickly. I am wondering if I should use a large piece of the green house plastic and drape it over the frame with sand bags to give it more coverage for the winter. I've also been thinking about a soil warmer cable, but am afraid this will cost too much (in energy costs) to be worth it. I suppose if I had planted it as well as last winter, I would do this. But this year, I didn't get many fall seedlings planted.

replanted cold frame

I took all the overwintered plants (lettuce, spinach, beets, broccoli and endive) out of my cold frame in the beautiful warm weather on Friday, added six bags of manure and compost mix, turned it under, and then replanted everything. I also planted the seedlings I started on Jan 28 (leeks, onions, lettuce and escarole). There's a tray of seedlings (onions, arugula spinach, kale, dill and lettuce) that has been out in the frame since midweek that is doing well. The cold frame is turning into a perfect place to harden off plants. I also brought out a couple plants (a begonia and a fuchsia) that I was over wintering inside. Like me, they seem to have just barely survived the winter and need some real sunlight and warm air.

sunlight for the cold frame

I pulled off the tarp covering my cold frame today and let the plants get a couple hours of sun. We are now getting 10 hours and 19 minutes of sunlight per day here in the Boston area. Theoretically enough for plants to grow. Only its too cold. Tonight's predicted low is 5*F (-15*C). Brr. The cold frame never goes much below 25*F.

Its my first year with a cold frame and I think the plants look surprisingly good. Especially the spinach. I will try to give it a few hours of sunlight daily now and see if I can get it to start growing.

It looks like I should bring out a bucket of water for the dry soil.

Christmas eve aerial view of my side yard vegetable garden

We shook the snow off the tarp covering the cold frame in the morning. Once the sun hit it warmed up to 45*F, so I opened the doors and let it get some fresh air. I brought a few gallons of water out while it was open. Not much left inside, but I will pick a salad bowl full tomorrow (Christmas Day) and then let the rest wait 'til the spring starts it growing again.

cold frame ready for snow

We may get a couple inches of snow tonight, so we pulled the tarp down over the cold frame. The greens are still fine inside. I'm hoping for a Christmas Day harvest of fresh green salad.

I harvested a bag of greens the other day when a friend came by. I gave her a Christmas gift of fresh greens and a few squashes and garlic from my garden.

winter reds and greens

The greens are still growing in my cold frame. I think the lowest temperature they have seen in the frame is about 28*F. This was on a very cold night that went into the teens outside the frame. The remote thermometer monitors below show the cold frame temperature on the big display and the outside temperature on the smaller one.



I was worried to see the plants all wilted down, but they perked up as the temperatures came up. I had to bring a bucket of water out to water the plants yesterday as the soil is drying out.





Since its my first year with a cold frame, I not sure how long I can wait to harvest. So far, so good. But it seems some very cold weather is heading east on Wednesday and I will plan to harvest most of the greens before this.

I never did get a heater or even extra insulation added to the cold frame. Still impressive how well it has done to extend the harvest time.

cold frame greens

I have lots of greens in my cold frame, but the questions: are they growing? I think they are, but slowly. I'm trying to compare this photo with the one I took 10 days ago (click the label "cold frame" below). I'm wondering if things will grow enough in the next 10 days to get a big salad bowl full of greens for Thanksgiving.

remote thermometer in my cold frame

I have a new remote thermometer in my cold frame. Nothing special, but I like to be able to see the temperature during the day without going out and lifting the cover.

When there is no sun on the frame, the temperature is similar to the outdoor temperature. But it doesn't fall to the lowest temperatures at night. When there is sun on the frame, it gets 10 or more degrees warmer than outside. Only problem now is that the sun has sunk so low that it is mostly lower than the house next door and the frame stays quite cool.

Last night we had a good frost even in my side yard. My tomato plants are still standing and they wilted back. I will need to remove them soon. November 2 is a bit late for my first frost. Soon, I want to go back and get a list of my first frost dates for the past few years. I think they vary by about a month year to year

In the cold frame, the lettuce, escarole, spinach, beets, dill and broccoli plants are still growing, but slowly. I haven't set up my heating system, but this is on my to-do list.

cold frame ready for winter

On Saturday, I cleared out the old plants from my cold frame. I removed the cucumber, melon, squash vines, and a few tomatoes plants.

Then I pulled off the ripped plastic from the sides of the cold frame. A wind storm a month ago had ripped them. My husband and I cut and stapled on fresh side sheets. I checked on the type of plastic and the sides are 4 mil basic plastic sheeting from Home Depot. Its not very transparent, but reflects the light well. The front panel was also quite brittle, though not ripped, after a summer of bright light. It may need reinforcing sooner rather than later. (I think it would be good to use a stronger plastic that lasts better next time we replace this. The sides do not need to be transparent.)

After fixing the sides, my husband and I carried out the top panels that had been stored under a tarp behind the garage for the summer. We reattached the hinges. The plastic on these panels is looking very good. Unlike the sides, this is clear (and I think thinner plastic than the sides.) I like the way it reflects our newly painted green house.

The cold frame now looks ready to fill up with plants again. I have a row of broccoli at the back left and one kale plant at the front right. These are plants from the spring. The broccoli are producing heads again now that its cool. Also I planted a some rows of lettuce and beets at the back right a couple weeks ago. The rest is open soil waiting for plants. I brought down a tray of seedlings that I've had under lights. They had a little disaster last night as they fell over onto the floor, but I think they will be fine once they hydrate and unsquish.

On Sunday morning with the top covers down the temp came up to 60*F and the plants were looking very happy. I propped them open and Skippy and I admired the frame. I bet the lettuce will do well here this fall.

wind-ripped cold frame

We had a serious wind storm the other night. I believe it was the remnants of a hurricane, though I don't know which one. Lots of rain and wind. Its the first time I have had damage done to my cold frame. The plastic sides were ripped open. Fortunately, plastic panels are easy to fix. We'll staple on fresh sheets soon.