#cold frames

[jensownzoo]

Been working all this week getting all the tomatoes potted up into individual pint pots from the various packs so they have plenty of room (and fertilizer) to grow before being transplanted out. I also moved all but twelve into the cold frames, mostly because there wasn't any room for them inside anymore and the peppers and eggplants are more heat-sensitive. I have...a lot of tomato starts.

The east cold frame with Tidy Cats litter bucket planters of spinach plus some of the tomato seedlings, a bunch of packs of germinating flower varieties, and the single pot of French tarragon that I was able to resurrect.

The west cold frame with much of the same, including the seed snails of parsnips, beets, and leeks. Got the parsnips transplanted into the sidewalk raised bed yesterday and plan to do the leeks sometime this week. The beets will wait for a good set of true leaves first (this is the reseeded snail after the first transplanted seedlings died in a hard freeze). I do have direct-seeded beet seedlings emerging now so I'll use the transplants to fill in any gaps.

I am so glad that I found that second 4 foot shoplight during alleyway scavenging early last fall. I had to be creative while hanging it (the reason why it was junked), but I think it's made a big difference in the quality of my seedlings this year. Everything is growing fast, but more importantly growing strong.

Some things are growing a little TOO fast. The Black Beauty eggplants are now 6" tall and it's nowhere near warm enough outside for them. The "issue" was the seeds germinated immediately—I had factored in a 3 week lag. The Antigua eggplants took nearly that full 3 weeks to germinate and so are only 2" tall right now. It's a great problem to have though given last year's issues with eggplant seedlings and pests that resulted in total crop failure.

The two earthboxes of peppermint were unearthed from their heavy covering of straw and moved to the bank of other earthboxes in the back. The squirrels started digging in the boxes so I had to put a rack over them until they fill out.

Three rescued spent mums made it through the winter (plus the established one from previous years). I moved this one yesterday from its temporary location in the rear raised beds to join the other two in the front in-ground bed as part of the erosion-prevention brigade.

Potted up the first of sweet potato slips from the sprouting potatoes in my bathroom (warm, sunny). Four orange and four Japanese. There are a whole bunch of those lime green decorative slips ready in a glass jar of water too—I think I'll plant several of those per pot to use in containers later. As I have no space in the cold frames until the tomatoes start moving out, right now these are put in the shed at night and on an outdoor table during the day.

The tulip bulbs I planted from the spent bulb planter last spring finally started to bloom only to be blasted apart by a windstorm before I got a good pic. But it looks like they're pink as you can see from this petal! I had predicted either pink or red. I was hoping for red, but can't sneeze at free. Which these were. So that's yellow dwarf daffodils, dark purple hyacinths, and pink tulips—not bad.

And it looks like the hard prune reset I did on the chartreuse barberry this fall worked! It will take a while to get as big and filled out as it had been but at least I don't have to try to dig it up and replace it.

Unfortunately it looks like I may need to try that process with one of the four azaleas in the walkup hedge. The rest look like this now and are covered in bumblebees, but the one closest to the house has a lot of dead wood and no blooms. So hard prune a'comin'. Luckily even if it dies, its neighbor will happily fill in the space so no worries.

[jillraggett]

Plant of the Day

Thursday 12 September 2024

The cultivar Cucurbita pepo 'Solara' (courgette, zucchini) has a compact, bushy tendril-free habit and here is being given additional protection by the use of cold frames. The yellow skinned courgettes are produced over a long period from July to October.

Jill Raggett

[growingwildgardens]

Winter Sowing Alternatives and Troubleshooting 🐛🪻🍂

If you're looking for alternatives specific to species that require cold stratification, I go more in-depth on those here

But if you're mainly looking to replicate the earlier sowing window - great for short growing seasons or plants that take a long time to reach maturity (like peppers) - and additional heating benefits of the winter sowing method, there's a few other ways to trick the seasons for those who don't have access to a greenhouse.

-Cold Frames 🪟: Essentially a mini greenhouse. Transparent box, or one with insulated sides and a clear upper half & roof, built around a short raised or ground bed. Can buy pre-built ones, find plans online, or rig your own up out of plexiglass, polycarbonate sheets, or even old glass windows. Make sure it's not too heavy to access to weed, prune, and water.

-Poly Tunnels🔺️: Low tunnels of made of polythene plastic and a steel framing, meant to sit a few feet above rows of in-ground plants. Can rig your own from polycarbonate sheets or plastic sheeting, wood, and pvc pipes. Make sure to have a soaker hose or other in-ground watering system, or be able to otherwise access the row to water.

-Indoor starts 💡: Starting seed indoors, either in a warm sunny spot or with the aid of grow lights and tray warmers. Check seed packets or local planting schedules to be sure you don't start things too early to put them out, and remember they'll need to be hardened off for several days when moved outside.

Troubleshooting:

-❄️🌙 These outdoor methods don't provide much insulation so will only raise the low temps at night by a few degrees, keep this in mind and prioritize cold-hardy plants until the very early spring

-🐛🐌 Slugs are the main pest in colder months, consider having other cover and winter crops around for them to target and using slug traps (recipe from OSU)

-☀️🌡When it does start to warm up, these outdoor options will get very warm. Make sure they have ventilation and, if the temperatures are hot enough, that the top of the tunnels or frame are removed for the day

[outdoor-anarchy]

Gonna work on building some cold frames today!

[diygabl]

Cold Frames: The Secret To Winter Gardening

If you’re the type of food gardener that wants to enjoy a 4-season harvest, you need learn about cold frames, ASAP. That is, if you’re not already using them.

Cold frames aren’t complicated, mystical or difficult to use. They are nothing more than a basic raised bed with an old door, window or other piece of glass placed on top. These humble boxes are true gardening wonders. They can extend your salad season by months. And, cold frames will allow you to sow some of your hardier seeds directly outdoors while spring is still chilly, freeing up your indoor space for starting other, more fragile crops like tomatoes. Which is great, because seedlings get a better start when they have real sun versus artificial light. Best of all, cold frames give you the ability to grow food year round, no matter what the weather is doing outside!

What can you sow and grow in a cold frame? There are plenty of options for growing in a cold frame but these are some of the most popular:

Arugula

Broccoli

Beets

Cabbage

Carrots

Chard

Kale

Lettuce – all kinds!

Mustard

Onion

Radish

Spinach

The veggies above are easy to grow and can be directly sown in cold frames, even in late winter. As your days get longer as spring nears, you can even grow and sow crops like bulb onions, tomatoes and potatoes in your cold frame. When the day comes that the cold frame is no longer needed, remove the top and move the cold frame “lid” to another bed or new location. Then you can start another round of seeds under the frame. In addition to direct sowing, you can also use a cold frame to sow hardy crops that are easily lifted and transplanted into rows, such as crops like onions and cabbage.

Options for Building Your Cold Frame

A cold frame can be made out of many things. You can build a simple wood box with a recycled window, door or even a shower door on top. You can use hay bales to make an enclosure and cover it with plastic. I’ve even seen cold frames built with bricks and concrete cinderblocks, using a piece of glass, plastic, or fiberglass on top. Pretty much any mixture of the above items will work, if you’re creative enough to make it all fit together nicely.

Your frames can be wildly different, however it is probably smart to try and make them of the same size, if possible. This way you can move the “tops” around from frame to frame as you need to in the early spring.

It’s best to build your cold frames in the sun, facing south if at all possible.

Extra Insulation

If you live in a colder climate (say north of Zone 6), you may want to add in extra insulation. Solar insulators are one way to add more warmth to your frame. This is done by placing black containers filled with water around the outside of your frame, and some gardeners like to place them inside the frame in the corners of the box. You can use pretty much any plastic container for this purpose – just paint it black. (I’ve heard of some people using wine bottles as well, though I have no practical experience with them myself.)

You can also insulate the sides of your cold frame with straw bales, piles of soil or mulch, or black garbage bags filled with leaves. On very cold days or nights, you can even use blankets for insulation!

Beware – Overheating

Cold frames will give your plants an extra shelter from the elements, such as ice, snow or cold winter winds. The soil inside the cold frame “heats up” in the sunshine, and will warm up much faster than regular ground soil. But if you’re not careful, your cold frame can overheat and fry your plants. It’s essential that your cold frame be opened a bit to allow excess heat to leave. You can do this by propping the top of your cold frame up with a stick on one side (like opening a lid on a hinged jewelry box). Be sure to fasten it carefully if winter winds are a problem.

On warmer winter days, or extremely sunny days (even if it is freezing outside), you should allow your cold frame to vent. If you can’t be around to open and close your frame, you can cover your frame with a light-blocking blanket during your absence.

Once you start using cold frames, you’ll be hooked, so beware. One little cold frame will multiply into several cold frames, and it’s easy to see why. Using cold frames in the garden allows you to enjoy a 4-season harvest and will bring spring to your garden weeks ahead of schedule.

[regnum-plantae]

Re-designing to bring the outside in.

I’m unfortunately/luckily stuck home with the flu, so I took advantage of the occasion to practice thinking out and sketching designs focused on home food production. This one is based on a common Scottish, and British in general, house design which I’ve rarely seen put to really good use. Due to the unreliable weather a Scottish garden can hardly be enjoyed year-round, so glass extensions are often attached to the house and accessible from the kitchen or more commonly from the dining/living room area.

I tried to re-imagin the common layout with these features:

- The walk-in pantry (1) in a cool, dry corner of the house is easily accessible from the kitchen (2), which in turn is located right next to the extension, helping to keep the temperature higher in there. 

-Right next to the kitchen (2), in the extension, the herb spiral (7) and compost boxes (8) are within easy reach. This important area uses kitchen and garden waste to produce heat and fertiliser on one side and grows herbs for cooking on the other. 

-The wooden deck (6,) shaded by vines growing on trellis from planters positioned on the two steps, is the place where the outside meets the inside. While relaxing on the couch (5) or sitting on the deck itself, you should still feel outside.

-Two sloping beds of different sizes (9)&(10), are used for annuals and perennials vegetables, tropical or frost-tender, fruit-producing shrubs and small trees. On the outer wall of the extension, large cold frames (11) host small, trained trees, vines and more vegetables. The smaller bed (9) receives the greywater from the kitchen. 

-The kitchen (2) is not the only place to cook food. A three-chambered fireplace (4) allows to store wood and cook on hot coals while keeping a live flame for heat, whereas outside a small roofed cooking deck (12) houses a wood-oven, smoker and wooden stove. 

I tried to mix together elements that I’ve seen working in some of the houses I know, while others are precise improvements. If anybody has an extension devoted to food production I’d love to see photos of it!

Watercolours and black ink + PS for editing. I don’t have a scanner, but I do have a ruler, somewhere.  

[jensownzoo]

Cracked open the cold frames today to tidy and fertilize and get some lettuce planted in the defunct kale bucket. Unfortunately some of the spinach that I thought had made it had died/was actively dying.

The roots had apparently frozen and rotted. But four plants survived, two of each variety (Double Choice Hybrid and Bloomsdale Long Standing). I gave a light tug on the plants and their roots seem to be still holding firm.

I added some "fertilizer" to the empty spots—the "fertilizer" being a super greens smoothie powder that was mainly powdered veggies and fruits. Hopefully some of the spinach seeds I started indoors last week will provide transplants to fill the empty spots.

Happily, two of the Swiss chards that I thought were goners were not.

Both of the survivors were Ruby Red chard—the one from the Rainbow mix did die so I pulled it. Not sure if that was coincidence or if the Ruby Reds are more cold hardy as the sample size is too small. The Ruby Reds did have smaller, thicker, more savoyed leaves though. Anyway, I sowed some Extra-dwarf Bok Choy in the bare spot left by the dead one.

In addition to sowing some mystery lettuce seed (from the seed library last year), I also removed some green onions that weren't doing well from this half of a small earthbox and sowed some Bibb lettuce in their place. Wasn't super impressed with the Bibb last year in comparison to the romaine-types, but it wasn't awful. If it doesn't do well here then no biggie. I'll be starting some of the romaines inside successively maybe later this week.

And speaking of inside...

First Chinese broccoli seedling is up!

And a boatload of hybrid beets in the seed snail. I saw some radicules on a few of the shallot seeds too, but they looked like perlite in a pic.

The Black Beauty eggplant seeds were germinating like crazy, so I went ahead and potted them all up.

One of the other varieties (Malaysian Dark Red) in the same sprouting bag was developing a greenish-black mold, so I carefully moved the two unaffected varieties (Antigua and Ping Tung) to a fresh set-up. I also put all of the seemingly unaffected seeds from the moldy variety in its own fresh set-up, but I don't have high hopes for it—the seed was already pretty old to begin with.

I also looked at the weather forecast (it was 60F today!) and given that only one day in the next ten is supposed to drop below freezing, I decided to take a chance with an early sowing of carrots:

Lightly prepped one 2x4' section of the sidewalk adjacent raised bed and scattered some Scarlet Nantes seed that I got a big packet for free in the alleyway (in a bag full of old seed packets). It's five year old seed so I scattered it pretty thickly. Decided to scatter it instead of making rows to try that out. I left a few inches at the back free for sowing peas a little later. Covered it loosely with some clear plastic sheeting I also scavenged, weighed down with bricks to keep the critters out. I ended up scattering a little bit of straw on top so I didn't end up accidentally solarizing everything.

Bonus pic of the scavenged bulbs I planted peeking through the leaves:

Daffodils and one hyacinth seem to have made it so far. The old clumps of daffodils I have in my south-facing front yard already have several inches of leaves so spring is definitely on its way!

[jensownzoo]

Yesterday was a bit too breezy to deal with opening the cold frames to transfer seedlings and stuff so I started today because I sowed the rest of the eggplant and pepper seeds I had in the germinating bags and wanted to move them onto the heating mat.

(Waiting patiently on a shelf in the warm bathroom).

Dug around in the fava bean pots that hadn't produced seedlings and two of the pots had rotted seeds and two of the pots had seeds sending out roots. So I removed the two duds and put the rest out in the cold frame to harden off. Going to try transplanting them out early next week under a row cover.

I also dug into the cells of spinach and didn't find any seeds so I assume they rotted. Added fresh seed and put them out in the cold frame to germinate just in case it was too hot for them indoors. The fall-sown Double Choice Hybrid spinach is due for another harvest as you can see. I've got lettuce so it will probably end up in a salad.

Took the three bok choy that germinated in the same cell and separated and repotted them. I dug in the cells with the cabbage and found intact seed, so I moved the pack to the cold frame and will wait a bit longer for germination (I already reseeded last week).

Beet snail moved to cold frame to harden off. Also hope to get these transplanted with the favas. Parsnip snail total failure—can't find evidence of the seeds. Reseeded and covered with fresh soil. I have never gotten parsnips to germinate, but I'll keep trying. Maybe it was too warm...

I did also move the snails with my singular leek and singular shallot to the cold frame as well. I don't have enough new seed to resow them so we'll just have to see if anything else shows up or not without further interference.

Lettuce seedlings are starting to pop up. I'll wait until the favas and beets are in the ground then move this pack to the cold frame. I think the lavender seed is starting to sprout but what's coming up looks so much like the random tiny plants that's sprouting from the non-sterile potting soil I'm using that I'm going to have to wait and see.

And now all the eggplant and peppers fit. (btw I keep the temperature probe for the rheostat clipped to a cup of water instead of in one of the cells because I move things around a lot and don't want the probe jostling delicate roots)

I have no more sifted potting soil leftover for tomatoes and flowers and herbs though. Going to raid a few pots holding defunct houseplants to see if I can't get a few packs filled for the tomatoes at least since I'd like to set up the germination bags for them in the next day or so. My tomato goal for this year are cherry/grape tomatoes for chicken snacks, currant tomatoes for the freezer, and one or two varieties good for "sun"-dried tomatoes. It would be a year to can pizza sauce but I came into a quantity of tomato paste (conventional) and it's pretty easy to whip up "fresh" pizza sauce in minutes using those so I'll use the space (and effort) for something else.