I’ve filled the second section of the cold frame with more lettuces, spinach, kale, kohlrabi, leeks and scallions. Now it looks like this. I may have gone a bit overboard with the salad greens. I’ll have to pick them young, rather than wait until they are big, and then eat lots of salads! I also thought extra would be fine, and I can feed it to the ducks, which should arrive the first or second week of April.
Cold Frame Construction
Thanks for the question about construction. It’s good to know someone is reading this! We (or rather, Tim) built a new cold frame top, to be added to the other one, expanding the size. All of these frames are made to fit our framed beds, which are the same width, 3.5 feet. The beds were framed with barn siding material, just because we had some on hand and we wanted to use what we had.
Before the wind storm, we had attached the cold frame with short pieces of pvc pipe placed over the ends of the hoops onto a grooved piece of wood attached to the bed frame, as shown at the right.
After the storm, Tim decided to bolt it to the side of the frame as on the left, with wing nuts on the inside. It’s a little more work to get it on and off for watering and tending, but not bad. It was quite windy again last week, and the thing held on!
The plastic over the hoops is screwed on to the hoops with 1/4 round pieces of pvc piping (3/4″ round).
Tim took the piping on his table saw and ripped it into 4 pieces, as shown.
In order to screw through the pvc and the plastic and the pipe hoops, Tim pre-drilled each hole, which helped a lot to keep the screws from slipping.
The end hoops have an additional 1/4 round piece of the pvc to hold the edge of the plastic in place, on both the frame and the door, as shown. The door is screwed onto the ends of the hoops and opens out. When closed, it is held up by two nails that go through holes in both the door and the frame. (Not shown, sorry.)
There are more pictures, but I think these give the main idea. Here’s a shot of the two, now placed together to give a 12′ covered bed.
Tim has also made two more frames with hoops which we intend to cover with frost cloth to cover the most sensitive plants (peppers, tomatoes) just after planting in May. There are always a few freezing or almost freezing nights that time of year, and hail! We aren’t sure yet if or how we will attach the frost cloth. We may attempt a way to roll it over the hoops, so we can remove it and put it back again at will. We’re just not sure it will hold in the wind, unless we tack it down real good.
Wind Damage
There was some spinach growing inside, and I’d been taking new plants out daily to harden off, with plans to plant them soon. It’s a good thing I hadn’t planted the tender lettuces yet! Tim already had a frame built to make another cold frame, so last night he finished covering it with the plastic and put it together, and now we’re set. This one is secured a little better, and as soon as we pick up some bolts we plan to bolt it down even better, so the next time we get wind like that we should be ready for it. Here’s a shot of the new cold frame. Soon I should be able to get the lettuces planted, and some scallions and leeks.
Other than that, the seedlings in the house are coming along nicely. I now have 6 varieties of peppers growing, and just started the tomato seeds as well.
Garden Plan 2011
As before, this plan was created on growveg.com. It’s a lot of fun to play around with, and allows me to easily move things from one place to another while I decide what to do, with crop rotation reminders of what had been previously planted in each bed.
Here is a shot looking west, where we plan to house the ducks. We’re thinking of putting their house and run either along the fence, on the other side of the long berry bed, or behind/between the pines and the cottonwood tree, along a fence that will border that area (in front of the small trees in a row). We’ll remove the bed in the foreground that’s framed with railroad ties, and put a gate in the fence leading to the duck area.
Other than that, I’ve received all the seeds I ordered, and started a few more seedlings on Monday.
Garden Work Area
I thought I’d show some pictures of my garden working area. First is indoors where I have my grow lights. So far I’m only using the one light. The seedlings are on a rolling cart, and the seedlings can be raised or lowered according to how much space they need to be below the lights as they grow.
Seeds
I finally finished buying/ordering my seeds! I really get myself into a tizzy trying to decide what varieties to get, particularly when it comes to tomatoes and peppers. I go back and forth from one website to another, trying to choose which one has the most varieties I want. I want to get as many organic, heirloom seeds as possible, but still get varieties I think will do well. I don’t want to pay shipping to too many places, so I want to keep it to just one, if possible. I also like to buy locally. Sheesh!
Transplanting MICROS to 2″ MINI Blocks
Some of the things that sprouted in the MICRO blocks are ready to go into MINI blocks. I’ve made my first batch of 2″ MINI blocks with the 3/4″ pin to make a hole big enough for the MICRO blocks to be inserted.
For “bottom” watering, I’m using these cake pans with lids. (I know, I bought these things, but at least they’re cheap, and re-usable.) I drilled some holes in the bottom of the aluminum pan and place the plastic lid underneath. I can lift the aluminum pan out, pour water into the plastic lid, replace the aluminum pan with the blocks, and the water soaks up from the bottom to water the blocks. Nice.
Micro Blocks
Yesterday I made my first batch of “micro blocks” for germination. I’m starting some lettuce, spinach, kale, leeks & scallions to go into my cold frame early, before the last frost date. I’ll probably plant them in early to mid-April. I’m also giving some onions a good start before planting out.
2011 GARDEN PLAN
I’ve already been planning my 2011 garden! I don’t know yet how well I’ll keep up this blog, but I’ll give it a shot, and if anyone’s listening perhaps I’ll keep it up.