Cold Frame Construction

by with One Comment Garden-Wellington

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.)

Tim nailed these pieces of plywood on the sides to hold the sides of the plastic down.  I held and stretched the plastic while Tim screwed.
A shot of the whole deal, upside down. I think those are the highlights of the construction.   While stretching and screwing on the plastic, we kept the frame flat and kept checking the ends to keep the whole thing square.  Once we had the plastic screwed onto the ends, the whole thing stayed pretty square.

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

by with One Comment Garden-Wellington
On Wednesday night it was quite windy!  Apparently there were gusts to 50 mph.  Throughout the night we heard things going bump and ca-clunk, wondering what was loose.  Thursday morning Tim looked out to see that our cold frame had “flown the coop” (or at least off the bed) and was in pieces.  We thought that thing was indestructible, but I guess not!  See it behind the bed it had been sitting on all winter.

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

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington
Here is our current plan for 2011.  There still may be revisions, but for now I’m sticking with this plan.  We will be removing the bed that had previously been in the upper left (NW) corner, and will create the new long bed, going N-S to the right of the corn beds.  We’re taking out the NW bed to allow for more accessibility to the duck pen, which will be outside the fence on the west side.  Also, that bed didn’t do well last year, I think because it got awfully hot right next to the house.  I’ll try some sunflowers and other flowers right next to the house and see how well they grow.

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

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

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.

Outdoors, under the porch, I have my potting bench area, which Tim put in last summer. We found this cart (on the left) which was called a “serving cart” at the thrift store for just $35. It’s perfect. There are slots for two pans that are perfect for making my soil blocks, and at a good height for me. I can keep a lot of fertilizers and tools below. The sink and its cabinet and the counter to the right were all items also purchased at the thrift store. We did well. This area has been very handy for me.

Looking out from where the bench area is, we have plans to build a greenhouse area off to the right. We plan to put some hoops down from the porch above, out to the ground, to be covered by plastic or other greenhouse material. We might make it removable, so it can be open in the summer, or make a way to roll shade cloth down in summer. It can be quite hot there, as this faces the south.
Looking out from the upstairs window, this is the west side of our garden today. I look forward to planting and seeing green things! It’s kind of gloomy today, but this is the most snow I think we’ve had all winter–much needed moisture. Our nifty “manure makers” are hanging out back there napping, I think.

Seeds

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

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!


I bought most of my seeds from Botanical Interests, who are located not far from here. After searching through their selections online, I purchased a large amount of seeds from my local nursery the other day. (On Tuesdays it is Senior Day, and I get 10% off.) What I couldn’t get from them, I ordered from High Mowing Seeds and Tomato Growers. My criteria? Besides wanting organics and heirlooms, I’m a bit picky about what I want.

Tomatoes: I want a variety that will produce well in my climate and mature at different times, based on the types of tomatoes. I have a trellis structure to use for a limited number of indeterminates, but I prefer determinate varieties for my paste/saucing tomatoes, so they’ll ripen pretty much at the same time for large pots of sauces and canning. SO! I’m getting 4 indeterminates: one cherry, one early slicing variety, and two paste varities. I’m getting 6 determinates: 3 paste varieties for sauces/canning, 1 paste that should be good for drying, and 1 early slicing variety. What did I choose? San Marzano, Amish Paste, Sugar Sweetie, Red Siberian, Bush Beefsteak, Oroma (these I did last year and they were very good for sauces & canning!), Rio Grande, Martino’s Roma and Principe Borghese. For sauces & canning diced tomatoes, I like large paste varieties that have more meat and few seeds.

Peppers: I love red, yellow & green sweet peppers, which I freeze and roast and eat. Last year I grew some anaheims, which were great to roast and freeze, and I love the ability to reach into the freezer and dice them up for Mexican dishes at a moment’s notice. I also like jalapenos made into jelly and frozen, pepperoncinis canned for sandwiches and salads. So this year I’m getting: California Wonder, Canary Bell, Mini Belles, NuMex Joe E. Parker, Early Jalapeno, Sweet Banana, Golden Greek Pepperoncini, Hot Cayenne.

Transplanting MICROS to 2″ MINI Blocks

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

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.


I was frustrated and concerned that the 3/4″ pin in the MINI wasn’t really deep enough to put in the MICRO and have it even with the surface. I’d even like it to be a little below the surface, because some of these seedlings so close to the top are floppy, and I want to give them a little extra soil for support. I had Tim add a small piece of something to the insert to give it a little more depth. At first it didn’t work real well–it may have been too deep. He made tweaked it a bit and now it’s working well.

I also went back to the “drawing board”, in this case the pottingblocks.com website, to review the procedure. I think my mixture wasn’t wet enough at first. I made it wetter, and it’s working great now. When I drop the blocks from the device, I’m also pushing down and up a bit as I release them, to remove the suction before I allow it to go all the way to the bottom to drop.

All said and done, the MINI blocks, with MICROS planted in them look like this:

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

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

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.


This is my first experiment using the micro blocks. In the past, I found that germinating in the 2″ blocks was inconsistent, and I ended up with empty blocks I kept replanting, and in the trays I had them in, I ended up with seedlings of different ages all mixed in. Hopefully with this method there will be less waste of the empty blocks. Starting early like this, I’ll get a good trial run to see how well this method works.

They look like this:


2011 GARDEN PLAN

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

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.


Soon I’ll be starting seeds for a few crops that will go in a cold frame, probably early April here in Colorado, Zone 5b. I actually already have one cold frame planted. I started the process too late for fall-early winter harvesting, but I did put in a few spinach & lettuce plants in November that will hopefully survive enough to begin growing as it warms up in spring. It’s an experiment–we’ll see whether it’s worth trying again.

I’m using the garden planner offered at GrowVeg.com, which has been fun to play around with, and much improved after I tried it when it first came out. Here is a snap of my 2010 garden. 2011 is on the way, but changes are still being made!

Leeks

by with No Comment Garden-Wellington

I’ve just harvested the last of my 2010 leek crop. Some leeks (sown 3/11 indoors) were put into a cold frame early April, these were harvested first, but the early planting out didn’t give them much advantage. The rest were planted outside 4/28 and most were harvested in December. Some of these had frozen and weren’t the best, ubut edible. Due to the semi-frozen ground, they were difficult to pull up. We used a garden fork and dig up lots of soil with them, then had to warm the dirt clods in the sun to in order to clean them up.

Other leeks started 5/16 indoors, were later planted outside. In November these were mulched well with hay and had a cold frame placed over them. They were harvested 1/30, after several warm days in the 50-60’s. The soil was not frozen and the leeks were quite healthy. It would have been better to bury them deeper in soil before adding the mulch, for more blanching and protection. Otherwise, these are a nice winter treat. I’ve had several leek-mushroom quiches and potato-leek soups. I also dried some I have not yet used.